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Choosing an amp for my speakers

Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:01 pm
by beerz
Hey, both my monitors have died in a month and i realised that i want new monitors, but i used to use my monitors to dj thru too. is this a bad idea? i kind of thought it was, so ive got two speakers from a hi fi which are 30W each, but i need an amp to power them. What power amp do i need for these speakers? (they have an impendence of 6 ohms...w.e that means//?)
safe

edit:these r only 4 djing purposes btw

Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:21 pm
by caeraphym
Twenty sheets down Richer Sounds or Gash Converters should sort you out.

30W gonna blow as soon as the theme to The Archers starts through them, best be gentle with them.

Ideally you want 1.5x the speakers power rating to allow headroom and avoid clipping from the amp, so something in the region of 45watts.

Do some V=I/R maths to take into account the 6R thing (are they wharfedale per chance?) and adjust accordingly.

But for the sake of some 30watt 'beasts' lol, that are just gonna get ragged I'd start thinking how ffar you want to take this and start saving for a full refit of your kit.

Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:30 pm
by beerz
nh im saving up for new monitors, i've got 250 atm but looking for something in the range of makie mr8's or krk8's so im not reli looking for anything expensive for juss general use speakers. They are loud enough to b fair tho, ive used them for like 4 years as normal hifi speakers but connected to a cd player.
Btw, it says 30W on the back of the speakers, i assume that means 30W each?? so would i not need a 90W amp? or is it still 45W?

Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 11:58 pm
by beerz
no1 know the answer to the question above?

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 12:42 am
by reason
Yeah, they'll be 30 watts each, generally hifi amps are rated at watts per channel, if you're using a pro amp the specs will tell you how many watts per channel, or how many watts if bridged mono. Is 6 ohms a common thing to see in England/Europe? I don't believe I've ever run across that in the US.

Ohms are the rating of resistance each speaker provides to the amp and amps will have a different output at different ohm ratings. Obviously the less resistance, the higher the output level, but the harder the amp works, and the quality of sounds begins to degrade after a certain point. You may want to be sure that the amp you're choosing is safe to run at 6 ohms, though 4 and 8 are very common in the US so you're safe if you know your amp can operate safely between those ratings. If you want to "eyeball" a good wattage for your amp will be one that runs at 30 to 40 watts per channel at 8 ohms because you know it will be slightly higher with less resistance at 6 ohms.

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 1:33 am
by dubc
Bro, get some Alesis MK2's.

Cheap at around 200 to 300 quid, and really good sound quality. Can be a bit bass generous, but if you get the levels right they are amazing monitors.

I wouldn't bother amping 30w speakers. It will make them better but why not buy some monitors with amps built in...? If you're only using them for production and house mixing.

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 2:07 am
by beerz
nh im not using them for production tho, im saving up for sum monitors. There juss for mixing, and ive alredi got them and they are perfect for wt i want. juss needed an amp 4 them thats all. think ive found 1 newy so cheers the help

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 2:38 am
by noesis
Overpowering them, even grossley, won't damage them in itself. You'll be limited by driver excursion, so if you overpower them just don't turn it up to the point where the drivers begin to distort.