2. amps-preamps
  3. 1315019028

Final verdict with amplifier

Hey all,
I recently posted how my Parasound amp wasn't providing much of an improvement on my Klipsch WF-34 speakers, which are rated at 125W RMS, and 300W peak, and my amp being 205W per channel. Most of the responses that I got was that I needed a decent preamp to integrate into my system. Well recently a buddy gave me his old Carver TFM 55 amplifier, rated at 380 Watts per channel 600 Watts mono, so I decided to give it a whirl. I know that I have to be careful cuz that much power could blow the fecal matter out of my speakers. Well I hooked it up BOTH WAYS. It was slightly better on stereo, and mono was a big difference, but even cranked it didn't harm my speakers. why is that? And how is a preamp supposed to help any of that?
kornkat2020
csontos
1,311 posts
 
Input sensitivity of your amp determines where on the volume dial you're going to reach full output power with most pre-amps which are set to about 1.5 volts of input voltage to achieve full rated output out of your amp at half volume. The lower the sensitivity of your amp, ie: the "higher" the number, the higher you have to turn the volume up to achieve full power. Some amps have such low sensitivity that the pre-amp goes into clipping before full power can be reached. Hence the prior stated scenario. A through the back door safety measure by some amp manufacturers in an effort to reduce warranty claims imo.
csontos
1,311 posts
 
Also, speakers are usually underrated for the same reason. They can usually take a lot more power with no problem. As already stated, a clipping amp is what destroys them quite often unnoticed until it's too late whereas over powering will rattle the drivers which is quite noticeable immediately. An uninformed person can easily mistake this for a fault of the amp,ie: clipping.
trebejo
102 posts
 
When a solid state amp clips, any human knows it. It doesn't take a post on audiogon to find out.

Hundreds of watts into a Klipsch speaker, eh? Maybe you should wait until your monsoon season is over, then come back to that particular stadium where you are doing that and try again.
hifihvn
943 posts
 
I can't see a Klipsch speaker needing any high power like that, at least the ones I've heard or seen the specs. Bridging any amp never worked for my ears. Don't forget, your doubling basically all of the signal path components. That must be why it always sounds like a downgrade for me. And like mentioned above to little power is a high risk, but both of those amps shouldn't run out of power first, especially the Carver. Any little distortion from the speaker or amp is a warning it's is working past its limits, and something might give. Carver amps that have the tube transfer function usually sound polite, as most are tuned to sound like his well known Silver Seven ~$17k tube amps. That might be why they don't sound as loud.
wolf_garcia
6,631 posts
 
For the record, you can absolutely damage speakers before driving an amp into clipping, although a distorted amp will get 'em first. Most speakers will handle some quick and clean high powered transient peaks, but any high current amp of 100 watts or so driven at anywhere near peak level will fry all but the sturdiest drivers in a hurry...only pro audio speakers or a few extremely sturdy home speakers with gigantic voice coils and heat dissipation capability can handle serious juice, and that's just not necessary for home stuff.
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