Looking for a new amp to power a big box 5.1 B&W setup .. 683s, PV1, 602S3s and a LCR60S3.
Any suggestions what I should look for? Have all the stats from the manuals but not sure what to do with them to find a matching amp.
Cheers
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For the last 10-12 years I have run a B&W 5.1 set up in conjunction with a high end (RXV-3800 was high end when it came out) Yamaha receiver and have never been disappointed. The warmth of the Yamaha dovetails well with the B&W's yet it never becomes fuzzy or lacking in detail.
Cheers,
If your in Christchurch or Wellington, the Listening Post would be a good place to consider.
Then something from Yamaha, all depends on how much you want to spend.
If they're generation 1 683's, then you'll want a bigger amp than the specs from B&W may indicate...
They list them as being 8ohm nominal, but somewhere in 'deep bass territory' they dip well below 4ohms.
If you have a decent sized receiver + ample space for the amp to keep cool (with good airflow) then you'll be fine. On the little amps, well, not so much.
If you're talking Yamaha as suggested above, look for something with '4 digits' as the power supply is noticeably larger and they're happy with low impedance speakers. RX-V1085/RX-A1080 and bigger.
Remember, most speaker damage occurs when a speaker is under-powered, not over-driven!
Dont get suckered into the rated power/watts BS
For a normal size room and normal listening levels, 10W per channel is all you need . When you actually measure actual power to the speakers its a big surprise
Higher power gives a more headroom admittedly .
Yep, 10W is actually plenty, at normal levels (its pretty loud unless your speakers are woefully inefficient)
A live band in your lounge could play at ear hurting levels with 20W amps (Ive done that).
If your lounge is the size of a bingo hall or you want to rattle cupboards and have ear bleeding volume, then you dont need quality , as at high vol we cant hear quality
Human ears just arnt that good . Hearing is logarithmic . Double the perceived volume requires approx 10x the power (will be more as speaker get less efficient when pushed to the max)
Add to that the marketing BS in amps rated power . The may claim 100W per channel, but may be only 20W RMS all channels driven
Just aim for around 50W or so. Thats easily more than enough.
Speaker damage can occur when amps are driven into clipping , and just as easily damaged when driven at too high a power without clipping.
Speaker damage can also just as easily occur when the very thin wires simply break . Its not allways abuse that blows speakers
Interestingly B&W quote the speakers distortion , most manufactures wont
for the 603
Harmonic distortion
2nd and 3rd harmonics (90dB, 1m)
<1% 90Hz - 22kHz
<0.5% 120Hz - 20kH
It make a mockery of some AMPs ultra low distortion marketing snake oil
:-)
Its 10 watts average (or RMS if you insist on misusing that mathematical expression) music typically has a 10dB average to peak ratio so that is 100w peak required. A typical amp will be rated average power output at half the peak since its done with sinewaves, so you need an amp claiming over 50 watts average to be able to sustain the 100watt peak that your music content contains.
UKNZ: Thanks. Did you do any calculations, or just 'aim high and hope it goes far enough'?
Thanks, S
No calculations. I have had many Yamaha amps over the years and the RXV 3800 had enough headroom that it didn't really matter what the speaker ratings were. My sitting room is approx 8m by 4m and the volume control never gets beyond about a third.
1101:
Human ears just arnt that good . Hearing is logarithmic . Double the perceived volume requires approx 10x the power (will be more as speaker get less efficient when pushed to the max)
Add to that the marketing BS in amps rated power . The may claim 100W per channel, but may be only 20W RMS all channels driven
Just aim for around 50W or so. Thats easily more than enough.
Speaker damage can occur when amps are driven into clipping , and just as easily damaged when driven at too high a power without clipping.
Speaker damage can also just as easily occur when the very thin wires simply break . Its not allways abuse that blows speakers
If you want a perceivable change in volume, you need to double your power... it's not 10x as you have stated.
I'm curious 1101, what 5 channel AVR do you personally recommend for the B&W setup the OP listed?
In the next year I am planning to upgrade my TV to an LG OLED. My RXV3800 won't cut it from a video perspective so plan on an RX-V308x series Yamaha Rx.
Speakers will remain the same with my B&W 6 series. Guess I like Yamaha :) and my B&W speakers
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