Implementing an External Amp

[joessportster]

looks like your trading apples for apples, HK=7 X 75 wpc, Emotive upa 500= 5 X 80 into 8 OHMS...........point being if you really want to upgrade your system ie...gain headroom, clarity, seperation ETC... I think you want to look at a better amp. Forget what your speakers are rated at ie 50wpc contin. 200 wpc peak. the volume knob settles that issue. Bottom line is more power = more headroom.............Better design / topology = better sound, seperation, and clarity

Just my Opinion from my experience with DOZENS of systems

Joe

I don't disagree with your or the others here, Joe.

Did the more power/headroom thing before I got Khorns. I used 500 WPC on my 4 DIY big Altecs (20 cubic foot boxes when I was 19) I used to crank those puppies up fed by my Crown reel to reel though a McIntosh C-26 Pre Amp> I played music for 600 people at college parties. Got Khorns brand new at 23 years old out of college and recently married. Designed and built a peak power meter and and hitting 10W peaks though a Khorn was too frikkin' loud. Even to a DB freak like me that use to fix amps for my garage band buddies. So I downsized my power and improved my sound at that time.

Been there, done that, got the T-shirts. Truth is the best direct radiator drivers have less than 90 db per watt of efficiency, while the best horns can hit 110 db/watt. So a 20 db differential is 100 times the power requirement. So, go big or go home.

Only about 1% of people are willing to buy or build big bass horns to REDUCE their power consumption and distortion. The problem with big bass horns is that they require digital time delay to work well. So people prefer to use more power because power is cheap nowadays. It's totally understandable. I was just pointing out that it doesn't always result in better sound, just different sound, like when I went from bad solid state to good tubes. Now that all modern SS amps are good (more or less), it's hard to go wrong, but there are always trade-offs.

Based on my engineering experiences, there is more than one way to create EXCELLENT sound today. We have many choices and it's really good to have those choices. Other than potentially greater noise, more watts doesn't always get you better sound, but it's hard to get a bad amplifier today, so it's never money wasted if you buy it right.

Hey claude, hows it going

I dont equate more power as better sound or louder sound, I equate more power with More headroom IE...the amp doesn't run out of power when its called for in some music passages. I'm, not even looking at the speakers efficiency in this its just a general rule. I equate better sound with better amps IE...Tubes, and then Topology My personal favorite is a 45 set amp on a top end with a solid state on the low end. pretty much any solid state will do as long as it has power. (My absolute best bass set up in a system was craigs VRD Monos But the cost was overkill so i went SS. This is excluding subs, You have the best subs ive heard)

Now i know speaker efficiency plays into a system and i have no desire to get into a long diatribe about how i perceive a system comes togeather. I am only addressing the original question will a upa 500 improve his system, I put most solid state on par with each other unless you spend uber money there all going to sound pretty close to one another. so I figure trading 80 watts for 70 watts is pointless

At the end of the day it is all a personal journey you will have to take and find out which gear suits your preferences. Only then will you Know your system is where YOU want it

It should not be called HI-FI, It should have been called MI-FI

Just my 0P

[ClaudeJ1]

Chances are that your HK puts out enough wattage for those speakers. They aren't very big and despite their lower efficiency, they still recommend only 50 watts RMS with 200 watts peak. I think you may notice more detail if anything but that could be just critical listening. I think mostly it will be a lateral shift. Its worth a try though! Its pretty affordable and comes with a trial period.

BTW, how do you like your dayton ultimax upgrade? i was looking at those for a sonosub i was going to do but never did.

As much as i support amps i have to agree. With this set up i think the money could be used for something else that would be more noticeable. That said if you plan to upgrade your speakers some day then it would set you up for that. And like others have said it can't hurt.

Yes, the "more noticeable something else." Buy bass horns and Mini DSP, not more watts. PWK said distortion went up as power went up because cone motion goes up to produce that distortion. Want to reduce cone motion and distortion? Put a horn on it instead of buying more watts. Or if you do buy more watts then buy more cones to reduce cone motion. Wheter horn loaded, or not, drivers have thermal power compression non-linearities at 10% of their rated power. Since all amplifiers Signal to Noise ratings are based on full output (which is seldom used with Klipsch speakers), the lower powered amps have lower noise fo a given S/N spec.