are all amps equal
Re the question about subs, although it is true that there won't be much to listen to below 40Hz or so, a good sub can be expected to handle the range from say 40 to 80Hz more cleanly (with less distortion) than the Usher's 7 inch mid/low frequency driver. Especially at high volume levels. Regards, -- Al |
Keep in mind that what additional power will do, everything else being equal, is to raise the volume level at which clipping occurs, and perhaps raise the volume level at which distortion starts to increase as the clipping point is approached. That's all it will accomplish. And that in turn will depend on the size of your room, your listening distance, and the kind of music you listen to. Worst would be classical symphonic music, due to its wide dynamic range, and also obviously heavy metal or comparable rock music that, while it typically has highly compressed dynamic range, is listened to at very loud levels. That said, I would think that given the speaker's 200W rated power handling, an amp in the area of 250 to 300W would probably be a good choice. But I'd feel free to deviate from that somewhat if it meant getting better sound quality or a significantly better price. Concerning ICE and other Class D amps, one of their key strong points (aside from providing more watts per dollar, and reduced size, weight, heat, and power consumption) is high current capability, which does not seem particularly applicable to your speakers with their fairly benign impedance curve. Regards, -- Al |
Tvad & Kijanki -- I think that you are both basically right, and the key to reconciling your points of view is that bass volume and bass distortion have to be factored in, as well as bass extension (which may be specified on a small signal basis, and may be specified without meaningful specs on distortion at high volume). And I think you'll both agree that providing bass that is simultaneously clean, undistorted, deep, and high in volume, requires big drivers (at least 10-12 inches, or else equivalent multiple smaller drivers), which means bigger cabinets, and both the larger drivers and the larger cabinets tend to result in higher cost if quality is not sacrificed. Regards, -- Al |
Re skin effect, following is a quotation from this paper, http://svconline.com/mag/avinstall_designer_cables_critical/, by Bill Whitlock of Jensen Transformers, who is a distinguished authority in relevant areas. See his bio here: http://www.jensen-transformers.com/execprof.html Skin effect is another problem exaggerated by hype. As frequency increases, current flow in a wire tends to concentrate toward its outer surface, causing an increase in AC resistance. At 20 kHz, for example, skin depth is 0.018 inch (0.46 mm), where 63% of current flow is between the surface and this depth (see footnote 4 below). For line-level audio interconnects, the effect is absolutely inconsequential even if center conductor resistance doubles or triples, because it accounts for less than 0.01% of total circuit resistance anyway. For loudspeaker cable, there may be some measurable effects because total circuit impedance is lower, but we're still talking about increases in resistances that, if the wire gauge is properly chosen for reasonable losses, are negligible in the first place. Regards, -- Al |
