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How to judge an amplifier's performance with a "powered-woofer" speaker?

Hello, I can't seem to find a definitive answer.  Nowadays,many speakers are made with a built-in woofer amplifier. Vandersteens, Martin-Logans , Von Schweikert,etc.
How will your amplifier affect the tonality or dynamics of this type of speaker?
What type of influence will your amp have on the bottom end? Will your million-watt amp be zeroed out by the speaker amp? 

Interestingly, I was reading a review of the Parasound JC1+ Mono's paired with Von Schweikert Audio VR-55 Aktives, and the reviewer raved about the powerful ,deep bass of the JC's. But wait! The speakers have a 525 watt amp driving the woofer!!! Does the 450 watt JC trump the 525 watt speaker amp??
If you are going to review an amplifier wouldn't you get a "truer" report by using traditional speakers?

====How does your amplifier and a powered speaker interact? Who does the heavy lifting?====

Thanks for your time.

michaelpaul


128x128mikepaul

Showing 1 response by koslekt1

koslekt1's avatar
koslekt1
73 posts
 
I've had a few speakers with powered bass and a few without, and weirdly it was easy to tell amp changes on the powered guys. Even though they don't have a load on the low end of the spectrum, the amp still typically contributes down to 80hz, maybe lower, depending on the crossover. 

Anyways, the powered bass gives you a lot of flexibility to try different amps so I really like them. Trust me, you'll hear amp differences just as fast as you would with a passive full ranger. 
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