Surprising low power SET friendly speakers.

[THOMO]

I came across these Athena AS-F1  2 way speakers in my local second hand shop and could not resist them.They are quite a rare beast in being a simple full range two way with relatively high sensitivity and an 8 ohm load.The claimed sensitivity is 92db/watt.This is probably close to correct because Stereophile measured the next model up which is similar but has two woofers and that measured at 93.5 db sensitivity.My little 4.5 watt Almarro 205 mk2 SEP loves them!I am really surprised how decent they sound.They were not an expensive speaker but were obviously very  well designed in Canada and seem quite well built.The obvious upgrade would involve replacing the cheap electrolytic caps with something better and adding a bit more bracing to the cabinets-although they do at least have a decent central brace and are reasonably non resonant.

There are lots of people with say 300B SET amps who struggle to find suitable speakers for them and end up  using compromised things like "full range" wizzer coned drivers.

I think these sound a lot better than any of those I have heard.

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DP7LMoWGZ-og&ved=2ahUKEwiA3_SIrfOIAxWGS2wGHc5lC0kQwqsBegQIDhAG&usg=AOvVaw16OnvYaORW_X0mT7PjgrOv

Edited October 3, 2024 by THOMO

[mwhouston]

23 minutes ago, THOMO said:

I came across these Athena AS-F1  2 way speakers in my local second hand shop and could not resist them.They are quite a rare beast in being a simple full range two way with relatively high sensitivity and an 8 ohm load.The claimed sensitivity is 92db/watt.This is probably close to correct because Stereophile measured the next model up which is similar but has two woofers and that measured at 93.5 db sensitivity.My little 4.5 watt Almarro 205 mk2 SEP loves them!I am really surprised how decent they sound.They were not an expensive speaker but were obviously very  well designed in Canada and seem quite well built.The obvious upgrade would involve replacing the cheap electrolytic caps with something better and adding a bit more bracing to the cabinets-although they do at least have a decent central brace and are reasonably non resonant.

There are lots of people with say 300B SET amps who struggle to find suitable speakers for them and end up  using compromised things like "full range" wizzer coned drivers.

I think these sound a lot better than any of those I have heard.

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DP7LMoWGZ-og&ved=2ahUKEwiA3_SIrfOIAxWGS2wGHc5lC0kQwqsBegQIDhAG&usg=AOvVaw16OnvYaORW_X0mT7PjgrOv

92db sensitivity is quite good and most flea power tube amps will raise more than listenable sound levels from them. Mine are 93 and have no problems playing loud with 5W tube amps. 

[THOMO]

There are commercial speakers around 92db but most use two 8 ohm woofers wired in parallel  and so tend to dip below 4 ohms which then makes them a tricky load for SET amps.There are very few that use a single 8 ohm driver .Or at least one that extends low like these woofers.The pro types might be 96db but do not go much lower than around 60Hz.

Edited October 4, 2024 by THOMO

[mwhouston]

For some high efficiency woofers low frequency don’t come easy. Fortunately my 12” poly cones have an fs of 25hZ and 93db sensitivity. No problems getting down to 30hZ. 

[THOMO]

Why I like the Fostex FW305.They go down to 28Hz and are 95db sensitivity.But they need to be used in a three way not much above 500 Hz.

[Ian McP]

Faital Pro woofers, go low, high efficiency

 

https://djcity.com.au/brand/faital-pro/?srsltid=AfmBOopymc89Fnz-4G27XgiJvG4SCJ9133h0CUokM9RDBgrOkH7tA2QU

 

https://faitalpro.com/en/