Speakers for tube amps...

[nickds1]

I'm just getting to the stage where my Bevois Valley amp wil be used... (now looking at doing a Baby Huey)

I happen to have two pairs of older speakers - some Celestion SL6s & a pair of Audiomaster MLS1s (Seem to be LS3/5As by any other name).

Are these suitable? I've no details on the Audiomasters, but here's a bit about the SL6s...

The SL6S are two-way speaker systems with a 1.25 inch dome tweeter and 6-inch plastic woofer. Each unit measures 14.8" H x 7.9" W x 10.5" D or 10" D without grille. The particular pair for review came in walnut though I have seen them in black as well. The speakers have a sensitivity of 84 dB SPL (1 watt at 1 meter). Impedance is 8 ohms. Each speaker weighs 18.5 lb. Packed per pair for shipping, the package weighs 41.4 lb. The recommended amplifier power requirement is between 25-120 watts. The speakers are said to go -3 dB at 60 Hz.

Thanks

Nick

 

[BHD]

Well, those speakers are really inefficient, so they'd only be good for low power tubes if you listen to music at very low levels.

I'd suggest either different speakers or a more powerful tube amp.

 

[phn]

I don't know anything about the Baby Huey.

MY rule of thumb (people will disagree) is at least 40 wpc for 84 db in a standard size room, whatever that is. That means 20 wpc for 87 db, 10 for 90 and so on. Actually, I would like more power than that. I don't like to push the amp. (Maybe that's the reason I don't know clipping.) But with those figures you should end up on the right side.

 

[arnoldc]

You'll need at least 40W/ch for that LS3/5 variant.

I used to have an Anthem Amp 1 (w/ Pre 1L) to drive a similar speaker (Spendor S3/5 which is a bit more efficient).

My friend owns a Celestion SL6 and uses a Dynaco ST70 to drive those.

 

[martinab2]

The SL6 and SL6S are rather difficult speakers to get the best out of. I used to sell lots of these in my hifi retailing days largely on the back of the very favourable reviews from the magazines. With a top quality transistor amp (Naim 250 etc), they do indeed sound excellent - neutral, fast and sound much bigger than they are. With anything else the results are pretty disappointing. Although they will work and even go reasonably loud with lower powered amplification, they tend to sound flat and boring. I have tried these on medium powered valve amps without much success.
A good pair of SL6 should still be saleable. Might be worth putting them on the market or trying to swap for something more suitable.