Bottlehead Forum
Bottlehead Kits => S.E.X. Kit => Topic started by: ScottAstroNut on April 30, 2020, 09:51:59 AM
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I just did a little experiment with my fairly newly constructed S.E.X. 3.0. On a whim I hooked them up to my Dynaudio Excite X38 speakers, which are 4 ohms with a sensitivity of only 88 dB. I wasn't expecting anything. To my amazement, they sounded great in my small listening room! And they played much louder than I thought they would, as loud as I usually listen at.
What gives? I didn't think that the S.E.X. was supposed to work well with such low efficiency speakers? I am quite blown away, actually, that the S.E.X. sounds so good with those speakers!
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We err on the side of caution when it comes to recommendations like this. For small rooms, nearfield setups, and desktop listening, the SEX amp works nicely with a far wider variety of speakers, especially if you don't listen loudly. I bet you can push the amp to clipping without it being all that loud.
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How can I tell when clipping occurs? I don't usually listen to any of stereo gear at high volumes.
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You will hear distortion. What you could do is play a 60Hz tone into the SEX amp and slowly turn it up until what you hear starts to change dramatically. That will give you a sense for what a clipping tube amp sounds like.
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What's the max wattage output for 4ohms vs 8ohms? I cant remember the math right now. I want to try this with my LS50s when my kit is assembled this weekend.
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You can wire the output transformers for 4 or 8 ohms, and there will be about 2W available from either configuration, assuming the nominal speaker impedance is matched to how you have the output transformers wired.