Take a look at:
Klipsch Reference Premiere RP-600M loudspeaker | Stereophile.com
Quote:" With my First Watt SIT-3 power amplifier (18Wpc) driving the Klipsch RP-600Ms"
"JA measured 89.6dB/2.83V/m"
"This effect was most obvious with a 22Wpc single-ended 845 tube amplifier"
"The Klipsch Reference Premiere RP-600M is not just a great loudspeaker for its price, or for horn-loving Klipsch Kids—it's way better than that."
"Overall, and that lively enclosure aside, the Klipsch Reference Premiere RP-600M offers impressive measured performance, especially when its affordable price is taken into account.—John Atkinson"
My opinion is: go for it! but choose a good SE amplifier not less than 12 watts et will be great in a small room.
Klipsch Reference Premiere RP-600M loudspeaker | Stereophile.com
Quote:" With my First Watt SIT-3 power amplifier (18Wpc) driving the Klipsch RP-600Ms"
"JA measured 89.6dB/2.83V/m"
"This effect was most obvious with a 22Wpc single-ended 845 tube amplifier"
"The Klipsch Reference Premiere RP-600M is not just a great loudspeaker for its price, or for horn-loving Klipsch Kids—it's way better than that."
"Overall, and that lively enclosure aside, the Klipsch Reference Premiere RP-600M offers impressive measured performance, especially when its affordable price is taken into account.—John Atkinson"
My opinion is: go for it! but choose a good SE amplifier not less than 12 watts et will be great in a small room.
Heh, 10 watts was the said limit. Usually going over that is difficult to do with an SE design, unless you go with big tubes like an 845 and I am not messing with those voltages. I think I should be good if the speaker is about 4 - 6 feet from my ears with wattage range. I just wanted to hear from those that have actually done it and what the results were.
Klipsch RP-600M with SE Amps
I have home-built open baffles/boxes in my shop and office which use Eminence Beta 12LTAs and Eminence horn-loaded super-tweeters with 6dBa 1st-order (Butterworth) cross-overs and some very mild padding on the tweeter. Efficiency of these speakers is pretty high; likely 96-97 dBA/watt, since little energy is lost in the cross-overs or in fighting the air in an enclosed speaker. The downside, of course, is that room placement is super-critical. However, the sound is incredibly lifelike with a HUGE soundstage IF placed correctly.
HOWEVER, I also have two pairs of Klipsch RP-600Ms (don't ask) that I have been experimenting with.
I am using two SE amps: (1) stereo TubeLab TSE-II with # 45 SETs, and (2) a pair of TSE-II 300B monoblocks. Running the 45s on the cool side, so probably putting-out 1-3/4W per channel. The 300Bs are doing about 6.5 to 7 watts out, I reckon. Haven't measured either, but these educated guesses probably aren't far off.
I've tried both amps with stock RP-600Ms AND with a clone of the GR Research cross-over, which is 1st order on both tweeter and woofer, PLUS a C-L notch filter across the woofer. The polarity of the tweeter is reversed at the moment, but not sure if that makes an audible difference.
The stock RP-600Ms are noticeably "scooped" in the mid-range. This is NOT necessarily a "bad" thing, as it depends on your ears and musical style.
Klipsch is effectively recreating the famed "BBC dip" which favors highs and lows at the expense of the mid-range; the BBC found that most people prefer that sound. For example, my son-in-law tweaks his vintage Marantz receiver by raising the treble and bass and lowering the mid-range tone control; voila, the BBC dip.
BBC Dip
I prefer the flatter response of the GR-style crossover. It IS however a subtle difference which will be most apparent to folks who are listening for DETAIL, i.e. High Fidelity = "true" sound reproduction.
The RP-600Ms do WORK with the 45 amp, but the lack of power is quite noticeable, even with the crossover mod.
The RP-600Ms work REALLY well with the 300Bs, although I sense that they would work MUCH better with slightly more power, e.g. a small P-P tube amp. I have an old DYNACO SCA-35 on the bench which is an EL-84 with quite famous ULTRALINEAR OPTs. I suspect THAT amp will hit the sweet-spot for the RP-600Ms...
SO these speakers will WORK with a DHT SE tube amp, but with a REAL WORLD efficiency near 90 dbA (not the 96 that Klipsch suggests) I think you realistically need around 10 watts per channel.
