25 watt 16 Ohm. Hmmm...

Okay, i have an old set of Altec speakers. They call for 25 watts max, 16 ohm. I'm assuming tube. Anyone got any ideas for what to power them with? i used a newer receiver on them for a short while, but they didn't sound very good with it, plus i think the extra resistance didnt fare so well on the old panasonic all in one i was pushing them with lol. I've recently replaced the diaphragms in the horns and now i want to get the right power going to them. I know ratings on old equipment were kinda shaky, can anyone point me to a few models of old receivers to look for on ebay or something that might match what i'm looking for? thanks!

A 100w amp into 16 Ohms will give you a max of about 50w. An all in one would not be a good choice, a separate power amp would be the way to go.

You could use a 70V line distribution transformer to adapt the impedance.
Use the 4 or 8 ohms tap to connect to your amp and the 70V tap to your speaker.

A 16 ohms impedance on a 70V line represents a "load" of a little over 300W that's why your transformer should be able to handle this kind of load.

Of course you don't want to crank up the volume too high ;)

You guys are making it too complicated... any old decent '70s era receiver will get you 90% there. Look for a Marantz, Pioneer, Sansui, Kenwood etc. rated at 40 watts or more and you'll be fine.

If you want to go nuts find an old tube amp with taps for various impedance loads, but unless you buy a very good one that has been serviced it will likely sound worse.


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