Info about serious home power amps

[Metal head]

30th anniversary today. Wife saw me looking at the crown xti4002. The second time she walked by I was on Amazon, she said why don't you just buy it. I said hit this buy with one click button for me....and she did! It's on the way! I may not admit it to you all if I smoke those CVs lol.

 

[Binkman]

Sweet! Wife, too! :thmbsp:

Happy 30th anniversary!!! Now what are you getting her? (pun intended but I do smoke cigars)

 

[Valveglow]

30th anniversary today. Wife saw me looking at the crown xti4002. The second time she walked by I was on Amazon, she said why don't you just buy it. I said hit this buy with one click button for me....and she did! It's on the way! I may not admit it to you all if I smoke those CVs lol.

I have two XTI 4000 and three XTI 2000 amps in the house. These amps seriously rock!

 

[KentTeffeteller]

And if Crown isn't enough, you could go with their former sister brand, AE Techron. Who makes some wickedly powerful amplifiers.

 

[turbomustang]

Wow thanks for all the replies. I want to throw more power to some CV Xls-215s, not necessarily 1,000 watts but some headroom would be good. I like it loud sometimes what can I say! I was looking at pro gear, but didn't know if. If I could use my g9000 as a pre amp (xlr to RCA)

my polks have identical power rating of max 500wpc except mine are 4 ohm vs your 6 ohm and my SAE A501 power to a 6ohm load would be around 300x2 and to a 4 ohm speaker it is closer to 400wpc and it would chase me out of the house and get me arrested before it hit its clipping point


what are you driving them with now ?

 

[kevzep]

And if Crown isn't enough

I like this statement.....

 

[Silversleep]

I went with this amp. For the money it is a beast!

 

[Brian]

Screw the amp's. As it was shown a Phase 700 could weld, just hit the local body shop wholesaler and buy a pair of big butt arc welders and be done with it.

Have you considered a couple of minor things:
1) the incoming electric current and wiring in the house,
2) local noise ordnance laws,
3) neighbors, especially those with babies, spouses who may be a bit reactive and who are ardent supporters of the NRA and,
4) lawyers who love to take on nuisance cases. Caveat: I am a lawyer so I can make fun of my brothers.

Remember you are a member of a community and while individualism is espoused, it is actually quite limited.

 

[Brian]

Do not know what the speakers are rated for but I suspect the warranty will not apply.

 

[Kev_rat]

This is probably well outside the funding envelope, but appear occasionally

http://www.stereophile.com/content/krell-full-power-balanced-600-power-amplifier-measurements

Would certianly meet the requriement for 1Kw output!

I like the warning in the review....

"The FPB 600 can vaporize some of the smaller speaker cables if inadvertently short-circuited at the speaker end. I measured a huge peak current of >115A into 1 ohm and stopped there, though more might well be available. If you give up listening, you could always use the amplifier for welding!"

It is also too much an ask for casual burglars at near 200lb and armed to the teeth with ferocious heatsinks

 

[bare]

I always get a kick out of mfg that list current specs like that (no reference to the test method). No way that's at any typical speaker impedance. 150A, momentarily, into a dead short, maybe.

Just for a few examples...

150A into 8 ohms would be 180kW.
150A into 4 ohms would be 90kW.
150A into 2 ohms would be 45kW.

Even if the impedance was 0.5 ohms that would still represent ~11kW.

All that from an amp rated 600W @ 8 ohms....I have a bridge for sale. Any interest?

Clearly there's NO comprehension of what that actually means is there ?
Yer barking at the wrong Bush on this one.. Mate.
Electrocompaniet Is a Serious maker... by ANY yardstick

Of course it's instananeous and it can be delivered to Hungry enough drivers for Serious driver control.
Read: Real dynamics and presence.
Why does a supercar have 500 = hp?? Clearly Not for going shopping.
But If the driver knows it's purpose, it's there, waiting, to deliver on demand.

Not knowing it's relevance is why mediocre Mid Fi gear never even bothers to mention Current capacity... let alone design for it...
because their naive customers simply don't have enough of a Clue to demand it.
Not so with genuinely Decent Gear .

 

[Metal head]

I guess I should have shared... I'm currently bi amping with an adcom gfa-555 for the lows and a yamaha m60 for the highs. It just seemed like not enough. I live on an acre in the country, with my system in the basement, though yes my neighbors can hear it. My wife is going to help me make a window treatment that looks good (to her and for sound) and I'm looking into building some acoustical panels and bass traps. The lady across the street turned me in for my old dog barking until he died......I may download a barking dog track less than 20 minutes long (city ordinance) to play her LOL!

 

[Metal head]

Oh and by the way I'm an electrician and I'm running dedicated circuits for my system now.

