How much would I benefit from an amplifier?

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by Erman_94

i am also in a similar siıtuation and inquiring about the benefits of separate amplification...i am also using the 1018 receiver but with polk rtiA7s fronts and csiA6 center

i am also looking at emotiva and am debating between the xpa-3 and xpa-5...im just not sure which way to go.

im pretty sure i just want to power my fronts and center with the amp but am wondering if bi-amping the fronts wiill make a huge difference. that would be feeding my rtia7s with 400W each when, i believe, they are only capable of outputting 300W...so is the xpa-5 worth it?

thanks guys and sorry to the OP for barging in on his thread

As far as Bi-amping the fronts , yes there is A difference but not huge !
You will not be feeding you're speakers 400 watts as you said . You will be feeding the tweeters 200 watts & the woofers 200 watts & this will not hurt anything !

[naturephoto1]

Originally Posted by crazyBLUE

As far as Bi-amping the fronts , yes there is A difference but not huge !
You will not be feeding you're speakers 400 watts as you said . You will be feeding the tweeters 200 watts & the woofers 200 watts & this will not hurt anything !

Brent,

That is not quite correct. The amps are capable of "feeding" 200 watts RMS at a specific ohm measurement. They are only "feeding" what is required at the time. You most certainly can hurt the speaker drivers if you are not careful and have huge spikes of output from the amps to the drivers. The watts that you are speaking of are RMS which is a continuous measurement. But, it is possible that you could have an instantaneous transient burst of 500 or possibly even more watts that could easily damage or fry/blow a driver.

Rich

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by naturephoto1

Brent,

That is not quite correct. The amps are capable of "feeding" 200 watts RMS at a specific ohm measurement. They are only "feeding" what is required at the time. You most certainly can hurt the speaker drivers if you are not careful and have huge spikes of output from the amps to the drivers. The watts that you are speaking of are RMS which is a continuous measurement. But, it is possible that you could have an instantaneous transient burst of 500 or possibly even more watts that could easily damage or fry/blow a driver.

Rich

So what you are saying is someone would have it turned up so loud that it might spike in the sound track & it could damage the speaker driver & this person does not care about there hearing ! Or there is A chance in A trillion that there is A spike in power to cause this when again the volume is to loud !

[SlmShdy1]

You know, I've been wondering the same thing as the OP. I want to add an amp to my 705, but my speakers are only 100 watts. My 705 already outputs 100 watts per channel. Would it be pointless for me to add on an amp? I mean, my speakers can't really handle much more power, right?

[naturephoto1]

Originally Posted by crazyBLUE

So what you are saying is someone would have it turned up so loud that it might spike in the sound track & it could damage the speaker driver & this person does not care about there hearing ! Or there is A chance in A trillion that there is A spike in power to cause this when again the volume is to loud !

Brent,

No I am not saying that and it is not a chance in a trillion, more like a chance in several thousand or tens of thousands perhaps. There can be instantaneous changes in volume that can occur in certain music performances (that can be very soft to tremendous crescendos or for an example canons or drums) or films that could put out enough volume that a speaker driver could be blown. Additionally, if someone did not realize the volume and started in the middle or increased the volume because it was too soft or changed from muting the performance, etc. that this could happen. Additionally as another example if you were to drop a tonearm of a turntable onto a record there could be enough volume to damage a driver. This is why my Soundsmith 410 Phono Preamp has a built in automatic muting that occurs when the tonearm is lifted from the record and there is a delay as it is put onto the vinyl to avoid this possibility.

Additionally though you can damage speaker drivers by having too little power, you can also damage speaker drivers when the amp goes into clipping. So, if you are playing an amp and a set of speakers loud enough and the amp goes into clipping (enough distortion) you can damage speakers drivers. This is not as uncommon as you think. It may not be as loud as you think to push the amp into clipping and you may not realize or hear the distortion long enough before the damage is done.

Rich

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by naturephoto1

Brent,

No I am not saying that and it is not a chance in a trillion, more like a chance in several thousand or tens of thousands perhaps. There can be instantaneous changes in volume that can occur in certain music performances (that can be very soft to tremendous crescendos or for an example canons or drums) or films that could put out enough volume that a speaker driver could be blown. Additionally, if someone did not realize the volume and started in the middle or increased the volume because it was too soft or changed from muting the performance, etc. that this could happen. Additionally as another example if you were to drop a tonearm of a turntable onto a record there could be enough volume to damage a driver. This is why my Soundsmith 410 Phono Preamp has a built in automatic muting that occurs when the tonearm is lifted from the record and there is a delay as it is put onto the vinyl to avoid this possibility.

Additionally though you can damage speaker drivers by having too little power, you can also damage speaker drivers when the amp goes into clipping. So, if you are playing an amp and a set of speakers loud enough and the amp goes into clipping (enough distortion) you can damage speakers drivers. This is not as uncommon as you think. It may not be as loud as you think to push the amp into clipping and you may not realize or hear the distortion long enough before the damage is done.

Rich

That all makes sense Rich ! & I am not disagreeing with you at all ! But to turn it up that load , I guess is beyond me .

[naturephoto1]

Originally Posted by crazyBLUE

That all makes sense Rich ! & I am not disagreeing with you at all ! But to turn it up that load , I guess is beyond me .

Brent,

No problem. We just have to be careful when using powerful amps especially with very efficient speakers. I am even cognizant of this when using my rebuilt Dahlquist DQ-10 speakers. They were known for being very inefficient and power hungry. Since they were rebuilt with fewer drivers and a much less cumbersome and complicated crossover they are much more efficient than they were originally though not that efficient.

Another thing is unlike days of old where you could always see the volume adjustment on the receiver or the Preamp, most receivers, Pre/Pros, and Preamps of today only indicate the volume setting when you are adjusting it or "query" this information. So you are relying on your memory for this adjustment along with what you are hearing going through your speakers.

Rich