Please! Need a final answer.

[Bassmec]

Why not rebuild the one you have for less cash from a reputable speaker repair facility like JAMAC SPEAKERS in Portland.
They quoted me $80 -100 to rebuild the stock 15" Celestion in one of my 1518T cabs.
I'm not sure what the difference is between a standard 12" Celestion and the "Specially Designed for Trace Elliot" 12" Celestion speaker is but, the replacement speaker may not sound the same... just sayin...

Being a former employee of Celestion.
I can absolutely guarantee that the custom design extended to a brand new model of high performance voice coil cap with the very clever advantage that the very words Trace Elliot printed on it by dint of the amazingly dense ink gave a very advantageous boost at all those special frequencies that only discerning trace elliot owners would know and recognize.
Unfortunately due to the woefully poor performance of our test equipment we were unable to make any meaningful measurements to evidence this fact.
Moving to the rear of the speaker, again the custom design service where able after much research to arrange a specially constructed label for the magnet assembly, having the properties of absorbing standing waves that might have otherwise caused comb filtering and other unfortunate cabinet effects.
No doubt prevalent in the product disadvantaged by merely having Celestion Foxhall Rd Ipswich written on it.
Although it may appear to be a simple label constructed from fascal 400 self adhesive vinyl.
Again the formulation of the very special standing wave absorbing ink used, is in fact a secret that shall never pass my lips, no matter how much you attempt to bribe me, within reason of course.
I would get it re-coned.

 

[Ken Baker]

It can damage a tweeter, and sometimes a midrange driver, because that 'flattening' is actually greatly increased high frequency harmonic content, which can damage high frequency drivers because that content overpowers them. It has zero effect on woofers, other than to sound really sweet when it's a 50 watt Plexi or Vox AC30 cranked to the max.

Hypothetical:

We have two integrated (preamp & power amp) amplifiers of equal rated output power; say, 50 watts. One is a tube amplifier (brand doesn't matter). The other is a solid state amplifier (brand doesn't matter). Both amplifiers have input gain controls, master volume controls, and T-M-B EQ.

We have a speaker cabinet with a single woofer-type driver of a type used for bass or as a prosound woofer. The driver is rated by its manufacturer at 100 watts continuous power handling.

We use an audio signal generator to drive the amplifiers with a sine wave, each in turn, with an equal amount of output signal.

The input gain control of each amp is set such that the preamps are running just shy of over-driven. The amps' EQ settings are set to achieve a "flat" response. The master volume controls are set to 100% (dimed).

Both power amps would likely clip under these conditions.

How would you describe the sound produced by the two different design amplifiers?

 

[billfitzmaurice]

How would you describe the sound produced by the two different design amplifiers?

The tube amp will sound fatter, louder and smoother due to its inherent compression. The SS amp will have more 'sizzle' in the high end, like a moderate fuzztone, which is no coincidence, as a fuzztone is an SS amp driven into clipping. And that confirms why underpowering is a myth, because those same dreaded square waves produced by a clipped power amp are produced by fuzz and distortion pedals, and for that matter synthesizers, and they don't blow woofers as soon as you switch them on, though they can pop tweeters.

 

[Bassmec]

Hypothetical:

We have two integrated (preamp & power amp) amplifiers of equal rated output power; say, 50 watts. One is a tube amplifier (brand doesn't matter). The other is a solid state amplifier (brand doesn't matter). Both amplifiers have input gain controls, master volume controls, and T-M-B EQ.

We have a speaker cabinet with a single woofer-type driver of a type used for bass or as a prosound woofer. The driver is rated by its manufacturer at 100 watts continuous power handling.

We use an audio signal generator to drive the amplifiers with a sine wave, each in turn, with an equal amount of output signal.

The input gain control of each amp is set such that the preamps are running just shy of over-driven. The amps' EQ settings are set to achieve a "flat" response. The master volume controls are set to 100% (dimed).

Both power amps would likely clip under these conditions.

How would you describe the sound produced by the two different design amplifiers?

I would expect that the tube amp would sound more compressed when driven into clipping because of output transformer saturation, unless the output transformer is unusually large for the output of the tubes.
In the harmonic distortion produced by the tube amp
a mild distortion consisting of primarily even-order mostly second-order harmonics that tend to 'fill in' or make the sound a little 'bigger'
The Typical SS amp is certainly going to produce some of these harmonics but will also produce an array of less harmonious interlacing waveforms that some people find rather harsh in tone.
but then if you dont run the amps near to clipping the results should be fairly similar.
Its about exactly what happens when they begin to run out of headroom that really makes them different.
If you listen to high end professional reference systems then you get SS amps like Bryston:
Invalid Link Removed
or tube amps like AR:
ARCDB - D-250
then the differences are almost indiscernible if the amplifiers are running below say 100 watts per channel.
Which is how they are generally used.