I posted a message recently about my completion of the Zaph Audio Seas two-way, which is a contemporary design that's comparable to many two-way speakers in the mainstream market (low sensitivity drivers, about 85dB final sensitivity with baffle step correction, small enclosure, high WAF). It looks very much like (and uses some of the same drivers) as speakers by Tyler Acoustics and Joseph Audio. It turned out to be a very nice sounding speaker which I would recommend for anyone who will be using it in a small listening room like mine. As soon as I completed the Zaph Audio speaker I removed 3 Pi "vintage" speakers to the garage to finally paint and veneer the enclosures. The 3 Pi isn't a vintage speaker, but it's designed along those lines with a large high sensitivity woofer, horn tweeter, and large (20"W, 30"H) enclosure. Its only "non vintage" characteristic is a modern crossover design using compensation networks to smooth out the effects of driver impedance and frequence response variations.
Now the 3 Pi's are finished and back in the listening room, which gave me an opportunity to do some comparative listening. Using a three watt SET amp the 3 Pi's are clearly the better choice because this flea power amp can't drive the low sensitivity SEAS speaker. I also did a comparison using a 40 watt EL-34 push pull tube amp and a 125 watt solid state. A clear winner also emerges with these larger amps. It is...