I love the dynamic sound - so I am power hungry...
12 responses Add your response
I haven't done any personal listening with these amps for home use. One thing I noticed about them is, their power ratings all vary. It seems the majority of them don't give the same ratings, as most good home audio companies do. With good home audio, the power ratings are more commonly given on a continuous basis. For example 100 watts per channel, with both channels driven simultaneously, at 20-20 kHz. These pro-sound type of amps might be a peak power rating, or a 1 kHz only rating. The Crown Xti 6000 says it gives 3000 watts per channel, at 1 kHz (6000 watts total for both channels). The manual on page 20, shows a picture of the back of the unit. It states it only consumes around 1250 watts of power from the outlet, on its backside. Amps like these usually run at around 80-90% of efficiency, so some power is lost to heat. You can't get more power than it consumes on a continuous basis, except for short peaks, that the power supply has stored in its caps, for reserve. Those large ratings may be partially a peak rating in some cases, due to this reserve stored. I noticed you have a Krell also. The Krell seems to give the true rating for its output power. It consumes up to twice as much wattage, than it gives out. With home audio, we are used to this true RMS rating on a continuous basis, like your Krell does. So in other words, the real continuous 20-20 kHz (both channels driven simultaneously) power of the Crown is a mystery. Still, it is important not to turn it up too loud with a high power, or a low powered amp. An under powered amp can clip easier, and blow your speakers easier at times due to this clipping, as it runs out of power. If you're used to clean sounding equipment like the Krell, use your ears and quickly back off the volume at the slightest distortion warning sign. That should help save your speakers. I've used a lot of high powered amps on speakers, that were rated for only a small portion of the amps power, without blowing the speakers. This was by being careful with the volume. Being careful with the volume is important to saving your speakers, whether a high, or low wattage output amp is used. |
I think there has to be a distinction between "pro" amps designed for live sound reinforcement and those used for monitoring...basically hifi in a studio. I currently use and old "bullet proof" Alesis RA100 for my studio as it doesn't need a fan and is insanely reliable...drives live sound monitors really well also (you can drive 2 8ohm monitors per side) so I've used it for small venue shows. I've found huge differences in live sound pro amps also...cheaper Crowns don't sound as good as more expensive QSC or more expensive Crowns. For live shows I've had great luck with a couple of older Mackie M1400i amps that have the quietest fans I've found, although the Mackies may be on the fragile side. |
You can use pro amps with home speakers, but amps designed for home use are often (much) better sounding, usually have more appropriate connections (5 way posts, etc.), and are quieter. I have thousands of watts of pro stuff around (musician, live sound tech) and prefer a 60 watt per side tube amp for my hifi needs. |
Sure you can, with excellent results. I use a Crown XTi on my woofers since I biamp. I have tried it full range on a 3-way monitor with very good results also. More power on tap does not = blown speakers, however over-driving any speaker could and would result in burnt coils. The only drawback might be fan noise. |