Poweamp Advice

[h2oz7v]

I've recently aquired some Acoustic Energy AE1's and now I need a poweramp for them. They are Biwired and have a minimum of 8ohm's. I'll only be using them through an EMU 1616m, which has 1/4" balanced outputs.

Never bought a Poweamp before so don't know where to start! Am I right in saying I'd have to get a rack version, rather than a poweamp that you use for hifi-seperates?

[dementedchord]

wow... you been here since 05 and this is your first post??? oh well any how i dodnt know those particul;ar speakers but look for their rating (hopefully in RMS) and plan on an amp of somewhere between 1/2 to 2X's that rating... pretty wide tolerence is'nt it??? if your looking for a deal try for maybe a used audiophile type... adcom or nad maybe???

[h2oz7v]

Hey, haha yes, I've done an unscalable amount of reading compared to posting on here since then.

Anyway, the speakers are these: AE1 although mine are the original release rather than these specifically.

Specs for the newer ones are:

25mm magnesium alloy tweeter
90mm alloy bass driver
200Watts power handling
Textured black finish

Heres a link to the specs of the Mark II (but older versions). As you can see, they are identical

So, I guess mine will be very similar to that. Yeah, I'd probably be best in getting something 2nd hand, I don't really have that much of a budget, something between 0 () and £200 ideally

[h2oz7v]

Any thoughts on this? I was thinking maybe a seperate would be the way to go as I've only seen 2 "music" style bi-amped power amps and they were topping off at $900

[dementedchord]

is it bi amped or bi wired???? true biamping uses an electronic crossover and eliminates TOTALLY the internal X-over... then there's "biamping" that uses two amps running full range and hooks to the individual sections of the internal X-over... then there's bi wiring which takes the little plate on the speakers input and runs different wire from the same amp to the different sections of the X-over....

the first is way cool....

the second can make "alittle" diff but basiclly bullshit....

the third is audiofool masturbation....

[h2oz7v]

Originally Posted by dementedchord

is it bi amped or bi wired???? true biamping uses an electronic crossover and eliminates TOTALLY the internal X-over... then there's "biamping" that uses two amps running full range and hooks to the individual sections of the internal X-over... then there's bi wiring which takes the little plate on the speakers input and runs different wire from the same amp to the different sections of the X-over....

the first is way cool....

the second can make "alittle" diff but basiclly bullshit....

the third is audiofool masturbation....

I'm doind the third out of that list - Bi-wiring. I think I had it confused with Bi-Amping.

So you say something between 1/2 to 2X the power rating of the speaker (I read somewhere else it should be equal to 2X)... My speakers take 200Watts @ 8ohms.

I've been looking on some sites for Studio Power Amplifiers and PA Amplifiers, which looks like the things I should be looking at. I liked the look of the Behringer Studio one, but its 4ohm or 8ohm bridged mono, so I guess that wont do.

My budget wont go over £200, so in that range, I've seen these:

Tapco Juice 800 - 205W per channel @ 8ohms - £167.89

Tapco Juice 1400 - 310W per channel @ 8ohms - £199

and the

Sampson SX1200 - 300W per channel @ 8ohms - £250

Sampson SX1800 - 400W per channel @ 8ohms - £257 - £7 for 100W

Of course, I'd rather go second hand and pickup something better for the money...

Am I on the right lines?

[Minion]

If you are electricly Inclined there are fairly cheap Power amp kits that you can Build yourself that deliver very good performance......
The kits I am refering to are Called "Gainclones" and can be built very cheaply...

They use the LM3875/LM3886 and/Or LM4870 Power amp Chips and deliver very clean detailed sound with a Minimal ammount of Parts.....

For about $200 (or much cheaper if you are resourcefull) you could build a 125w per channel amp yourself that would rival or better most of the amps in this price range pluss you get the benefit of learning something new and useing a Piece of equipment that you built with your own hands.....

