2. amps-preamps
  3. 1315019028

Final verdict with amplifier

Hey all,
I recently posted how my Parasound amp wasn't providing much of an improvement on my Klipsch WF-34 speakers, which are rated at 125W RMS, and 300W peak, and my amp being 205W per channel. Most of the responses that I got was that I needed a decent preamp to integrate into my system. Well recently a buddy gave me his old Carver TFM 55 amplifier, rated at 380 Watts per channel 600 Watts mono, so I decided to give it a whirl. I know that I have to be careful cuz that much power could blow the fecal matter out of my speakers. Well I hooked it up BOTH WAYS. It was slightly better on stereo, and mono was a big difference, but even cranked it didn't harm my speakers. why is that? And how is a preamp supposed to help any of that?
kornkat2020
vicdamone
850 posts
 
Power handling is not your issue. You can ruin your speakers by unknowingly over driving a twenty watt solid state amplifier into clipping. Most consumer speaker manufactures provide basic amplifier guidelines for optimum performance. In this case your speakers 95dB sensitive is enough to be used with a low 15-75 watt tube amplifier. This will provide a fuller mid bass which, I'm guessing, is the area your trying to improve. Down 3dB @ 50Hz these are not bass heavy speakers and were probably designed to be used with a subwoofer.

While amplifiers do have character of their own the sound of their character is very small compared to the difference the signal it's given by the preamplifier and the source.

blkadr
739 posts
 
You wont damage your speakers unless you drive your amp into clipping. Clipping amp or overdriving the drivers should be easy to hear. Perhaps you could describe what you feel are missing?
csontos
1,311 posts
 
Input sensitivity of your amp determines where on the volume dial you're going to reach full output power with most pre-amps which are set to about 1.5 volts of input voltage to achieve full rated output out of your amp at half volume. The lower the sensitivity of your amp, ie: the "higher" the number, the higher you have to turn the volume up to achieve full power. Some amps have such low sensitivity that the pre-amp goes into clipping before full power can be reached. Hence the prior stated scenario. A through the back door safety measure by some amp manufacturers in an effort to reduce warranty claims imo.
csontos
1,311 posts
 
Also, speakers are usually underrated for the same reason. They can usually take a lot more power with no problem. As already stated, a clipping amp is what destroys them quite often unnoticed until it's too late whereas over powering will rattle the drivers which is quite noticeable immediately. An uninformed person can easily mistake this for a fault of the amp,ie: clipping.
trebejo
102 posts
 
When a solid state amp clips, any human knows it. It doesn't take a post on audiogon to find out.

Hundreds of watts into a Klipsch speaker, eh? Maybe you should wait until your monsoon season is over, then come back to that particular stadium where you are doing that and try again.
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