This wait is gonna be SO long! It's been two days already!

I am pretty certain that I will need a bigger amp for a couple reasons.. not least, the fact that the tube amp doesn't even come close now -- I currently have to back it up with another receiver to almost get where I want to be.

Before I moved to this house, the tube amp (plus an old pair of Boston Acoustic A70s) actually sounded quite nice... good enough that I have built copies of it for other people. Once I brought it here, though, my first impression reminded me of a clock radio.

The room I'm trying to work with is about 35x15 ft., not quite rectangular, and connected to two similar-sized rooms. This is one thing that my friend (the one who has the same speakers) does not have to deal with.

The watt meter tells me the amp is good for about 15W / channel before I can start to hear distortion, which isn't bad for a pair of 6L6 operating as triodes. That is enough for a lot of uses -- just not the living room, apparently. Just for fun, though, I will try it in some smaller rooms with the M80s. I'm told that Axiom's smaller speakers sound similar, but haven't personally heard any of them yet.

One thing that will be nice about building a new amp will be testing it against great speakers right out of the gate, and having a friend in town with the same equipment (but with a known-good amp) to compare to. This is a task that will require a little time and much beer, but I think it will be worth it!