Underpowered Amp?

P

penisaurus

New member
I just recently purchased a set of Yorkville Ysm-1i's, but all I have to power them with is this Kenwood amplifier from 1987. It is 50 watts per channel. My setup is Computer->Omni Studio->Amp->Monitors. I know that underpowered signals can lead to speaker distortion and damage, but I don't know much else about this kind of thing. Is there anyone here who would be concerned, or do you have any advice for me?

Thanks
 
Well -- just don't push the volume level pot past the 12 o'clock position (that's typically where the max power output is on hifi gear...) Beyond this you're almost guaranteed distortion....

If this isn't loud enough for monitoring (and recall that 85 db is about the appropriate level for monitoring), then you do have an underpwoered amp for your current needs.
 
It sounds OK at what I would consider a regular listening volume. I'm sure I'm going to sound very ignorant here, but I've always been a little confused by the whole decibels thing. On my amp, it measures db's up to 0, as with most things I've dealt with. So the 85 db's thing is throwing me off a bit. Also, I've got a volume control on the amp, and on the Omni. Would it be good to crank the amp up all the way, and use the Omni volume control exclusively? As it is, I just leave the amp at about halfway and control the volume with the Omni... anyone care to enlighten me? BTW... thanks again.
 
does anyone know if monitors are typically more or less efficient than consumer offerings? (speaking of db SPL/watt here)-i'm guessing less, because accurate response is more important than more perceived loudness, but i'm just curious, because if i turn my old 70's pioneer amp (an sa-5200 if anyone knows anything about them) up to 12 o'clock on my recordings (which are solo acoustic work, so i can't justify much dynamics tweaking besides getting the overall sound relatively even through the song and balancing the tracks out), i will almost certainly be rattling the windows. i don't know where 85 db typically falls on the scale, but any practical advice to a layman with basic understanding of fundamental ideas would be much appreciated. i think my dad may have an spl meter, so maybe i'll borrow it.
 
that's more than 85 db. If it's an old tube pioneer, those things can be quite powerful. 85db is not window shaking loud, it's just loud enough to hear everything well. At 85db someone in the room would have to raise their voice (but not yell loudly) to talk to you.

This might help.
 
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