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Need help choosing my first amp for my first speakers

Hi, I am completely new to this world of hi-fi audio and I would like some help from the collective intelligence. Please bear with me even if I sound like someone who has no idea because I am.

I have just purchased my first set of speakers. I bought a used Boenicke W5 SE+. And I am looking for an amp to go with it. The speakers were a good deal but still not cheap and Im already mostly hitting my budget limit. 

I don't have any gear right now (I really mean 0), so my initial thought was to buy a Wiim amp to start off and then start changing to a more serious amp later on. (I like that it has everything including a streamer for me to get going right away)

So my questions are 
1. will the Wiim amp be able to power Boenicke W5 SE+?

2. What do you think of the plan to start with all integrated cheap amp and then changing later?

2. Any other amp suggestions for the speakers in a similar price range?($500 ish)

3. Can I just get Audio cables from Amazon?

4. How do you calculate wattage for the speakers from the speaker specs below?

5. Any other tips for a complete beginner would be appreciated.
 

Specs for Wiim Amp
https://wiimhome.com/wiimamp/specs
Specs for Boenicke W5 SE+

-

Sensitivity: 83-86 dB / watt / m depending on frequency

Nom. impedance: 4 ohms

Weight: 3.5 kg / piece (speaker only)

Standard Version

  • 5″ long throw (X-max = 9,25mm) bass driver, tuned to 50 Hz, no crossover
  • 3″ widebander made to spec, 1st order high pass filter, unique electromechanical 8-cm parallel spiral resonator installed
  • Internal wiring orientation-optimised silk-wrapped high-frequency stranded litz
  • WBT NextGen binding posts
  • Rear ambient tweeter
  • Harmonisation included

 

SE+ Version

  • 2-cm copper / 2-cm copper gold straight resonator combination installed at both widebander and bass driver in series, in addition to the parallel device
  • Mundorf Silver-Gold-Oil capacitor for widebander, added Duelund Tinned Copper Foil 0.01 uF bypass capacitor
  • Harmonix RF-5700 tuning bases at widebander’s magnet
  • Added proprietary acoustic phase linearisation network
  • Harmonisation included

 

Thanks for all the help!

 

jcjcjcjcjcjcjcjcjcjcjcjc
vthokie83
958 posts
 

jc,

Also choice of speakers, and their sensitivity also has a direct correlation (again a generalization) to the type of amplifier and power from an amplifier is required.

A pair of Kllipsch Forte IVs are 99 db sensitive, and would have no problem driving them LOUD with a sub 25 WPC amplifier. Your Beonicke W5 SEs are 83/86 db, and would require 100 WPC (or more) to be driven sufficiently loud and still have steam for transients. That is not to knock your Beonicke speakers, by all accounts they seem to be excellent speakers (I've never heard them).....but understanding the amplifier and speaker relationship is important as you grow your system.

deep_333
1,593 posts
 

That Wimm or whatever is barrel bottom crap. It doesn’t take more than a quick search to note that it can’t even get to its rated power, etc. Putting a 4ohm or lower load on it is asking for trouble. It is more for guys sitting near field with a small desktop/pc audio type of scenario.

I wouldn’t go any lower than a Yamaha R-N800A for an all in one box, amp+dac+streamer.

jred
94 posts
 

Used peachtree integrated. 
 

best luck

jcjcjcjcjcjcjcjcjcjcjcjc OP
5 posts
 

I am glad I asked here, so many good opinions. Thank you all for the advice, think I understand much better than before. going to go through the book and deep dive one at a time. y'all are heroes. Thanks a lot!

joshua43214
53 posts
 

I will expand a bit on the power vs ohms thing.

Watts is a measure of power, it is how we measure the amount of power we have to do some work, which in this case is move the driver cone in an out. little drivers in the tweeter require very little power to move, big cones used for bass are heavy and require alot of power to move.

 

We calculate watts as Amps*volts.

Ohm's Law is Volts = Amps*Resistance.

What this means is that when you divide the resistance of your speaker in half (go from 8ohm to 4ohm), the amperage has to double. 4 ohms is a very low resistance, very close to a dead short. An incandescent light bulb is about 9ohms, and consider how hot they get.  

 

I say all this to underscore why people are recommending an amp that can handle the low sensitivity of your low resistance speaker. Low sensitivity speakers can be very demanding on amps, and they can die.

 

I suggest that if you can not find your way into at the least a reputable ChiFi brand, see if you can round up an old receiver or even an AVR. These will usually have some circuit protection built in to protect your speakers in the even that the amp overheats.

 

 

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