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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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In Reply to: Re: DIY Amp Projects/Kits posted by rob selina on March 30, 1999 at 17:56:47:
Hello,Before we confuse the heck out of you I must let you know first hand with the following facts: (some of you folks might not agree with me afterall:-)
(1) Speakers are rated at (decibels/Watt/metre) efficiency. Tube amps love impedences starting at 4 ohms nominal ("nominal" means the resistance value varies with respect to the frequency the speaker is reproducing, more on this later..). SET("single-ended triode") and other low-powered DHTs prefer a stable nominal impedences of 8 ohms or more (16ohms is even better). Efficiency-wise the mroe efficient the speaker is the more costly it is for the manufacturer to make: costly magnet structure and so on... Good speakers don't come cheap...and IMHO cheap speakers coan only do "so much" only (or should I say so little??)
(2) for every 3 dB increase in sound level you will have to double your watts: example : for a 91dB/W/m speaer if you sit 1 metre in front of the speaker it takes 1 watt to bring the speaker to 91dB, 2Watts to 94dB, 4 watts to 97dB, 8Watts to 100dB, 16Watts to 103dB ///you figure the rest.
(3) no matter how "powerful" an amp manufacturer might rate their products, it is true that the best sound comes at around a few watts most of the time. This is because distortion is proportional to the output generated: the higher the output the more distortion produced. therefore amps sound sweetest during the first few watts. This is particularly true to SE amps.
(4) Nobody can tolerate a loud sound pressure over an extended period of time .Living in a relatively low ambient noise environment 70's dB is what most people prefers. If you play music to a so-called "concert level" you'll have either a lot of gross accoustical feedback from your room making the sound gross/muddled/boomy...or you'll get ear bleed.
(5) beware of SolidState amp's rating. If you try to push it to its max. you might push it to the "clipping" region, risking your set of tweeters with it.
All the marketing scams and such had mis-informed the public about power ratings of amp and the efficiency of speakers and such. I personally do not believe in all those fancy ratings and such. A 71dB/W/m speakers (Technics/Panasonic makes one this year in Japan, REALLY!!) probably takes an upward of 200Watts to drive and that ain't cool!
Gone are the good ol days where speakers are efficient and tube amps sounded warm. Nowadays cutthroat competition drives manufacturers into making cheap low efficiency speakers and they want you to believe that is the norm. or is it?
Another naked truth behind all these is that unlike tube amp gear which requires a certain amount of care and maintenance SState amps have been cheap and maintenance-free. It is easy to make a 50Watts SState amp than making a 5Watt tube amp (you can get a Kenwxxd amp rated at 100Watts per channel at Circuit cxxy for $200 bucks!!)
Do you know good sounding SState amp cost a lot of dough to make (several thou for Krells, Accuphase, etc.) Good sound still doesn't come cheap after all these years.
these are my humble opinions.
regards,
Quest
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Follow Ups
- Re: DIY Amp Projects/Kits - Quest 23:24:29 03/30/99 (4)
- Re: DIY Amp Projects/Kits - rob selina 11:44:46 03/31/99 (3)
- distances... - Quest 13:43:15 03/31/99 (2)
- Yes, Inverse Square Law - Chris Fagas 09:09:20 04/01/99 (0)
- Don't forget.... - Tom S. 14:12:57 03/31/99 (0)
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