I would suggest trying an EL-84 push-pull amp; there are lots of cheaper designs (e.g Heathkit, EICO, etc) than the Dynaco, but personally I really like the Ultralinear design, esp biased a little cold and with MINIMAL feedback (that is, beyond the Ultralinear connection, which somebody is sure to point-out IS a form of feedback, but of course NOT GLOBAL feedback, which I dislike). The Big Difference: really good P-P iron a MUCH cheaper than really good SE iron, so it's a good place to start.
TubeLab has a Simple P-P board that would work, although I haven't built one...
You COULD try TubeLab's SSE design using say KT-88s at >400 vdc B+ through 3K OPTs; that would be cheaper to build, AND get you up around the power of the 300Bs, and would probably drive the RP-600Ms decently. I have a TubeLab SSE in the shop which uses KT-88s (altho KT-66s in there now). I'll try the Klipsches with that amp to see what it sounds like, but it will be a month or so...stay tuned.
I have home-built open baffles/boxes in my shop and office which use Eminence Beta 12LTAs and Eminence horn-loaded super-tweeters with 6dBa 1st-order (Butterworth) cross-overs and some very mild padding on the tweeter. Efficiency of these speakers is pretty high; likely 96-97 dBA/watt, since little energy is lost in the cross-overs or in fighting the air in an enclosed speaker. The downside, of course, is that room placement is super-critical. However, the sound is incredibly lifelike with a HUGE soundstage IF placed correctly.
HOWEVER, I also have two pairs of Klipsch RP-600Ms (don't ask) that I have been experimenting with.
I am using two SE amps: (1) stereo TubeLab TSE-II with # 45 SETs, and (2) a pair of TSE-II 300B monoblocks. Running the 45s on the cool side, so probably putting-out 1-3/4W per channel. The 300Bs are doing about 6.5 to 7 watts out, I reckon. Haven't measured either, but these educated guesses probably aren't far off.
I've tried both amps with stock RP-600Ms AND with a clone of the GR Research cross-over, which is 1st order on both tweeter and woofer, PLUS a C-L notch filter across the woofer. The polarity of the tweeter is reversed at the moment, but not sure if that makes an audible difference.
The stock RP-600Ms are noticeably "scooped" in the mid-range. This is NOT necessarily a "bad" thing, as it depends on your ears and musical style.
Klipsch is effectively recreating the famed "BBC dip" which favors highs and lows at the expense of the mid-range; the BBC found that most people prefer that sound. For example, my son-in-law tweaks his vintage Marantz receiver by raising the treble and bass and lowering the mid-range tone control; voila, the BBC dip.
BBC Dip
I prefer the flatter response of the GR-style crossover. It IS however a subtle difference which will be most apparent to folks who are listening for DETAIL, i.e. High Fidelity = "true" sound reproduction.
The RP-600Ms do WORK with the 45 amp, but the lack of power is quite noticeable, even with the crossover mod.
The RP-600Ms work REALLY well with the 300Bs, although I sense that they would work MUCH better with slightly more power, e.g. a small P-P tube amp. I have an old DYNACO SCA-35 on the bench which is an EL-84 with quite famous ULTRALINEAR OPTs. I suspect THAT amp will hit the sweet-spot for the RP-600Ms...
SO these speakers will WORK with a DHT SE tube amp, but with a REAL WORLD efficiency near 90 dbA (not the 96 that Klipsch suggests) I think you realistically need around 10 watts per channel.
I would suggest trying an EL-84 push-pull amp; there are lots of cheaper designs (e.g Heathkit, EICO, etc) than the Dynaco, but personally I really like the Ultralinear design, esp biased a little cold and with MINIMAL feedback (that is, beyond the Ultralinear connection, which somebody is sure to point-out IS a form of feedback, but of course NOT GLOBAL feedback, which I dislike). The Big Difference: really good P-P iron a MUCH cheaper than really good SE iron, so it's a good place to start.
TubeLab has a Simple P-P board that would work, although I haven't built one...
You COULD try TubeLab's SSE design using say KT-88s at >400 vdc B+ through 3K OPTs; that would be cheaper to build, AND get you up around the power of the 300Bs, and would probably drive the RP-600Ms decently. I have a TubeLab SSE in the shop which uses KT-88s (altho KT-66s in there now). I'll try the Klipsches with that amp to see what it sounds like, but it will be a month or so...stay tuned.