Greetings,
           I may have a problem, then maybe I don't. When playing my SE84C through my speakers which 93db efficient,I get the sound breaking up if i turn the input volume control up past 8 out of 10 and my preamp is at 6 out of 10.I have tried this w/o the preamp , with my cd player on fixed and variable, same result. At first I thought I could be overdriving the input but all devices do not exceed 2 volts output. I have tried all the different combinations of tubes, 3 rectifiers 3 different types of output tubes,along with the JAN Philips 6299.
       Last night I had Sarah McLachlan's Surphacing on , The vocals were Crapping out badly, particularly on Witness, which for me is benchmark tune to  check the total fidelity of a system . In the chorus, the vocal starting getting really fuzzy,is the way I can describe it, then it starts to break up. If I turned it down to half volume on the amp then it had no distortion. I checked the cd player and disc on my trusty Scott Lk-72 and it did an admirable job with it. It seems everything is pointing the my beloved Zen .
        If you have any notion of what is going or gone on this puppy please bring it on. as you can imagine I just won't be the same person until I get this resolved !  :(  Thanks Dan

I have an 84C and live in Toronto. If you wanted to arrange something maybe I could bring mine over to see if the same thing happens? Wait a minute.. A Hab fan? Forget that I ever said anything. GO LEAFS GO! Ok, ok I know. Decware forums are a friendly place, so seriously if you want to give that a try let me know.

Trevor

Yup, Eli is correct. You are pushing your amp past it's limits!
                                                                Don

[quote author=Eli Duttman  link=1160343177/0#1 date=1160344264]
If you love the speakers you are using, steps have to be taken to increase the available power.  Possibilities include the EX mod and autotransformers that present a 2 Ohm load to the SE84. [/quote]
Is there a specific type of autotansformer to use for this application?

[quote author=Hab_Fan  link=1160343177/0#7 date=1160434636]Hey, I must confess that I've no experience with autotransformer, Correct me if I'm wrong, are these the transformers used in long runs that attach to speaker basket,like on a public address systems? If they are then how would  go about choosing the correct one ? thanks Dan [/quote]


Dan,

What you are thinking of are line transformers for use in PA situations.  For HIFI, a different device is required.

A link to HIFI speaker matching autotransformers follows.
http://www.zeroimpedance.com/

A "common" use for the autoformers is to match low impedance speakers to OTL amps that do better with a 16 Ohm load.  However, connecting things up so the SE84 sees a 2 Ohm load with 8 Ohm speakers is easy.

Please observe that the autoformers are expensive.  Another solution to the problem is to acquire a 2nd SE84 and strap the pair of amps into monoblocks.  You get about 8 WPC into 8 Ohm speakers with strapped SE84s.  8 WPC should be adequate if the 93 dB. rating previously given is honest.