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why do you have the big power amps?

2011etec

2011etec

Super Member
this thread is not to start a fight or anything like that.im honestly curious for the reason people have power amps in the 250 wpc and above category.im probably going to be joining the club in a big way depending which amp my brother lends me.i believe my reason is not for the ability to crank 500 wpc but to have nice clean power at a modest level without working the amp.suppose it doesn't hurt bragging rights with the boys when your amp weights 100 lbs plus either,lol:banana:so you fellas with the big boys ,why?
 
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It hypothetically depends on the requirements of your speakers. I have the quintessential Kappa9 amp killers that go below 1ohm at 30hz and 7khz. The mono amps I use are capable of 1000 watt peaks. I have seen the clipping indicator leds light up on occasion.
 
I clipped my Phase linear 400 on my mint SDA-2B's, killing a tweeter and driver. I said no clipping again ever. Grabbed a local Crest FA 1201 which really got spanked by my next purchase a Crest CA9. 2 clicks on the preamp and you're off to the races! Not any distortion down there just so much fun.
 
Sometimes you wanna turn it up to 11!

Other times, I just can't help myself when a poor, beat up, road-weary, abused PA amp passes by and needs a good home to get off the road. I've got Haflers as a result.

Cheers,

David
 
I'm running my EV Sentry 500's & 100A's with Crest FA901's, considering I only have $94 in each of the three amps they can't be beat for the price.
 
Speakers can be efficient or inefficient. An efficient set of speakers have little use of monster amps. Inefficient, or speakers that have a low impedance such as 4ohm or 2ohm, will stress a low power amp. If the amp has to overdrive to make a speaker sing then you run into amp overheating or an amp that is clipping which can be regarded as sending DC voltage to speakers, which speakers cannot handle. This is an over simplified description of clipping, but lets just say if you push an amp to hard it will end up showing up as speaker damage.
 
For more years than I can remember, 50watts RMS per channel into 8 ohms was the starting point for anything with pretensions to create a reasonable representation of high fidelity in a medium sized room.

Speaker efficiency variations can take that 50 into 500 in one step. Impedance variations can require amplifiers with huge low impedance capability and, by extension, those amplifiers have huge high impedance ratings.

I get enjoyment from 15w/ch amplifers and 350w/ch amplifers or bridged pairs of 1kW/ch amps. There is no doubt that having the power available means you tend to let the music dictate the dynamics, rather than riding the volume control like you do on low powered amps.
 
My Infinity RS-II's (nominal 3 Ohm, dipping down to 2 Ohm, rated up to 250W, 86 dB sensitivity) put Onkyo A-9070 (clean 140 wpc at 4 Ohm) integrated to protection at moderately high volume levels. So I upgraded to Emotiva SA-250 (clean 250 wpc at 8 Ohm, and 400 wpc at 4 Ohm). Now I can crank up the volume to crazy loud and the Emotiva does not break a sweat. But more importantly and surprisingly to me, the bass response improved substantially at all volume levels. You need that head room to drive those dual woofers with authority...
 
Ehh....the effect of clipping is overestimated. It's far from an immediate death sentence for drivers.

Not saying clipping is good, no, that's not what I'm saying. But, since most gear doesn't have clipping indicators and the effects of occasional clipping are not readily apparent, I bet more people are running with occasional clipping than is realized. Yet, drivers are not dropping like flies.
 
hear you guys.got to call my bro and get some names and model numbers to see whats what.i use to have a cs 800 that I regret selling .I do have low impedence speakers (4ohm)and they do like power theres no doubt.so my speakers will dip to 2.5 ohm according to Hirsch labs and according to the mfg power should be between 50 to 400 wpc amp wise.so all things being equal 500 wpc good clean power would be more benifical than say 90 wpc being pushed?
 
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I might add efficiency is 87db.its not like im paying for these biggys they will be loaned to me for probably ever,lol.
 
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