2a3's vs. 45's

[2wo]

Never had a chance to play with the Altecs but I keep coming back to my Hornshoppe horns.
 If you go back to considering the BK-16 I think the horns would be an upgrade.   

[Grainger49]

I picked up Paully's Valencias.  They were about 15 miles from my house.  I wrestled them up to my listening room and they almost went from wall to wall.  Well, they were about 4 feet apart but you couldn't walk around them and the stereo very well. 

Never mind WAF they just didn't fit my room.

[rusty-jade]

I built my Stereomour as a 2A3, then I modified it to the 45.  In terms of comparison, I find the 45 to be more "subtle" in the sense that when you listen to jazz or vocals, you can hear all the different instruments more clearly than the 2A3.  Of course, you will need a suitably pair of speakers with sufficient sensitivity.  I am currently using a pair of Tekton Lore - 98 db which are very easy to drive.  The choice of music also matters.  The 45 is in my view ideal for jazz.  I have found that for full orchestra classical music, both the 2A3 and the 45 and even the 300B is not sufficient, ( I owned a 300B/2A3 amp and I preferred the 2A3 to the 300B), and sometimes I revert back to a push-pull amp for this musical genre.  Perhaps a quality sub will help in such a case to get to sub-bass sounds of a full orchestra.  I recently replaced the 45 tubes ( GEs)  with JJ 2A3s with the Stereomour in the 45 configuration.  While the JJ 2A3s were louder, I preferred the 45 and switched back after a few days.   Hope this helps.

[Jim R.]

Aaron,

I'd think that the Madisound BK-12 would be a great place to start for not too much money.

If you'd be interested in a set of Orcas, drop me a PM.

Eitheir of these would also work nicely with the quickie/ACA amps too.

-- Jim

[johnsonad]

Jim, you are probably right on size and waf for the Madisound boxes. I wasn't too impressed by the pair I had. Maybe the Orchas will be a better fit but I can't comment on their sound.

[Paully]

Grainger and I can comment on the Orcas, and they are wonderful.  But you need a sub.  There is also a very long thread in the forum about said speakers.

[Jim R.]

Too many Aarons -- the OP is an Aaron as wel :-).

I'm just going on the comments another BH friend of mine made about the bk-12 which he was able to drive to very loud levels with his s.e.x. 2.1, and which he preferred to the other fostex speakers he had or heard. With the fostex drivers, there does really seem to be more magic with the smaller drivers, at least to my ears. Of course it is not anywhere near the orcas, but for $300/pair they are a really great place to start with SD speakers.

BTW, the Orcas I have also have a sub and sub amp in the package.

-- Jim