Need help What monoblock power amps for bass?


I own a pair of Silverline Sinfonia speakers.These are very large speakers (over 240 lbs. each),96 dB and 8 ohm stable.Very aesy load for any amp,so power is not mandatory,anything over 50W/ch is OK..
They are tri-ampable.I am looking for opinions on what monoblock amps to use for bass drivers ONLY.Each Sinfonia has two 12" woofers and one 7" woofer.7" driver also contributes to midrange,so this is the trickiest part of my amplification story.I don't want mellow and soft bass,but don't want cold vocals either.
I plan to use either tube or SS monos and limit them whit a potentiometer in order to achieve a tonal balance with midrange and tweeter.Midrange and tweeter will be powered with 320B XLS SET monos (30W/ch).
The areas i am looking for in bass are - slam,speed,definition and ambience.I like fast and tight bass (often connected with SS amps),that is a priority.
Any suggestions will be very welcomed.
audiobb

Showing 2 responses by ngjockey

Don't use a pot. I've tried a few in this situation and they just sounded ugly. Constant twiddling and never found the right setting. The really good audio pots are not the right range for this type of fine tuning. A series stereo attenuator in the 0-5k range should work for most combos. However, you could always just add another series resistor to a smaller range attenuator. Of course, this works a lot easier for RCA connections. XLR balanced means doubling up on everything. Series attenuators work well in this situation because they only raise impedance that was already compromised by parallel amps.

This kind of biamping, with different amps only tends to work well when the xover point is low, 150Hz or less.
DACT, Marchand, Goldpoint, Acoustic-Dimension and Shallco make attenuators, Shallco being ladder type. Most have 10K versions and some have more than 24 steps. There's probably more brands I'm not aware of. Even the Placette passive is 10K, as far as I know, if you want it packaged and a remote.

Again, using either series or parallel resistors along with attenuator can increase or reduce the overall impedance.