EL86 and speakers? 800 Ohm

[iharris]

I have a philips amp with 4 EL86's and a speaker - 800ohms
It works really well.
My wife wants to trash the lot as the speaker is "old fashioned"
(now i know what a den is for)
So my question is related to the speaker ohms and the following post i found:
Power was rated at ~8 Watt into 800 Ohm. Much to my surprise it worked rather well with my 8 Ohm 92dB/1M speakers.

So the question is ifI want to purchase "modern speakers", and still get good sound, without damaging the amp or speakers, what ohm speakers can I connect?

Any reply on the subject will be appreciated.
Please no comments about replacing the wife, I did some sums and that worked out a bit expensive.

thx
Irfaan

[EC8010]

So the loudspeaker is old-fashioned, but the amplifier isn't?

Most modern loudspeakers are nearer to 4 Ohms than 8 Ohms. Can you not dress up the old loudspeker to look more modern? Perhaps add some labels saying "Turbo mega-bass", a photograph of a tweeter, paint the wood to look like plastic, etc?

Seriously, you will have trouble finding even a 15 Ohm loudspeaker these days.

Oh, and welcome to the forum!

[iharris]

thanks for the note.
So i guess modern depends on a persons analysis of "usefulness" and or perception.
The speaker is the only part she can see, it is a corner unit two tweeters and one woofer. The amp I have stripped out of the turntable cabinet as it was just occupying too much space.

I will post a different thread on the model of the amp etc. (Model AG9008)

Of course for me it is not a question of age (wines and vines have character, and improve with age)
I find no reason not to get this set up and running again - after the movers trashed the amp - found some NOS EL86 equivalents and look forward to using it. I need to build a box to keep little fingers aware from this. More from a safety factor as apposed to touching it.

Thanks for the note. yes a could just rebuid the speaker cab. - and will probably do that. Just has such a great sound.
hower back to the ohms, If I do want to use "comercially available speakers" are there any gotchas or smoke warnings?
Thx
Irfaan

[EC8010]

Originally posted by iharris
So I guess modern depends on a person's analysis of "usefulness" and or perception.

Absolutely. I'm guessing that your wife isn't a loudspeaker designer, so she isn't commenting on the unsophisticated cone material/profile etc, but more on the fact that it just isn't in the current "modern" style.

If you load your amplifier with a conventional loudspeaker you will greatly increase the distortion, but you won't blow it up - valve amplifiers are nothing like as frail as their silicon counterparts. (I just know somebody is going to immediately prove me wrong on this one.)

The "obvious" answer is to fit a mtching transformer between your amplifier and conventional loudspeakers. A 100V line transformer set to 10W into 8 Ohms would do the trick. Unfortunately, 100V line transformers are designed for PA and are terrible. Your amplifier would be great for 300 Ohm headphones, though.

[PRR]

> a philips amp with 4 EL86's and a speaker - 800ohms

Put the speaker drivers in "stylish" cabinets with a grille-cloth of your wife's fancy. Or put slip-covers on them when not in use.

That is a rare amp. One of the very few OTL (Output Transformer-Less) commercial amps ever sold. Futterman fans go to a lot of trouble to do what Philips did. It works only because of the hi-Z speakers; but many of them failed due to the very thin wire needed to wind them.

They are also probably some of the best $1 speakers ever made. The 1950s were full of junk, but also some very good stuff that didn't "look exotic".

> it worked rather well with my 8 Ohm 92dB/1M speakers.

It will make about 0.1 Watts. Just like Mr Pass's "First Watt" amplifer, mostly we do NOT need hundreds of watts for good sound. I know I had my fun with 1-Watt amps often worked far below clipping. However 0.1 Watts, even 1 Watt, in home-size speakers, is not "realistic performace levels". (I've had a piano and a piano recording in the same room: 160 watts of power in average-efficiency speakers, and the speaker was strained before the piano.) However, many folks never play at "realistic" levels, which may really be too much for a home-size room with neighbors.

[iharris]

Thx for the nessage ec8010
so iguess i will re-package (more like camoflage) to speaker

Poliash the wood , and new material in front
I know she's not going to like it...

about wires, this unit has plain electrical flex....is this ok? or could i do better?

thx
Irfaan

[EC8010]

I could give you all sorts of pseudo-technical baloney, but the plain fact of the matter is that with an 800 Ohm impedance, even bell wire is massively thick. I doubt very much that you could do anything with the loudspeaker wire to make an audible difference. Grille material, now that's another matter entirely...

[tomtt]

could you post some pics of your speaker?

and the amp

[Jaap]

Some of the vintage 800 ohm amps of Philips also had a outputtransformer on board. I saw one a few days ago on Ëbay.
Go transformer hunting I would say

[planet10]

Originally posted by Jaap
Some of the vintage 800 ohm amps of Philips also had a outputtransformer on board. I saw one a few days ago on Ëbay.
Go transformer hunting I would say

Some had OPTs (when used with EL84) but the EL86s (a pr used in an SRPP-like configuration) used a choke.

dave