Power requirement for ADS L-1290?


Here's my weird question of the day:

I got a set of hand-me-down ADS L-1290s...(I know, I know, quite a nice gift. It's true. I'm very fortunate).

Everyone says they love power, saying things like 'the more power you give them, the more they sing,' and other nice but imprecise stuff like that.

They're rated at 300 watts maximum, and they're not terribly efficient; coming in at 90db at 8 ohms. Exactly how big does my amp need to be to get "decent enough" sound out of them? I fully realize that the very notion of "decent enough" is anathema around here, but I'm not wealthy, by any means, and look to the vintage audio market for my stuff.

Would 65 wpc be enough to get them to sound good enough? 80 wpc? 100?
jamesjems

Showing 1 response by nick778

I owned a pair of these for quite a while and liked them. I had a stash of new/old replacement drivers just in case espcially since the fluid in the tweeter can go bad with time.

To answer your question, they do like power, and bi-wiring if possbile, but also an amp capable of driving low impedances/ohms.

I used a Rotel RB-1090 with them and then a Spectron MKII all of which exceeded the power max recommendations and both sounded good with the better sonics going to the Spectron.

They will 'play' with less power etc but not up to the capabilities of the speaker and low power inexpensive amp may not be able to handle the low impedences and thereby produce clipping.