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Higher current/power amplifier with Klipschorns. What do yo use?


Khorn

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4 hours ago, EpicKlipschFan said:

i dont have a tube pre... but have used 200wpc adcom GFA 555ii on K-horns as well as a 200wpc rotel, both are great "mid-fi" amps that get excellent reviews & compete with more expensive amps, they both sound excellent on high efficiency klipsch speakers.  currently using the adcom with chorus2 & SVS subs.  have also used an onkyo M504 @ 165wpc, very nice warm sounding amp. 

 

as mentioned above, high power amps can work great for high efficiency speakers, having reserve power for if/when you need it is much better than running a lower power amp close to its peak/clipping power.  reserve power/headroom is a good thing. 

 

 

Tried a GFA-5802 once. Blew up the first day. “Smoke on the amp stand”. Exit stage left. 

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My take is that with SS amplifiers and K'horns it's not about the available wattage, but more about the Harmonic and IM distortion levels at the low wattages we normally run with our Klipschs.

  A high powered amp can sound great if it has very low distortion when idling along. 

 I like My CJ PV-2 tube pre with EL34 amplification but I also hook up various SS, including MOSFET to the tube pre. I find it helpful to attenuate the signal from the tube pre.

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  • 1 month later...

I would suggest taking a hard look at the Adcom 5802, which is a Nelson Pass design.  300 WPC in 8 Ohms, Runs Class A, up to 50 wats or so.  With the efficiency of a Khorn anything more than 8 watts input will drive you from the room.  I also have the matching GFP 750 Preamp also a Nelson Pass design, as well as the GCD 750 CD player.  I have mine connected to a pair of forte II speakers.  I have tested on my friends Khorn's a few years ago and they sounded outstanding with my components.  

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On 5/22/2022 at 12:57 PM, henry4841 said:

What kind of idiot is going to listen at 121db at home? If you want that there is something wrong with you or too much listening at too high a level in the past. I knew this was going to be an interesting discussion but when I said 25 watts SS I meant real world in your house when most never listen any louder than 85db and that is loud for normal people. I have done measurements many times at my house and my average is in the neighborhood of a few watts and that was actually too loud. Most of my visitors tell me to turn it down where we can talk. 

 

Who listens at 121 dB?  Probably nobody, at least not for long.  The point was that driving even extremely sensitive speakers like La Scalas to their max takes quite a bit of power.  As for general home listening, 70-85 dB is the volume range in which I usually listen, but that’s steady state.  Loud transients can be much louder than that, without being sustained enough to damage either my ears or my speakers, while greatly adding to the realism of the listening experience.

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On 5/22/2022 at 3:57 PM, henry4841 said:

What kind of idiot is going to listen at 121db at home? If you want that there is something wrong with you or too much listening at too high a level in the past. I knew this was going to be an interesting discussion but when I said 25 watts SS I meant real world in your house when most never listen any louder than 85db and that is loud for normal people. I have done measurements many times at my house and my average is in the neighborhood of a few watts and that was actually too loud. Most of my visitors tell me to turn it down where we can talk. 

Yup, I agree....except for your last sentence. When I have someone sitting next to me asking to turn it down to talk, I tell them "Shut the f@$k up you're here to listen to the music"

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Nelson Pass has an oscilloscope hooked up to the output of an amplifier where it shows only a 1 watt window and he says people say turn it down when the signal is well below 1 watt in his lab and this is showing peaks and transients. 

 

The point really is to choose quality watts with our speakers over quantity. Nothing wrong with having quantity with quality if you think it necessary but quality is top priority especially with speakers that are so revealing. Especially true with the heritage line. Most of the time you will be operating under 1 watt. Normal people that is. 

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On 5/22/2022 at 3:52 PM, Khorn said:

Tried a GFA-5802 once. Blew up the first day. “Smoke on the amp stand”. Exit stage left. 

 

bummer... thats not normal for 5802s or adcoms in general.  i have owned almost 10 different adcom GFA-555ii amps & lots of their other amps & gear over the years & never had a single issue with them, running them hard or bridged or low to medium power on efficient klipsch speakers.  adcom is know to be very reliable except for a couple models of amps like the GFA 565/585 that had some leaky caps or bad PCBs.  a used 555ii for ~$400 is one of the best value/sounding amps there is IMO.      

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18 minutes ago, billybob said:

GSA-700?

@EpicKlipschFan

 not too familiar with the GSA's,  they are an older ac-3 surround processor meant to be added to an existing 2ch system to provide surround sound.  i had a smaller version i bought used/untested many years ago... sure enough it was dead & wouldnt produce sound.  sold it for parts on ebay for what i paid,  about $100.  

 

i stick with the original GFA 5xx series 2 amps,  the later 5000 series mosfet models are supposed to be pretty good too but ive never owned one. 

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