What amp to i buy to power my Martin Logan ethos?

[Martin Logan rocks]

Hey Gene,
I’m currently running a Yamaha 3070 to power all my speakers and feel I need more power to drive my Martin Logan ethos. I saw you video about the different class of amps and has me thinking. I was thinking about the parasound halo 21 or 31. They can do either class a or class Ab. What are your thoughts on this? Also I noticed Vincent amps that do the same with tubes but a little less power. I’m lost please help! Thanks

 

[everettT]

How did you determine you needed more power? To double what you have would take you into 300wpc amp. What is your entire setup?

 

[Swerd]

The Ethos comes with a self-powered (200 watts) woofer which crosses over to the electrostat panel at 375 Hz. So most of the hard work is done by the woofer's amp.

Martin Logan suggests using amps powered anywhere from 20 to 500 watts. Your Yamaha easily gets you into that power range.

 

[Martin Logan rocks]

How did you determine you needed more power? To double what you have would take you into 300wpc amp. What is your entire setup?

I have my Yamaha working at 6 ohms to drive
1) Martin Logan c 2
2) Martin Logan ethos
4) Martin Logan motion 4
2) Martin Logan motion 15

 

[snakeeyes]

I have my Yamaha working at 6 ohms to drive
1) Martin Logan c 2
2) Martin Logan ethos
4) Martin Logan motion 4
2) Martin Logan motion 15

That Yamaha setting should be at 8 ohms. The 6 ohm setting on the Yamaha limits the power.

 

[Martin Logan rocks]

That Yamaha setting should be at 8 ohms. The 6 ohm setting on the Yamaha limits the power.

Doesn’t the lower resistance give more power?

 

[snakeeyes]

Doesn’t the lower resistance give more power?

No the 6 ohm setting just neuters the amp output. There are articles on this setting in Yamahas going back 15 years or longer. I’m not finding them offhand but the short story is to just use the 8 ohm setting in all situations.

I have the 2060 model.

 

[snakeeyes]

Here is one article. Scroll down to “That Impedence Switch on your Receiver is a Lie”

http://www.audioholics.com/combo-pack-ebooks/learn/speakers/speaker-impedance-rating/1092

This part:

That Impedance Switch on Your Receiver is a Lie!
OK, it’s not really a lie, but it limits the output of your AV receiver or amplifier. Some AV receivers have an impedance selector switch on the back (Yamaha is famous for this) that opts between 4-ohm and 8-ohm or 4/8-ohm and 6/12-ohm. The idea is that it is safer to match the impedance of the amplifier to the speaker to avoid overpowering it or creating a difficult load on the amplifiers. The problem is two-fold. One, loudspeakers don’t have “flat” impedance curves. They dip down and swoop up. That means that a 4-ohm speaker may spend a lot of its time in the 8-ohm or greater range. It also means that if you’re using a subwoofer, you may never get down to its lowest impedance dip areas. Second, the only way to really make a system “safer” is by limiting the power output of the amplifier or AV receiver. This is exactly what the setting does. As a result, that little switch cripples, ever so slightly, the output of that brand new AV receiver or amplifier you just purchased. Our recommendation is leave it on the highest setting possible. That will give you the most power output regardless of the speaker impedance rating of your bookshelf or tower speakers. The nice thing is that making this change (or not making it) doesn’t require any fancy hand tools or other accessories.