 

[whoaru99]

Clearly there's NO comprehension of what that actually means is there ?
Yer barking at the wrong Bush on this one.. Mate.
Electrocompaniet Is a Serious maker... by ANY yardstick

Of course it's instananeous and it can be delivered to Hungry enough drivers for Serious driver control.
Read: Real dynamics and presence.
Why does a supercar have 500 = hp?? Clearly Not for going shopping.
But If the driver knows it's purpose, it's there, waiting, to deliver on demand.

Not knowing it's relevance is why mediocre Mid Fi gear never even bothers to mention Current capacity... let alone design for it...
because their naive customers simply don't have enough of a Clue to demand it.
Not so with genuinely Decent Gear .

I understand perfectly well what it means.That's precisely why I said what I said.

150A peak current....nothing but a bunch of irrelevant marketing hooey.

At least if you bought a 500 hp car you could actually feel it deliver 500hp in the real world.

 

[Nat]

My strong impression is the over the years Electrocompaniet has established a strong reputation for first rate products that meet real needs advertised without hype or flash. So sure, being able to weld is meaningless by itself, but it does demonstrate high current capability, which does impact dynamics, and if you are going to dump on any company that indulges in a little bit of irrelevant but cool bragging, you are ruling out every audio company that has existed -- which company has ever succeeded by saying that 'there are many products out there that are good, and we think our product is just as good, or maybe a bit better'?
C'mon -- even AR, which probably set the gold standard for sober, elegant advertising, claimed to make the best speakers out there, even though this claim was based on the measurements that ARs were good at (bass distortion and frequency response among others), not those that they weren't so good at (dynamics and phase response among others).

 

[whoaru99]

... So sure, being able to weld is meaningless by itself, but it does demonstrate high current capability,.

I dunno....does it?

Meaning, does it actually deliver any more current to a real-world speaker load than any other amp of the same/similar rated wattage?

It may be a fabulous amp in all practical regards, it probably is. It's just that those "only we know how it was measured and we ain't tellin' " current specs are a pet peeve of mine because relative to typical, or even demanding speaker loads, they're unrealistic. I've similarly commented on H-Ks promotion of such specs.

 

[Nat]

I think I get your point, but I also think that you are being too sweeping in your dismissal of high current capability/instantaneous power. Certainly companies could be clearer about the test methods used for these measurements, but that doesn't mean the concept (and the capability) are not worthwhile.
I looked briefly at the Electrocompaniet website and it appears to me that they offer the standard specs, measured in the standard way -- they aren't in the subjectivist camp in that sense. And I will admit I wonder just how much being able to provide even more power than hundreds and hundreds of watts actually matters -- I know that its a rare day when I get the power meters to show more than a single watt being used -- obviously the instantaneous peaks are much higher, but that much higher?
Finally, I'm a bit dubious that any amp maker actually says that their amp can be used to weld -- I suspect that is reviewer talk, and its not fair to hold manufacturers responsible to whatever purple prose reviewers come up with.


I'm sure you know all this, but for anyone who doesn't remember the 60s and 70s -- a lot of companies used to report power ratings measured peak to peak, and at fairly high distortion, which had the effect of doubling (and more) the apparent power. Readers had to divide by two, and wonder how much of the power was actually available at reasonably low distortion. When the FTC stepped in and started requiring wpc RMS, and then higher power amps started becoming the norm, there was a period when amps were designed to maximize the wpc rating but not necessarily with sufficiently upgraded power supplies, so though the amps could produce test tones at the rated power into a resistor, on actual music and into real speakers, often the power supply couldn't provide the power required even if the transistors were adequate to the demand -- there was little to no margin for overload.
Though various researchers had pointed out this problem (I think Matt Otala may have been one of the most important) and companies like HK were also making the point, it seems to me that it was the NAD 3020 that made the point to the market. Despite rather modest power rating, the NAD was a remarkably good sounding and powerful amp, in part to its loose power regulation and soft clipping. And it sold like hotcakes.

 

[whoaru99]

I think I get your point, but I also think that you are being too sweeping in your dismissal of high current capability/instantaneous power.

No, I don't think I am being dismissive of amplifier capability. I'm fully aware of an amp needing to be able to cover peak power demands that in some situations may be considerably above the average level to avoid (or at least minimize) clipping. However, I'm also aware that an amp can't "push" more current to a load than the load demands based on the load resistance/impedance and voltage drop across said load.

Again, my main point isn't to disparage the brand or any brand in particular, but if you're going to state a fairly dramatic sounding spec they should at least answer how that spec can be attained if asked.

 

[Metal head]

Easy fellas. Got my amp yesterday! working 15 hour days with a long commute though wont be able to set it up till probably Sunday. My wife is stoked NOT!