Hi Srajan,
I have 2 components I really love but one has to go because of an impedance mismatch. My preamp/DAC PS Audio Direct Stream will stay. My OB speakers are Spatial M3 Turbo S @ 4Ω, two 12" drivers, one being coaxial. I .love them because in my shitty room they do not create problems but a huge, huge stage. No booming and no room interaction. I could doa factory upgrade to 16Ω but my FirstWatt J2's power will be half, probably with less distortions. Anyway, as you know it is only 13W at 4Ω. Second, the First Watt J2 amp is not doing well with 4Ω but also I love it. So I need from you a speaker recommendation to sing with J2 up to $3'000 used value; or a better more powerful amp. Did not like a few heritage Klipschs (horn coloration), Reference 3A (deep into 4Ω from 8Ω nominal), single drivers like Cain Abby, Coral Beta 10 into back-loaded horn shouted too much like Lowthers. Nelson said Tannoy HPD but I don’t like vintage. Or do I keep my Spatial OB 4Ω and go for FW F7 or Pass XA30.5? I don’t think you’ll recommend SIT-3, right?
Let me know what would you do in my shoes.
Cheers
Marius
Keep the speakers. Finding some which work this well in a shitty room is a miracle I'd not expect to clone that easily. You've already won 75% of the battle! So it'll be the new amp route – in my shoes. I'd look into the Pass Labs XA25: 50wpc into 4Ω, 100 into 2Ω, 1Ω capable, $1'600 less than XA-30.8. If I didn't already own the 30.8, I'd have bought the XA25 review sample. It has a certain special something which I thought went beyond the 30.8. For lower impedances, the Pass Labs amps with their bigger power supplies have the advantage over the FW which, really, are made for special-ops speakers. And I'm afraid yours don't really fit that category. But again, absolutely keep them. The speaker/room riddle is far harder to solve than the amp/speaker connection -:)
Srajan