Paradigm 90P Tower's

[Nuglets]

I recently upgraded my reciever from a Denon AVR-1607, to a Yamaha RX-V1400 along with a Peavey PV-1500 (300 WRMS per channel @8 Ohms) that I had not been using and I noticed something interesting. I was under the impression that the extra power wouldn't affect my bass output much because the subwoofer's have an amp specifically for them in the tower's. Each of the tower's have a light on the bottom which signals that the amp is on. With my old reciever, the light's would dim a lot on the speaker's showing me that there was a lot of draw on the amp, or my electricity is horrible. When I upgraded, I noticed that the bass was dramatically better, and the light's don't dim nearly as much as before, even when there are heavy bass lines in the Rap music I listen to. So what I am getting at is this...Is the amplifier on the back of my 90P's used as more of a reserve power to prevent clipping or what? It's obvious to me that it is not an electrical issue in my apt, as I am plugging 2, more demanding unit's, into the same power outlet, with better results. Any idea's?

 

[Nuglets]

I also forgot to mention...with my old reciever I used my subwoofer when listening to music, but now I prefer the sound without it, as I feel that the frequency responds lower without it. Likely due to resonances in my room at a higher frequency, but anyways, it's not really important to the original question, but I thought I would point out that I am not using my sub for music any more.

 

[j_garcia]

The amp has no idea if the rest of the speaker is clipping - the powered portion of the speaker and the unpowered portion have nothing to do with each other with the exception of what is being passed by the crossover to the powered portion. Likely, the 1607 did not have enough power to adequately drive the unpowered portion of the speaker, but there are some other questions that might affect your results like what you have them crossed over at (if at all), and how is the amp wired? Speaker level or line level input?

 

[Nuglets]

The crossover on my Yammi is set at 80 Hz and they are set to large. I use the preouts on the reciever to go to the amp. I have the speaker's wired normally, not using the optional LFE output. That makes sense that there is no way for the amp to know if the speaker is clipping, but is it possible that the amp can detect if my old reciever or any source was clipping?

 

[Sheep]

Couple things to note.

You have 1800 watts MAXIMUM from your outlets on 1 breaker. SO, 2 575 watts amps in the towers equals 1150 (NOT including efficiency), then on top of that, a 300 watt per channel amplifier for how many channels?

You might want to run another breaker for that room.... If possible.

SheepStar

 

[Nuglets]

Couple things to note.

You have 1800 watts MAXIMUM from your outlets on 1 breaker. SO, 2 575 watts amps in the towers equals 1150 (NOT including efficiency), then on top of that, a 300 watt per channel amplifier for how many channels?

You might want to run another breaker for that room.... If possible.

SheepStar

Thanks, but that is the least of my worries. The electrical is probably better than average in the building I'm in...it is my old high school shop class that had a lot of equipment plugged in so I think they use above average breakers. Anyways if anyone has any idea about my question please reply.

 

[j_garcia]

The crossover on my Yammi is set at 80 Hz and they are set to large. I use the preouts on the reciever to go to the amp. I have the speaker's wired normally, not using the optional LFE output. That makes sense that there is no way for the amp to know if the speaker is clipping, but is it possible that the amp can detect if my old reciever or any source was clipping?

No, the amp doesn't know anything about the other amp or amps. There is no way for it to detect anything, and why it might be working less I can't say, othe than maybe you had it turned up higher before because you didn't have enough power to drive them to adequate levels.

The only thing I might recommend is that you SHOULD be using the sub pre-out (split with a Y to each) to the subs in the mains according to Paradigm.

 

[Nuglets]

Well, thanks for the effort. I am still quite confused. Do the subs then, not use any power from my Peavey or is all of the signal going to the subs, from the amp in the towers. I know there is a great difference from before and there has to be some reason. Thanks anyways.

 

[j_garcia]

That's correct, none of the power from your amp will be going to the amp in the speaker or the driver(s) powered by that amp, no matter how you have it wired.

 

[Nuglets]

Well that's cool, at least it sounds better right? The upper portion definately loves the power then.