16 Ohm Full-Range Speaker

[thelordash]

well this speaker is a 12inch Full-Range with 120watt RMS power from B&C speakers and its kind of expensive and i wouldn't like to waste its poewr because it has the worst Independence ever 16ohms what i am asking for is a way to power this baby as its really hard to find that power on 16ohms any ideas and i really prefer Chip Amplifiers so if you know a chip that could handle it please help

[pacificblue]

The usual suspects will give you a maximum of around 30 W into 16 Ohm, 60 W in bridged mode.

But there is probably a misconception. If a speaker is given with 120 W rms that does not mean you are wasting its power, if you feed it with less. It only means you don't push it to its electrical limits. You may however reach its mechanical limits with much less power than that, and you don't want that either.

B&C are professional speakers that usually have high efficiency. That means they need little power to achieve high sound pressure levels, which in turn is good for chipamps.

Is it an older model? They don't seem to have a full-range driver in their actual product range.

[juma]

Hi thelordash,
this would be a great chipamp for your speaker:

Note:
AD797 can be replaced with any buffer capable of driving 1K load;
OPA1632 can be replaced with THS4131 (pin-to-pin compatible).

[pacificblue]

Originally posted by pacificblue
The usual suspects will give you a maximum of around 30 W into 16 Ohm, 60 W in bridged mode.

This is nonsense. It should be 60 W into 16 Ohm and 120 W in bridged mode.

[planet10]

Originally posted by pacificblue
It should be 60 W into 16 Ohm and 120 W in bridged mode.

If you take an LM3875, rated at 56W with maximum voltage rails into 8 ohms, it will be about 1/2 that into 16 ohms, so 29W. In bridge mode each half sees 8 ohms so 112W.

Given how efficeint the B&C should be, 30w should be capable of driving you out of the room.

As well, chipamps biggest limitation is current capability. Into 16 ohms it is much less of an issue. The best sounding chip amp i have heard had/has rails right at or a bit over the max and was driving 16 ohm speakers.

dave

[AndrewT]

Hi,
the worst that can happen is that you have to go discrete.
Build a 60W into 8r0 chipamp and listen to the outcome.
If you like it, then invest in the PSU and chip and dual drive needed to then extend your amp to 120W into 16r by bridging it.

[thelordash]

[i]B&C are professional speakers that usually have high efficiency. That means they need little power to achieve high sound pressure levels, which in turn is good for chipamps.[/B]

You are totally right as i tested this speaker with a very small amplifier only 10 watts and i can still get good Bass but still it can do so much better so do you think 2XLM3886 Bridged can start this speaker with quite an impressive power??


BTW
THANKS "juma" i hope i didn't bother you bec i think this took quite some time

[planet10]

Originally posted by thelordash
still it can do so much better so do you think 2XLM3886 Bridged can start this speaker with quite an impressive power??

I think you may be under the illusion that a bigger amp is better. As more & more people start playing with efficient speakers it is, i believe, becoming general aparent, that all things equal, amplifier qaulity is inversely proportinal to amplifer size. I would fully expect the 30 watt chip-amp to sound better than the 120 w one. If you don't need to the power why pay the extra dollars to lose sonics? Better to spend the money on poly caps for the power supply.

dave

[thelordash]

i am really sorry but i don't understand what you mean by
" Poly Caps"??

[planet10]

Instead of using electrolytic caps in the power supply, you could use poly caps. In a typical standard gaine clone implementation there is only 1000 uF per rail on each channel which makes it within distance of using poly caps. It would be expensive and take up some room (6x330 uF caps/channel would cost on the order of $450 for a stereo amp), so a combination of poly caps & electrolytics could be tried. It makes a HUGE difference if done in a tube amp where it is much more affordable.

dave