Tried and tested clone or design for 10w valve amp.

[kazino21]

Hi guys I've been reading the forum for a long time now and really want to embark on a project. However being a student studying electronics time is of the essence and at home we really need a good pair of speakers for the lounge without choping and changing too much, so I thought I might aswell get that out the way by making a tried and tested design like the numerous proac response speakers. However the proac's 82db sensitivity which is really not going to work in my lounge where I currently am running some proac studio 2's which are around 85db and just distort when I try and crank it up at all and with my 10w valve amp and I do like to play the music loud and this will be our primary sq system in the house so I'd like it to be a tried and tested system that's good with mainly jazzy music - santana, miles davis etc and also has some low end punch for some queen or other lightish rock.

Another room we have will be for home theatre so for that I don't mind playing around with speakers and having it look a mess but that will have to come later and after I gained the experience of making a clone or using someonelse's tried and tested plans first.

Thanking you guys in advance. My budget is about £1000 for drivers, wood, components for x-overs etc but it can be streched a bit if need be. The amp is an audio note kit4 which I will be upgrading significantly at a later stage but not at present. The cd player is a merdian 506.

[kfr01]

You crank music with a 10w tube amp on 85db speakers...? interesting.

Time for solid state, in my opinion. You already have nice speakers. Buy a Marantz PM7200 integrated for half your budget. I doubt you'll miss the tubes.

[Brett]

http://www.nutshellhifi.com/Ariel.html
94dB and excellent sonics.
Add a pair of subs for some serious bass

[kazino21]

okay maybe I exaggerated the crank bit a little. Lets say for some songs I just like it loud but not heavy metal loud if you get me erm think I've confused everyone further. I like the valve midrange it's just so sweet when it comes to a pure vocal or a single instrument.

The best system I ever heard put together was when my dad was auditioning a system that had a nagra power amp, meridian transport and dcs dac and upsampler with sonus faber amati homage speakers. It was a sweet system and that is the kind of sound I like with a strong midband and smooth sounding with a nice transparent sound.

That is my priority I can add a sub at a later stage if I feel that the bass is lacking.

The speakers i know need to be ugraded they are about 20 years old ish, I had some wilson benesh speakers round for a while and the difference was night and day on some chord amps, even with my old audiolab 8000a theose wilsons sounded incredible compared to the proac's.

[DirkD]

Hi there
I would really recommend that you build some speakers. It is a lot of fun and a very rewarding learning experience.

Look at this site for some ideas.
http://home1.stofanet.dk/troels.gravesen/

Regards

Dirk

[kazino21]

I have been eyeing that site for a while, but I'm just wondering whether a lot of other people have done some of his designs and found them to work well as I really have to put something good in that lounge and not change.

IF many people have tried his designs then that would be grate and I would do one of them then.

[kazino21]

How about the Wilson watt clones?

http://www.soton.ac.uk/~apm3/diyaudio/Speakers.html seen this one are they very popular?