Poweramp

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:29 am

I've recently aquired some Acoustic Energy AE1's and now I need a poweramp for them. They are Biwired and have a minimum of 8ohm's. I'll only be using them through an EMU 1616m, which has 1/4" balanced outputs.

Specs:

25mm magnesium alloy tweeter
90mm alloy bass driver
200Watts power handling
Textured black finish

Never bought a Poweamp before so don't know where to start! Am I right in saying I'd have to get a rack version, rather than a poweamp that you use for hifi-seperates?

I've read that I need something between 1/2 to 2X the power rating of the speaker (I read somewhere else it should be equal to 2X)... My speakers take 200Watts @ 8ohms. I'm abit confused by that. What minimum amount of Wattage would I need?

I've been looking on some sites for Studio Power Amplifiers and PA Amplifiers, which looks like the things I should be looking at.

My budget wont go over £200, so in that range, I've seen these:

Tapco Juice 800 - 205W per channel @ 8ohms - £167.89

Tapco Juice 1400 - 310W per channel @ 8ohms - £199

and the

Sampson SX1200 - 300W per channel @ 8ohms - £250

Sampson SX1800 - 400W per channel @ 8ohms - £257 - £7 for 100W :confused:

Of course, I'd rather go second hand and pickup something better for the money...

Am I on the right lines?

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:52 am

hmmmm.... this one sounds familiar.... how are ya??? i'll let others answer for ya..

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 11:05 am

with speakers you want to keep them at what there rated and turn up your amp to full power and have a monitoring system do not attenuate from the amp.

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 2:35 pm

h2oz7v wrote:

I've recently aquired some Acoustic Energy AE1's and now I need a poweramp for them. They are Biwired and have a minimum of 8ohm's. I'll only be using them through an EMU 1616m, which has 1/4" balanced outputs.

Never bought a Poweamp before so don't know where to start! Am I right in saying I'd have to get a rack version, rather than a poweamp that you use for hifi-seperates?

I've read that I need something between 1/2 to 2X the power rating of the speaker (I read somewhere else it should be equal to 2X)... My speakers take 200Watts @ 8ohms. I'm abit confused by that. What minimum amount of Wattage would I need?

Am I on the right lines?

Roughly, yes. If you want to use the AE1s for a home studio and not to run a PA rig or a disco with them, forget about needing 0.5x to 2x amplifier power. For home studio use, 100 - 150W per channel is quite enough to drive AE1s. If you want to keep the balanced connection to your EMU 1616, you will probably have to get a studio power amp such as a Samson. Top-end hi-fi amps are worth considering too, but you may have to use an unbalanced input. Keep your eye on Ebay - lots of amps of various types and quality come up there.

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 8:47 pm

musicmixingguru wrote:

with speakers you want to keep them at what there rated and turn up your amp to full power and have a monitoring system do not attenuate from the amp.

huh?

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:08 pm

If I was looking at the samson amps, I would look at the servo line instead of the SX version. As I understand it the Servo line of samson amps are for studio use.

check out the offerings from Hafler. They make a good quite amp.

Peace...........Scoobie

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 10:35 pm

FWIW.... iused to see the servo amps come across my bench when i used to do service for a living.... mostly for stupid shit like parts quality... volume pots were a regular for instance....

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:15 am

I've been looking for Hafler and since they are no more, its prooving quite difficult. There arent any on eBay (in the UK), but I'll keep an eye out for them.

Any others I should be looking out for? and so I'm looking for something around the 100W/Channel mark.

I've seen some real cheapies by Alesis lol!

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:35 am

Scoobie wrote:

If I was looking at the samson amps, I would look at the servo line instead of the SX version. As I understand it the Servo line of samson amps are for studio use.

check out the offerings from Hafler. They make a good quite amp.

Peace...........Scoobie

Hafler went out of business long ago.

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:02 am

Who said turn the amp up all the way and turn down the monitoring system?
Never heard this before, and like man, are you nuts?
I double that! "Huh?"

Consider picking an amp from this list.

http://www.thx.com/products/professional/pdf/ApprovedEquipList.pdf

Yamaha P3200 would be my choice.

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:10 pm

You guys all failed to notice one of the most important specs listed:
"Textured black finish"...
Now you have a safe place to put your beer bottles!
This type of finish helps to absorb "bad sounds" and aids in reflecting
"good sounds" out to the intended audience. And since it can readily add up to 33% power capacity to the system, it's OK to crank the crap outta the power amp and vary the loudness with a jumpy, quirky monitor fader that goes from 0-100% in less than 10mm of travel! Ready, set, blast-off!!

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:14 pm

BRH wrote:

Who said turn the amp up all the way and turn down the monitoring system?
Never heard this before, and like man, are you nuts?
I double that! "Huh?"

Consider picking an amp from this list.

http://www.thx.com/products/professional/pdf/ApprovedEquipList.pdf

Yamaha P3200 would be my choice.

Yeah god knows what that was about. The THX thing looks interesting. Cheers for that

moonbaby haha man, that cheered me up! I bought them used and well... by the rings on one of them, it looks like expensive beer holder theory is right.

Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 11:17 pm

BRH wrote:

Who said turn the amp up all the way and turn down the monitoring system?
Never heard this before, and like man, are you nuts?
I double that! "Huh?"

Consider picking an amp from this list.

http://www.thx.com/products/professional/pdf/ApprovedEquipList.pdf

Yamaha P3200 would be my choice.

(A) I don't attenuate my amps. I don't even have amps that *have* attenuators on them. Match the amps to the system.

(B) He's looking for a $200 amp. I think the 3200 is just a whisker out of his price range...

(C) "THX" certification means exactly squat.

Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 2:27 am

Would THX mean more of a home entertainment thing?

Anyway, I've seen a P3200 thats within my price range, but isn't this amp too powerful for my monitors? (8/200W)

Quote:

• Power Output Level 20Hz-20kHz THD+N=0.05% 8/Stereo 340W+340W
• 4/Stereo 440W+440W
• 8/Bridge 880W

• 1kHz THD+N=0.05% 8/Stereo 370W+370W
• 4/Stereo 520W + 520W
• 8/Bridge 1040W

Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 5:29 am

unless your room is built to THX specs (which people are not doing, and more and more theaters are not eaither because it is pure marketing BS, and a way for people to get their hands in your pockets on all fronts) THX means nothing.

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