huub Hierck Posted March 19, 2001 Share Posted March 19, 2001 If you read a manual they tell you different power output for the US and Europe. Is there a way to calculate how much power the amp. can produce. For instance if you have a powersupply of 550 Watts does that mean that the max power that the amp can give is 550 Watts. It may seem silly this question but I was just wondering. My greatest fear is blowing up the speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BobG Posted March 19, 2001 Share Posted March 19, 2001 Please provide an example of different power specs for US vs. Europe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted March 19, 2001 Share Posted March 19, 2001 I'm not sure whether by "power supply" you mean the output of the amplifier's power supply unit, or the rated output of the amplifier. They are not at all the same thing; a lot of the output of the power supply unit (PSU) does not appear as output power to the speakers. Biasing current can account for the majority of the PSU's output, particulary in amps heavily biased into Class A; something like the PASS Aleph series might have a 400 watt PSU while the amp is only capable of 30 watts output into the speaker load. In any case... as far as "blowing up the speakers", you have to go pretty much crazy nuts to hurt speakers by OVERDRIVING them. UNDERDRIVING them, that is, using an amp that's too small to generate the volume you're trying to achive, can damage speakers because the amp distorts badly when the amp is overdriven, and the distortion wrecks havoc with tweeters, in particular. Hurting the speakers with too much power requires either (a) wimpy speakers (not a problem with Klipsch), or ( enthusiastically ignoring any modicum of common sense and driving the speakers with power levels that no sane person would use. I did that, once (b, that is) ( )... I had a Dalquist subwoofer that was rated at 75 watts continuous input, and I was driving it with an Adcom GFA-555 amp bridged into mono (delivered about 600 watts into the subwoofer). Worked fine for a long time, but one day I was outside, and had the stereo cranked with the doors and windows open, and, uh, melted the voice coil former and fused the voice coil wiring into a smelly mess of charred plastic and metal. But, like I said, I really had to try... Ray ------------------ Music is art Audio is engineering Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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