Powering Monitors

[Wavlingth]

Does it matter what kind of power amp pushes nearfield studio monitors? Is it possible to run them from my old Kenwood 500 100w stereo amp?

What are the sound factors in powering a studio monitor setup?

 

[Farview]

You can use a stereo amp to do it but they are not (normaly) the cleanest, most uncolored amps. What you want in an amp is something that doesn't add its own sound to the chain.

 

[Treeline]

Match the speaker impedance to the output impedance of the amp. If you have an amp that outputs each channel at 8 Ohms (typical for a stereo) then be very careful about connecting 4 Ohm speakers to it. The amp will work extremely hard to drive them, the wires can get hot and the amp can get damaged. If a non-tube amp is rated down to 4 Ohms, you're probably ok driving anything; you can drive higher impedance speakers without a problem.

If this is an old tube amp, better talk with someone who knows tube amps, because the reverse could be true. Weird stuff.

I have a large amp that outputs at 8 Ohms and will be driving a pair of 4 ohm personal monitors (Bose 101) with it. Because the thing is huge it might be OK to drive them - but it really should have an 8 ohm load. I will probably end up connecting the monitors in series and running on one channel only, which will create an 8 Ohm load and keep the amp happy. But that kills my personal monitor mix. Oh well.

An older, better home stereo amp may have speaker connections marked 4, 8 and 16 Ohms. That would be pretty cool, as you could be sure you're matching impedance no matter what you're driving.

Do a Google search on "speaker impedance matching" and you'll find all the information you need to know.