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Klipsch Jubilee 535-B max power capacity


diamonddelts

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I use my 535b Jubilees as the cornerstones of my home theater system.  I'm wanting to get a good reserve a power for dynamic peaks in movies.

 

The problem I have is that I'm looking at Hypex amps which are all similar in price. I need to know how much rms and peak power the 535-B Jubilees  can take safely. 

 

The Hypex NC1200 monoblocks are $879 each.

The Hypex NC2000 monoblocks are $1050 each.

 

Now I fully understand that I don't need the excessive power of the Hypex NC2000.However I don't want to pay 90% of the same price for the NC1200 monoblocks which offer much less power.

 

So my question is if I get the hypex nc2000 monoblocks, and keep the volume below 100db, will I be doing any long-term damage to my speakers? 

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On 9/24/2020 at 5:39 PM, diamonddelts said:

So my question is if I get the hypex nc2000 monoblocks, and keep the volume below 100db, will I be doing any long-term damage to my speakers? 


No the amplifier will only put out the wattage you ask for based on your max listening levels desired. 

 

Now the nc2000 is capable of delivering more wattage than the Jubilee is designed for so an accidental signal level spike ( ie: accidental interconnect cable connection made or broken while system is on) could result in damage..
 

If you’re talking peak SPL when limiting your volume to below 100db at a typical home listening distance then you would probably be sending less than 5 watts from your amplifier to the Jubilee. 


If you haven’t seen Klipsch Spec Sheet this one is from 2017 and you can find the power rates stated in it. 
 

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miketn

 

 

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25 minutes ago, mikebse2a3 said:


No the amplifier will only put out the wattage you ask for based on your max listening levels desired. 

 

Now the nc2000 is capable of delivering more wattage than the Jubilee is designed for so an accidental signal level spike ( ie: accidental interconnect cable connection made or broken while system is on) could result in damage..
 

If you’re talking peak SPL when limiting your volume to below 100db at a typical home listening distance then you would probably be sending less than 5 watts from your amplifier to the Jubilee. 


If you haven’t seen Klipsch Spec Sheet this one is from 2017 and you can find the power rates stated in it. 
 

69150DC5-103D-4089-9774-04D053DF738B.thumb.jpeg.4c24270332668436723fcbad1b32cc19.jpeg

 

6C69843B-D46B-4B53-9DC9-F5718C0C5D9A.thumb.jpeg.01f236b36f815482e74c10725bdc80b3.jpeg

 

miketn

 

 

Thank you for your answer. I have a copy of the spec sheet for the 535b and that's where my confusing lies. It says recommended power is around 1200 watts but then at the bottom it lists specs from 600 watts up to 2400 Watts peak.

 

Also need to know if an input gain would be helpful? Will it help with voltage or gain? Is a upgraded input gain necessary to use amp to its fullest potential. I use an outlaw 976 preamp with xlr connections. But from what I've read most preamps for home set ups don't push a high enough voltage or gain for a balanced signal.

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9 hours ago, diamonddelts said:

Thank you for your answer. I have a copy of the spec sheet for the 535b and that's where my confusing lies. It says recommended power is around 1200 watts but then at the bottom it lists specs from 600 watts up to 2400 Watts peak.


Can you post a picture or link to the spec sheet you have...?

 

Keep in mind these recommendations are based on 5000 cubic ft spaces and the typical home listening spaces would IMO typically require less than 200w. Heck the most I’ve ever seen on my Jubilee is 80w and that was just for momentary fun 😄..
 

miketn

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9 hours ago, diamonddelts said:

Also need to know if an input gain would be helpful? Will it help with voltage or gain? Is a upgraded input gain necessary to use amp to its fullest potential. I use an outlaw 976 preamp with xlr connections. But from what I've read most preamps for home set ups don't push a high enough voltage or gain for a balanced signal.


I’m assuming your preamp is driving an Active DSP Crossover for the Jubilee and if so  then your preamp only needs to be able to drive the Active DSP Crossover inputs to full signal level. 


miketn 

 

Edit: I believe it’s important for owners of high efficiency loudspeakers to understand that often when using high wattage amplifiers (and especially if they have high sensitivity inputs) they often run into an issue of to much signal gain resulting in volume controls being limited to being able to barely turn them up before the listening SPL level becomes to loud and also there is often a high system noise floor level (hiss and hum) which is annoying even at typical listening distances.  If amplifiers have input sensitivity level controls its much easier to implement them in a system especially if the system is driving high efficiency loudspeakers...
 


 

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There is some confusion here that the OP can sort out. 

 

1) is the pre-amp (volume control) before or after the DSP unit

2) is the pre-amp old style (output at about 3/4 volt RMS) or newer consumer (output at about 2 volt RMS), or pro style (output about 7-8 volt RMS)?

3) Please re-read what Miketn has written. It is very, very unlikely that the amp (in normal home use) would ever be fed a sufficient voltage where the amp could actually achieve achieve 600 or 1200 watts - as the OP stated: "input gain necessary to use amp to its fullest potential."

 

4) With high efficiency speakers, (as said above) you would be hard pressed to ever need more than 5-10 watts in your living room. In order to get 100's of watts,  the volume knob (which adjusts the voltage) would need to be well-beyond the 12:00 o'clock position (certainly if the volume knob is after the DSP). Has the OP ever gone that far? At that point the concern is not about damaging your speakers, the concern is about permanent hearing damage for the user.

