|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
24.235.75.235
In Reply to: RE: I thought they would sound better.. posted by bobinaz on November 19, 2007 at 16:17:39
If your amp is being overloaded on the peaks - it is likely the speakers need more power.
Unfortunately, a lot of receiver power ratings (esp. mass market ones) are taken in strange conditions not very much like reality in order to make a data sheet look good. Your 100+W per channel may not be 100W in reality but clipped.
So ... what to do? Either switch back to your previous arrangement, OR upgrade that amp to have more real power! :)
"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad"
Follow Ups:
My amp for the KEF's is an Onkyo m-504 with a rated wpc of 170 into 8 ohms. So it should be over 300 wpc going into 4 ohms....that should be wel enough to drive the KEF's. I have a yamaha r-9 ay 130 wpc, but I really don't want to breakup up my living system right now just to see if the amp would make a difference....maybe over thanksgiving weekend.
I have a pair of 104's that I bought when I wanted something to A/B the touted Thiel's 3.5's against in a home demo. I thought the Kef's were better. I had moved on and had them in the garage, but brought them in to see if they still worked before selling or giving away. I hooked them up to a VAC Avatar Integrated tube amp running in 27WPC triode mode and WOW do they sound wonderful. So I don't think it's just a case of needing a ton of solid state power. I also have a 300WPC Classe with a Pass Pre, and the VAC sounds way better with them, and this is in a big room.
PS, I'm running them with a modest Infinity sub that blends perfectly with them and fleshes out the low end. What impresses me is the seemless sound from top to bottom...no shrills, no suck-outs. Sounds pretty darn real.
The Onkyo amp is definately not up to the KEF's. The amp may spec 170W at 8 ohms however it does not double down at 4 ohms.
You need a better amp. What you have now is a high-performance speaker being driven by a mid-fi japanese amp. If you owned a Ferrari, you wouldn't put regular gas in it, however that's what you are doing to those KEF's.
I'd search Audiogon for something like a Classe' CA-200. Well built and reasonable on the used market, and has enough current to get you going properly with your KEF's.
Best,
otari :-)
My mother-in-law, after seeing the Levinson 33H amps in my listening room: "Those are the nicest electric room heaters I've ever seen".
"My amp for the KEF's is an Onkyo m-504 with a rated wpc of 170 into 8 ohms. So it should be over 300 wpc going into 4 ohms"
Theoretically some amp designs should double their power into 4 ohms but not all amps do so the Onkyo may well not deliver over 300 wpc into 4 ohms. That power increase into 4 ohms comes with a greater current draw and the amp may not be able to deliver the current required in order for it to double its power.
Some people look at whether or not an amp can double its 8 ohm power rating into 4 ohms and regard the inability of an amp to do so as a sign of poor design or implementation. On the other hand, some manufacturers trade on that tendency and rate their amps slightly lower into 8 ohms than they could, simply to ensure that the 4 ohm rating can be twice the number of watts as the 8 ohm rating.
What counts is whether or not the amp can drive the speaker successfully and power ratings are a rather unreliable guide to that.
David Aiken
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: