Advice on an amp?

[krusher167]

Hello everyone,

I'm getting two cerwin vega VE15 tower speakers, and am having trouble deciding on what i should use to power these bad boys. Specs on the speakers are:

Frequency Response: 26 Hz - 20 kHz
Power Capacity: 400 watts
Sensitivity (1w/1m): 95 dB
Resistance: 6-8 ohms (I know its 8 for sure, but couldn't find anything on cv's website about this, this is just what i've gotten from people who have bought the speakers)

Okay, so after doing some research i'm thinking crown's xls series for an amp, but i'm not sure which one to get. I've read that underpowering a speaker can be just as bad as overpowering it because it can cause clipping at higher volumes, so you want some overhead in your wattage to help keep the signal intact (true?). Based on that, I'm between an xls 2500 which gives 440 W at 8 ohms across both speakers, or getting two xls 1000s and bridging them to get 700 W into each speaker at 8 ohms... it'll cost about the same either way i go, so whatever ya'll think is best for the speakers is what I'll probably end up doing. And if you think neither of these are good, feel free to steer me towards a good alternative thats around 500 bucks.

The speakers will be playing a little bit of everything, but the majority of what will be passing through them will be HEAVY metal, and I know that stuff like that can be a more demanding for a speaker set-up than what you hear a lot of nowadays like softer rock, jazz, or EDM.

Any input would be greatly appreciated

 

[tcarcio]

PM sent...................

 

[mtrycrafts]

Hello everyone,

I'm getting two cerwin vega VE15 tower speakers, and am having trouble deciding on what i should use to power these bad boys. Specs on the speakers are:

Frequency Response: 26 Hz - 20 kHz
Power Capacity: 400 watts
Sensitivity (1w/1m): 95 dB
Resistance: 6-8 ohms (I know its 8 for sure, but couldn't find anything on cv's website about this, this is just what i've gotten from people who have bought the speakers)

Okay, so after doing some research i'm thinking crown's xls series for an amp, but i'm not sure which one to get. I've read that underpowering a speaker can be just as bad as overpowering it because it can cause clipping at higher volumes, so you want some overhead in your wattage to help keep the signal intact (true?). Based on that, I'm between an xls 2500 which gives 440 W at 8 ohms across both speakers, or getting two xls 1000s and bridging them to get 700 W into each speaker at 8 ohms... it'll cost about the same either way i go, so whatever ya'll think is best for the speakers is what I'll probably end up doing. And if you think neither of these are good, feel free to steer me towards a good alternative thats around 500 bucks.

The speakers will be playing a little bit of everything, but the majority of what will be passing through them will be HEAVY metal, and I know that stuff like that can be a more demanding for a speaker set-up than what you hear a lot of nowadays like softer rock, jazz, or EDM.

Any input would be greatly appreciated

Welcome to AH
What will you be using as a preamp? How large is the space and how loud will you be listening most of the time?
Over power has the drawback that you can easily over power the speakers and burn it up.
The music type is not that important as the components don't know and don't care.
Your amp choice is more than adequate.
Will you be showing movies? Perhaps a receiver may work just as well?

 

[krusher167]

they'll end up being in a basement tv area most of the time, which is about 15' wide and 25' long with three walls, but the entire basement in 15'x60'. Volume-wise most of the time it'll probably be quiet enough that you can talk over it, or maybe have to yell, but our nearest neighbors are about 300 yards away, so it can and will get loud lol. I know the drawbacks of overpowering a system, i've fried a couple of speakers in my car stereo from that. I hadn't thought about a preamp, but was thinking about a receiver to make hooking up devices easy.

 

[tcarcio]

Remember it isn't power that blows up speakers it is mainly distortion. I have run my surrounds with 300 watt amps and they are only rated for 100w max and I never had a problem because I never did overdrive them into distortion.

 

[ARES24]

I would go with the 2500, something close to the 'max' wattage range. Just a comfort thing for me, you might not be the only one using if forever. (drunk friends might not notice or care about distortion... poof..)

 

[ski2xblack]

There seems to be a misunderstanding about what damages speakers. Contrary to what's been stated, power kills. Distortion does not, unless the resulting overall power exceeds the drivers limits.

Think about what's going on with a clean vs. a clipped signal, accounting for not just power levels at a particular moment but over time. An unclipped music signal will have a high crest factor and thus not send continuous high power to the drivers, just very brief transient bursts, which don't result in the thermal problems and driver failure. Less heat is generated because the power is only applied for peaks of very short duration, and the voice coils can cool between cycles. A clipped signal has very low crest factor and the drivers are subjected to continuous high power levels. If that continuous high power is within the drivers' tolerances, they won't fail. If the power level exceeds the drivers' limits, then they will fail.

I would think the xls1500 would be more than sufficient for the OP. I wonder about the CV's continuous power handling limits, that 400w figure looks suspiciously like a peak power limit.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Remember it isn't power that blows up speakers it is mainly distortion. I have run my surrounds with 300 watt amps and they are only rated for 100w max and I never had a problem because I never did overdrive them into distortion.

That just cannot be correct. Distortion is just anther signal for the amp It is the listener who is affected by it.
Your power analogy misses the issue of surround channel information levels. If it contained the levels the individual surround diver could not handle, it will certainly blow that driver. Not many tweeters can handle over 10 watts. Power kills, period.

 

[mtrycrafts]

There seems to be a misunderstanding about what damages speakers. Contrary to what's been stated, power kills. Distortion does not, unless the resulting overall power exceeds the drivers limits.

...

Thank you

 

[tcarcio]

That just cannot be correct. Distortion is just anther signal for the amp It is the listener who is affected by it.
Your power analogy misses the issue of surround channel information levels. If it contained the levels the individual surround diver could not handle, it will certainly blow that driver. Not many tweeters can handle over 10 watts. Power kills, period.

I don't agree. I have run speakers with amps that are many times more watts than the speaker is rated for and that includes mains and surrounds. I agree with you that the surrounds don't have nearly the info that mains do but if you don't overdrive the speaker and dont drive the speaker into thermal breakdown then just because the amp is of a higher wattage doesn't mean your speaker will fail. Is it more dangerous to have more power than you need for your speakers? Only if you let your drunk nieghbor run your system. Otherwise as long as you are responsible as to how you run your system you will be fine. Actually not enough power could be worse than too much. I will say that I do understand that it is recommended that you not use an amp that is rated at 50w more than what your speakers are rated for but again I think it has allot to do with how you run your system.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Not many tweeters can handle over 10 watts. Power kills, period.

Amen to that.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Is it more dangerous to have more power than you need for your speakers?

Absolutely yes.

Distortion/Clipping in itself does not damage the speaker drivers. Thermal and mechanical assault secondary to excessive power is what ultimately damages the speakers.

If the power is less than the max limit of the drivers, you can never damage the speakers even if you accidentally turn the volume to max.

In addition to human error (turning volume to max), the other possibility is when the amp itself malfunctions and sends enough power to fry the speaker. But if this power is below the speaker max limit, your speaker will still be safe.

Of course, if you listen to safe volume and can avoid human error, you will not damage your speakers even if you have a 2kW per channel amp.

But for most of us, safe comfortable volume usually means not needing more than 100WPC amp.

 

[krusher167]

okay everyone, thanks a ton for the replies, im going to settle on an xls 2000 because I found an offer for free shipping. I'll save 100 bucks and its only 60 W less than the 2500 at 8 ohms; ya'll got me thinking that it isn't the best idea having a ton of power if i'm the only one i'll trust to use them haha. Thanks again

 

[beakergeek]

I am a fan of Emotiva amps. I have the XPA-5 which is a multichannel amp, however, they also make several grades of 2 channel amps that are equally as good. I use it to drive so fairly inefficient 8 ohm speakers with very good results.