Power amps

J

J Wah

New member
Is there any difference between a power amp used for nearfield monitors and one used for a PA?

I am looking for an amp to power a pair of Yorkville YSM's but would also like to use it to power a PA. Could I run the amp outputs through an A/B box so I could switch between the Yorkvilles and the PA?

I want to spend less than $300 and was looking at the Crown XLS 202. Any reason this won't work?
 
Yo J Wah! Beware of impedence mismatching here. A lot of different pieces of gear have been made over the years, but more often than not, near field monitors are 4 ohms and PA cabinets are 8 ohms. This is not always true, however. A lot of power amps made for 2 channel 4 ohm operation (monitors) can be "bridged" to 8 ohms mono, which means you can drive 2 monitors, or one PA cabinet. Also, the purposes here are very different. Monitors are made for critical listening, and flat noiseless amplification is a must. PA's contain mic preamps, and usually have FX, EQ, and a certain amount of hopefully flattering color. If more amplification is needed, power amps may be added to the signal chain after the PA head for greater gain. I would say in general, a power amp does not make a very good PA head, and the reverse is also usually true. I'd say, get some powered reference monitors, so you know the amps are matched to the speakers and enclosures, and get a good PA head.-Richie
 
Same here - assuming you got the impendence and bridging set correctly the PA amps I tried out (peavey) were hissy.

You can't hear the hiss over the noise floor in a club but in a more acoustically balanced mixing/mastering environment that hiss seems very loud.

kylen
 
Richard Monroe said:
Beware of impedence mismatching here. A lot of different pieces of gear have been made over the years, but more often than not, near field monitors are 4 ohms and PA cabinets are 8 ohms......
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Well, this whole idea of "impedance matching" really only applies to tube amplifiers. In some cases you can take advantage of a particular solid-state amp's high current capacity by using lower impedance speakers, but this is not impedance matching in the traditional sense.

.......get some powered reference monitors, so you know the amps are matched to the speakers and enclosures...
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Again, this is sort of a misconception. A good amplifier is a good amplifier. As long as it has sufficient power and current capacity to drive the speaker, there's nothing to "match". Now, one can "optimize" an amplifier for a particular speaker. However, this is almost never a matter of improving performance. In fact, it's the opposite. Optimization typically means reducing the size, weight, and cost of the amplifiers while trying to sacrifice as little performance as possible.

Thomas

-------------------------
Barefoot Sound LLC.
Studio Monitors
San Francisco
 
How much is too much power for a speaker. My Yorkville YSM1's have a "Program Power" of 70 watts and 6 ohms. I have not seen the term program power before but I assume it is the max power.

I have only seen amps rated at 4 ohms and 8 ohms. Would an amp like a Hafler P3000 which is rated at 150 watts/ channel @ 8 ohms and 200 watts/ channel @ 6 ohms be too much for these monitors.
 
J Wah said:
How much is too much power for a speaker. My Yorkville YSM1's have a "Program Power" of 70 watts and 6 ohms. I have not seen the term program power before but I assume it is the max power.

I have only seen amps rated at 4 ohms and 8 ohms. Would an amp like a Hafler P3000 which is rated at 150 watts/ channel @ 8 ohms and 200 watts/ channel @ 6 ohms be too much for these monitors.
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The Hafler you mentioned would not be too much, unless you turn it up too loud. But it would be overkill for the the little Yorkies. Kind of like buying a semi to pull a little U-Haul trailer. It can be done, but you need to be careful. The Hafler could blow the speakers if you make a careless move with the gain.
 
"Program power" is kind of undefined, and is somewhere near average power. They can probably take peaks a fair amount higher.

Given that, the Hafler is probably just about a perfect match to the Yorkies. Anything much smaller won't have enough headroom to handle transients cleanly, since it will be closer to clipping. This is actually more dangerous than momentary peaks delivered cleanly. Distorted transients eat tweeeters.

Like 12kevin said, just watch your volume.


I'm kind of surprised a company with a rep like Yorkville would use such a vague term to talk about one of it's products.
 
I always buy an amp that does either double or triple the power output that I need and leave the amp wide open. This way I never have to worry about clipping my amp or underpowering since those are the two things that will wreak the most havoc on speakers. I am a big fan of passive monitors. There are very few built in amps that are actually as good as even a cheaper Hafler amp. This way I can also upgrade anytime I want withou having to rebuy as much stuff. In my opinion you will usually end up with a better combination for less money by going passive.
 
Well, like I said, there are very few, but I did not say that there weren't any. I looked at your website. Using Bryston amps is certainly (in my opinion) a good start. Especially since they are 250 watt amps which should leave better amp headroom than most integrated solutions. However, the price tag is out there as well. in that price range there are a lot of really really good monitoring options whether a user goes with a passive/amp combo or an active monitor. I can't say anything good or bad about your monitors since I haven't heard them personally.

I still maintain though that in general (most commonly in your sub $1500 monitor bracket)that the amps used in active monitors are of pretty poor quality and certainly limit a speakers capabilities. But there are companies out there that are doing things right:) Hopefully your company is one of them. Only time will really tell. best of luck on your monitor business:)
 
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