I can build one if I source my own Parts and make my own Boards for about half the price or less of the Online kits.....


Cheers

[dementedchord]

if your use them as near field monitors the likely hood of needing 200 wts is.... well perhaps not astronomical but close.... as far as impedence matching... with solid state amps it's not much of an issue as long as it's not below 4 ohms... better amps can drive 4 and is indicative of excellent power supplies.... it's a current issue... realize that if your speakers are 8 ohms and the amp i srated at 4 and sayy 200 wts at 8 ohms you'll get anywher from 100- 150 wts depending again on the power supply design... BTW the advice to get an amp spec at 2X's the speaker rateing is really more of a live sound issue...

[tdukex]

I would pass on the Sampson and Tapco. They might be fine but both companies have a reputation of making cheap gear. You don't need 400W either. I would look for a used Hafler P1500. It is 75W per channel and will easily power those monitors. Do some research. Search Hafler on this Board.

[h2oz7v]

Yeah, I think I'm getting confused about how much Wattage I actually need.

"In some applications, such as critical listening in a studio environment, it is important to maintain peak transient capability. For these applications, use an amplifier that can deliver 6db (or four times as much) more power than the continuous IEC power rating."

"If budget restraints or legacy equipment force you to use an amplifier with less power, extreme care should be taken to see that the amplifier is not driven into clipping. It may surprise you to learn that low power can result in damage to your speaker or system."

I'm abit confused by that. What minimum amount of Wattage would I need?

Minion: It does sound good, but I'm not really amazing at electronics, tbh, I would probably loose my patience and mess it up, so I'm probably better off buying a built one

Damented: "the likely hood of needing 200 wts is.... well perhaps not astronomical but close", I see what your saying and yes I will be using them as Near Fields in a small room.

tdukex: I was looking at a new Hafler P1500, which was £459... slightly out of my budget, but it looks alright. Anything under £200 would be ideal.

[dementedchord]

Originally Posted by h2oz7v

tdukex: I was looking at a new Hafler P1500, which was £459... slightly out of my budget, but it looks alright. Anything under £200 would be ideal.

unless your getting a factory close -out there aint no such animal.... hafler went belly up... unfortunately... they were a cool company i've owned 3 of their amps over the years.... try looking at used audiofool type amps as well... these guys change equipment like (insert euphimism here).... and real bargains can be had .... adcom/NAD are good budget amps to watch for...

[Minion]

If you are useing them as Nearfields in a small room then you don"t need very much power at all, Maybe 25w per side MAX, any more than that would probably damage your ears.... Just think how loud a 50w Guitar amp goes when cranked up!!

So I think that even 50w per side will be Plenty enough power to Drive your speakers for Monitoring as long as you don"t push the amp into clipping you won"t have to worry about damageing your speakers......

You wouldn"t need 200w or 300w unless you were useing them as a sound system for a Big club or other Venue.....

As for the Power amp Kits they are extremely simple as the Power amps them selves only have about 10 Components or less but if you aren"t confident in this stuff them it might be better to buy one....


Cheers

[h2oz7v]

Cheers, yeah I'm all to familiar with humungous amps not suitable for the room their in. By "making sure you dont push the amp into clipping" do you mean simply not having the volume all the way to 11?

Now the hunt for an amp is back on

[Minion]

Originally Posted by h2oz7v

Cheers, yeah I'm all to familiar with humungous amps not suitable for the room their in. By "making sure you dont push the amp into clipping" do you mean simply not having the volume all the way to 11?

Now the hunt for an amp is back on

Clipping basicly means that the amp is Pushing too hard, it happens when the output Voltage excedes the supply Voltage which causes a Large amount of DC at the Speaker output and too much DC will cause your Speaker Coil to heat up and eventually fry your Speakers....

Most good amps should have a clipping indicator light to tell you when the amp is about to clip, as long as you don"t push the amp so hard that the clip Light doesn"t come on much then you should be OK.....

Cheers