Hi there!
I'm wondering if any of you have any advice for me regarding amplifiers for testing (and listening) to new sets of speakers.
The reason i'm posting this is that I am 100% new at building speakers and need an amp that can handle a short or a lower than expected ohm rating... But it also needs to sounds decent as this might be used as a listening power amp for my units until I can have a dedicated system.
The amp would be preamp'ed through a computer with a good sound card and my first set of speakers have a woofer with a 6 ohm rating.
Extremely simple first try but I do not want to be burning new hardware on a mistake or miscalculation.
Regards and much appreciate your ideas.
Marc
I'm wondering if any of you have any advice for me regarding amplifiers for testing (and listening) to new sets of speakers.
The reason i'm posting this is that I am 100% new at building speakers and need an amp that can handle a short or a lower than expected ohm rating... But it also needs to sounds decent as this might be used as a listening power amp for my units until I can have a dedicated system.
The amp would be preamp'ed through a computer with a good sound card and my first set of speakers have a woofer with a 6 ohm rating.
Extremely simple first try but I do not want to be burning new hardware on a mistake or miscalculation.
Regards and much appreciate your ideas.
Marc
Do you want to get active speakers?
The easiest and most convenient I can think of is if you just get an average AVR that doesn't need to have fancy stuff, just 8 channels of DACs with amplification. When testing you can just use it as a 2-channel DAC+amp and when when you do your own speaker you can buy a nanoAVR to do the crossovers with. You get the ease of active with DSP but won't have to fiddle with a million cables
The easiest and most convenient I can think of is if you just get an average AVR that doesn't need to have fancy stuff, just 8 channels of DACs with amplification. When testing you can just use it as a 2-channel DAC+amp and when when you do your own speaker you can buy a nanoAVR to do the crossovers with. You get the ease of active with DSP but won't have to fiddle with a million cables
The Technics receiver I bought around 1996 has survived a few shorts and use at 2 ohms. Sounds quite good.
Don't know if their current offerings are as robust, but if you find a used older model that works, it probably will for a long time.
Class D TPA31xx amps seem to be all the rage right now. A built TPA3116 PCB (without power supply) is around $20, depending on source.
Someone in another thread just liked this as an example:
Amazon.com: SMSL SA-36A PRO 2* 20W TPA3118D2DAP Amp Stereo Digital Amplifier + Power Adapter, by Gemini Doctor: Electronics
jeff
Just buzz out the speakers for ohms before you connect an amplifier.
Same with your cable if in any doubt.
The old Quad 303 power amplifier can survive short circuits on the speaker outputs with no trouble. Sounds quite nice too if serviced and speaker load is not an awkward one, i.e no too low an impedance. A low impedance speaker will not damage the amp, but current limiting comes into play to protect it.
that class D seems good.
Buzz out the speaker? All I have is a multimeter.
I do but doesn't ohm's change with Hz?
Thanks for the response guys. I have alot options it seems
I do but doesn't ohm's change with Hz?
Thanks for the response guys. I have alot options it seems
The speakers impedance is measured in ohms.
You will either have 4 or 8 ohm speakers.
If there is a fault it will probably be zero ohms or infinite ohms.
Yes you would.
You don't measure ohms with a signal connected. If you did you would probably kill your multimeter.
The meter simply supplies a voltage through the speaker and measures the current which gives resistance in ohms.
Hi,
A multimeter won't show a very poor x/o design that dips to
zero or very low impedance in the midrange or treble ranges.
It tells you little, only only if the bass unit is connected or not,
or if you've really screwed up the bass x/o, you have a short.
(And will tell you nothing with capacitor coupled bass.)
A bog standard modern chip amp, built to a good standard
with decent heatsinking is near indestructable in practice.
(Due to extensive protection modes buit into the chips.)
rgds, sreten.
A multimeter won't show a very poor x/o design that dips to
zero or very low impedance in the midrange or treble ranges.
It tells you little, only only if the bass unit is connected or not,
or if you've really screwed up the bass x/o, you have a short.
(And will tell you nothing with capacitor coupled bass.)
A bog standard modern chip amp, built to a good standard
with decent heatsinking is near indestructable in practice.
(Due to extensive protection modes buit into the chips.)
rgds, sreten.
Last edited:
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.