 

If this seems incredible, then play a sine wave into the speakers and adjust the volume to "darn loud". Then disconnect the speaker and measure the AC voltage (RMS) that was being fed to your speaker. Square this value and divide by the nominal impedance. That will give you an approximate wattage fed to the speaker (it will be in the single digits, maybe the double digits and certainly no where the triple digits ). The music peaks will be anywhere from 6-12 dB above that value (approximately). Remember that each 3dB increase is about double the wattage.

 

Good luck,

-Tom

 

PS: My intention was to get you not worry about big wattage amplifiers and also to get you to preserve your own hearing. 

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3 hours ago, PrestonTom said:

There is some confusion here that the OP can sort out. 

 

1) is the pre-amp (volume control) before or after the DSP unit

2) is the pre-amp old style (output at about 3/4 volt RMS) or newer consumer (output at about 2 volt RMS), or pro style (output about 7-8 volt RMS)?

3) Please re-read what Miketn has written. It is very, very unlikely that the amp (in normal home use) would ever be fed a sufficient voltage where the amp could actually achieve achieve 600 or 1200 watts - as the OP stated: "input gain necessary to use amp to its fullest potential."

 

4) With high efficiency speakers, (as said above) you would be hard pressed to ever need more than 5-10 watts in your living room. In order to get 100's of watts,  the volume knob (which adjusts the voltage) would need to be well-beyond the 12:00 o'clock position (certainly if the volume knob is after the DSP). Has the OP ever gone that far? At that point the concern is not about damaging your speakers, the concern is about permanent hearing damage for the user.

 

If this seems incredible, then play a sine wave into the speakers and adjust the volume to "darn loud". Then disconnect the speaker and measure the AC voltage (RMS) that was being fed to your speaker. Square this value and divide by the nominal impedance. That will give you an approximate wattage fed to the speaker (it will be in the single digits, maybe the double digits and certainly no where the triple digits ). The music peaks will be anywhere from 6-12 dB above that value (approximately). Remember that each 3dB increase is about double the wattage.

 

Good luck,

-Tom

 

PS: My intention was to get you not worry about big wattage amplifiers and also to get you to preserve your own hearing. 

I'm going from a preamp to passive crossovers. I believe the outlaw 976 puts out 2 volts rms. The amps I'm looking at don't have any volume controls directly on them which makes this a bit more of a headache for me. I believe their onboard buffers come with 7db gain. I'm just worried that their voltage or gain will be too low.

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25 minutes ago, diamonddelts said:

I believe the outlaw 976 puts out 2 voltage rms.


It’s frustrating when manufacturers aren’t clear with their specifications.. The manual list output at 4v and 9v max but doesn’t specify if its rms or if this is RCA output or XLR output.  You might want to contact Outlaw to clarify what it’s capable of unless you have better information on the Outlaw. 
 

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I think I misunderstood. I thought you or someone said you were using active DSP for the crossover (or maybe I just assumed that).

 

Personally, I prefer an active DSP approach since it can also provide time-alignment and the necessary CD boost.  Both the K-402 and K-510 horns are CD horns (controlled dispersion which will require some high end boost). If the CD boost is passive, the the lower frequencies are actually being attenuated which make functionally makes the highs seem "boosted". The consequence is that there will necessarily be some insertion loss (in a sense you give up efficiency). I have no way of knowing how much loss there is. If I may ask, who cobbled the crossover together for you?

 

Anyhow the good news is that I can't imagine the insertion loss is going to hamper the output with those big amplifiers. 

 

I also agree with Mike that the manufacturers should be more complete on their specs. 

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In these situations, with high-powered amps and very high-sensitivity speakers, your hearing is the best guide.  Al long as you don’t try to “see how loud it will go”, you should be alright in any home listening room, even a large one.  At any volume level short of painful, the speakers will not be overdriven.  You’ll have massive amounts of headroom, meaning the dynamic range will be more than sufficient to give you a realistic presentation of the music, of whatever genre it might be.

 

The main thing is to “keep the drunk away from the volume control”.  That’s when bad things happen.  Or when somebody wants to mow the lawn and still hear the music nice and loud.  Many speaker manufacturers nowadays recommend that your amps have double the power recommended for the speaker, to avoid clipping, but you must have seen this in a few places by now.

 

Let common sense prevail and you should have no problems.

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The problems that I've encountered with higher power amplifiers is significantly increased noise floor--which is the real problem for Jubilees.  That's why I think most hi-fi enthusiasts tend to go for the lowest power amplifier that does the job. 

 

For Jubilee bass bins (the least efficient portion of the Jubilee), that means that 100w is a lot more than plenty for any home duty (i.e., 100w  125 dB/one metre for one bass bin alone).  That's about 10 dB (>10x the power required) that I'll ever want or need. I personally use a 45w/channel amplifier for the bass bins (Crown D-75A).  This can provide over 120 dB/one metre for one Jub bass bin--or 123 dB for two bass bins simultaneously. 

 

For the compression driver channel, the net sensitivity of the horn/driver (after EQing the SPL response flat) is ~106-108 dB/one metre.  I've got a First Watt F3 on those channels, and it's a good 15w amplifier driving an 8 ohm load impedance, yielding a maximum rating level of ~120 dB at one metre for one compression driver, or ~123 dB for two playing simultaneously. 

 

Chris

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