Question about low powered 6.5 watts tube amp with a 92dB sensitivity speaker

Hi,

I’m getting the Triangle Comete 40th Anniversary Edition and I’ve pretty much spent all my money on the speakers >< I am trying not to get another amplifier and also the Musical Paradise MP-301 MK3 is a tube amp which I love a lot and I believe it’s of high quality despite it being affordable.

I recently read about how under-powered amps could damage the speakers, either by clipping or some other reason. I’m now using a Borea BR03 which is 90dB sensitivity and it’s plenty loud on my amplifier. In fact I only need to use it at 9 to 10 o’clock where 7 o’clock is lowest, and 12 o’clock is middle.

I do not hear clipping but then again there may be things that I do not understand. I’d like to seek your electrical expertise to know if I may have a chance of damaging the Comete speakers by using a 6.5 watts per channel tube amplifier that is high quality. Or if my Borea is probably already damaged despite not being able to hear any defect so far.

I want to be very safe as the upcoming speaker is really expensive for my case. :slight_smile:

Hope to hear from you guys, thank you

Your tube amp will clip gradually and gracefully, not as abrupt and with much more high order distortion products as semiconductor amps.
Damage would occur to the tweeter being driven with high power ultrasonic distortion products. Once damage occurs it’ll either start sounding scratchy even at low volumes or the voice coil would simply burn out in severe cases.

According to Triangle specs both speakers are quite similar, with the Comete having a little higher sensitivity, so if you’re happy with current volume levels you’ll stay happy.

If you go crazy and turn your amp up all the way, harsh sounding distortion will have you reaching for the volume control before damage occurs, but if there are youngsters in your household with access to the system…

Happy Easter to you, enjoy your music and stop worrying!

Hi Marin, thank you so much for the reply! I really appreciate it. May I check if I turn up my tube amp volume to the max and then adjust the volume from my pre-amp instead, (it sounds better with the bass tighter), it’s not gonna cause clipping right? Since the input signal to the tube amp is very low, and it just amplifies it. For my Borea I do not hear any issue with it. I suspect that they meant if the input to the tube amp is normal, not pre-amp where the volume is lower than if I select direct to DAC, and the volume of the tube amp is maxxed out, basically the tube amp is over powering itself just to obtain an acceptable volume, then the clipping will happen (tube amp max volume and the pre-amp max volume).

For my case my amp, while low in watts, is more than plenty in loudness, I would like to adjust the volume using my pre-amp and max out the volume on my tube, so it will obtain an acceptable volume. That means my pre-amp output signal is 1/4 the volume of a normal DAC output volume and the input signal to my tube-amp is 1/4 the volume of a standard loudness if say I plug in a cd player or run direct to dac without preamp.

Correct

Yes, the tube amp will clip when overdriven, meaning that the input voltage exceeds the input sensitivity of the amp.

Sounds sane to me.
Everything seems to be well under control, enjoy!

Hey Marin, again thank you so much!

I’ve searched high and low on the Internet and asked a couple of manufacturer brands about the question but never got a direct answer.

You answered me exactly, thank you! It’s a question that not many people would ask.

Thank you again,
Kai Chong