Stereo & Speakers

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blue jammer

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Dec 9, 2003
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Sheikh Yerbouti, I was going to reply last night but went bed instead :D

You are too easy to reel in and I've been taking the piss all morning :thumbsup:

Peoples choice is what matters, if they get what is right for them - I really don't care if they/me/you have a 99p lead/wire or a 2grand lead/wire :D

I do have to say though it often makes me laugh with these type of threads where some people have to have some facts to attach to and love quoting other people, here is a serious question...

Would you honesty think twice about someone else's opinion when you were in a shop about to buy something having heard for yourself, IF what they said was negative and you had made up your mind that THEY were wrong?

:D
 
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Sheikh Yerbouti

New member
Jan 4, 2008
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Some**** Somewhere in Summertime
blue jammer said:
Sheikh Yerbouti, I was going to reply last night but went bed instead :D

You are too easy to reel in and I've been taking the piss all morning :thumbsup:
Click to expand...
LOL you don't say...

blue jammer said:
Peoples choice is what matters, if they get what is right for them - I really don't care if they/me/you have a 99p lead/wire or a 2grand lead/wire :D

I do have to say though it often makes me laugh with these type of threads where some people have to have some facts to attach to and love quoting other people,
Click to expand...
LOL facts resolve disputes, and that's how we learn new stuff. From facts and the opinions of others. Simple as. Nowt wrong with facts & opinions so long as you can tell the difference ;) :thumbsup:

blue jammer said:
here is a serious question...
Would you honesty think twice about someone else's opinion when you were in a shop about to buy something having heard for yourself, IF what they said was negative and you had made up your mind that THEY were wrong?
Click to expand...
LOL of course not. But an informed judgement is normally better than an uninformed one :thumbsup:
If I ask for advice about something and receive conflicting answers, I'd quite like for there then to be a bit of debate and discussion about the thing in question... With justification for the advice people have given me... Factual basis where appropriate... And the opinions of others also included.

That way I have a choice. I can look into it further before making my mind up, or I can choose to ignore what others say.
:thumbsup:
 
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stethomas

Member
Sep 1, 2003
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manchester
Whoa!

What's happened to my post, i''ve been completely blown away by all the responses :)

Ok, so let me start from page one and see what advise has been given!
 
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Art Awreet

Member
Jan 12, 2007
158
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16
London
Just wanted to say thanks for the advice on here from the likes of Sheikh.

Went to Richer sounds over the weekend and got myself one of these amps: Cambridge Audio AZUR 340ASE Black

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO 340A-SE-BLK at Richer Sounds - HI-FI Separates, Home Cinema, Speakers, MP3 DVD Portables, Plasma LCD, etc.

and also these floorstanders

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO S70-BLK at Richer Sounds - HI-FI Separates, Home Cinema, Speakers, MP3 DVD Portables, Plasma LCD, etc.

Some of the bargains were not available but I managed to get a decent deal as well with a little haggle:) . Got some decent cables too but didn't pay a fortune. The system now sounds great, and a vast improvement on the little HiFi I have before

Quick question: Given that the amp is only rated at 45W and the speakers are 120W, I guess I'm not getting the best out of the speakers (sounds pretty good so far, though I haven't whacked it up yet;, as have to run them for 36hours) . If I were to get an amp providing 120W in future would that given me the best theoretical performance?
 
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Sheikh Yerbouti

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Jan 4, 2008
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Some**** Somewhere in Summertime
Nice one fella. Glad you're happy with your choice :thumbsup:

Are you gonna bi-wire them?

Don't turn your amp up, for a couple of reasons...

First off (dons flame suit) new speakers will need to be "run in" for a while. It takes time for the cones to loosen up & start to move properly when they're new. How long it will take is pure guesswork, but just go canny for the first little while. Good news is, once they do loosen up a bit they'll sound better :thumbsup:

Second, really you want an amp rated at higher output power than your speakers. Reason for that is, (dons flame suit) amps performance is non-linear across the volume range. The more you turn the amp gain up, the more erratic and less linear it's performance will be... When dealing with amps, linear = good, non-linear = bad.

At high gains (high volume) the amp will start to "clip" the signal (imagine a sine wave with all the peaks and troughs "clipped off" flat). When this happens, the signal sent to your speakers approximates to a "square wave". This not only sounds awful, but it's v.bad for your speakers and you're at risk of blowing one of them (especially if they're new and a bit tight). It's not too much amp wattage which blows speakers, it's too little, leading to a badly square signal sent to the cones.

EDIT just realised I didn't really answer your question about "best performance".
To be honest, so long as your amp isn't drastically underpowered (which yours isn't really) then it'll perform just fine. Just be careful of turning it up too much.
A more powerful amp will sound different because amps all have unique characteristics to their sound.
Leaving that aside, if you were to wave a wand & change nothing about your system except to increase the output wattage of the amp (which I think is what you're really asking), then the only difference will be the same "listening level" of music entering your ear, but the volume knob will be turned lower.

Basically, you want your music to be as loud as you'll ever play it, with the volume control on the amp nicely in it's "linear range", ie not turned up too high.
There are no hard and fast rules about this cos every bit of kit is different, but so long as you're always running your amp volume control below half, then you should be fine.
 
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Art Awreet

Member
Jan 12, 2007
158
0
16
London
Sheikh Yerbouti said:
Nice one fella. Glad you're happy with your choice :thumbsup:

Are you gonna bi-wire them?

Don't turn your amp up, for a couple of reasons...

First off (dons flame suit) new speakers will need to be "run in" for a while. It takes time for the cones to loosen up & start to move properly when they're new. How long it will take is pure guesswork, but just go canny for the first little while. Good news is, once they do loosen up a bit they'll sound better :thumbsup:

Second, really you want an amp rated at higher output power than your speakers. Reason for that is, (dons flame suit) amps performance is non-linear across the volume range. The more you turn the amp gain up, the more erratic and less linear it's performance will be... When dealing with amps, linear = good, non-linear = bad.

At high gains (high volume) the amp will start to "clip" the signal (imagine a sine wave with all the peaks and troughs "clipped off" flat). When this happens, the signal sent to your speakers approximates to a "square wave". This not only sounds awful, but it's v.bad for your speakers and you're at risk of blowing one of them (especially if they're new and a bit tight). It's not too much amp wattage which blows speakers, it's too little, leading to a badly square signal sent to the cones.

EDIT just realised I didn't really answer your question about "best performance".
To be honest, so long as your amp isn't drastically underpowered (which yours isn't really) then it'll perform just fine. Just be careful of turning it up too much.
A more powerful amp will sound different because amps all have unique characteristics to their sound.
Leaving that aside, if you were to wave a wand & change nothing about your system except to increase the output wattage of the amp (which I think is what you're really asking), then the only difference will be the same "listening level" of music entering your ear, but the volume knob will be turned lower.

Basically, you want your music to be as loud as you'll ever play it, with the volume control on the amp nicely in it's "linear range", ie not turned up too high.
There are no hard and fast rules about this cos every bit of kit is different, but so long as you're always running your amp volume control below half, then you should be fine.
Click to expand...


Cheers for that:) I don't think the neighbours will be too happy if I turn it up too much! (damn terraced houses with flats in!), but I might get a higher power amp in the future, especially if I move somewhere I can get away with playing louder tunes;)

I'm running the speakers in at the mo (guide said 36hours+), but have only single wired them so far. Does bi-wiring produce a noticeable difference? Do I need a new set of cables or can I split the copper cabling into two on the current cable?
 


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