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Power requirement for ADS L-1290?

Here's my weird question of the day:

I got a set of hand-me-down ADS L-1290s...(I know, I know, quite a nice gift. It's true. I'm very fortunate).

Everyone says they love power, saying things like 'the more power you give them, the more they sing,' and other nice but imprecise stuff like that.

They're rated at 300 watts maximum, and they're not terribly efficient; coming in at 90db at 8 ohms. Exactly how big does my amp need to be to get "decent enough" sound out of them? I fully realize that the very notion of "decent enough" is anathema around here, but I'm not wealthy, by any means, and look to the vintage audio market for my stuff.

Would 65 wpc be enough to get them to sound good enough? 80 wpc? 100?
jamesjems

Showing 2 responses by abruceaudino

abruceaudino
19 posts
 
I am running these with a McIntosh MC-275 amp and they seem to do fine. DO NOT BIWIRE these speakers. They can only be actively bi-amped (with an external crossover). The bi-amp switch in the back disables the crossover network between the woofers and the mids/highs. The passive network will remain intact on the mid/high. If you try and bi-wire, you will be sending the full frequency to the woofers and it will not sound good. The passive protection remains on the mids. If you want to attempt to bi-amp, you need to get an electronic crossover (DBX, Rane, Bryston, Marchand, etc.) and set the slope to 12db/octave. The highpass and lowpass cutoff is 350hz. The results will be some better bass extension. I didnt care for it to be honest. The extra noise of adding a crossover between my pre-amp and amp wasnt worth the bass upgrade. They are powerful enough as is.

JohnnyB53,

What improvements were brought about with the spikes? I have been thinking about adding these as mine are just sitting on the floor.
abruceaudino
19 posts
 
Also,

90db @ 8ohms is actually quite efficient. But I agree that they would do better with at least 100wpc or more. I dont know about the impedance dips as I have never seen them measured. Perhaps someone else can comment.
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