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How much power for the RF-7's?


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"I enjoy chatting with "newbies" who somehow almost instantly understand all of the intrigues of years of Klipsch Foruming. Not just you, but another chap last night, and others before you."

Did you mean intricacies? I've noticed that whenever someone gets a pair of those amps, they start spelling like he does.

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If any posters have run away after an exchange of posts with me, it can only mean that in a battle of wits, they knew when they had been defeated. But many other posters have come and gone in the past, and they left because they got lives

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Well to that guy who claims that we dont know what we are talking about and the Klipsch guys do. I tend to disagree a little. I have been using a 35 watt integrated amp with my RF-3's for almost 5 years and not once did I ever wish for more power. Id be willing to bet that the Klipch guys are trained to reccomend more power since its less power that can harm a speaker and they dont wanna get sued for giving information that could lead to a damaged speaker if you were dumb enough to let your amplifier clip for a while damaging your tweeters. I know for a fact that 50 watts is more than enough power for the RF-7's, how do I know this u may ask. Because my amp is only 35 watts and its plenty of power for my 14x18ft room. Grantedmy 35 watt amp is probably actually more powerful than most 100 watt HT recievers out there so that may have something to do with it. But there is reason a 102db/watt speaker needs more than 50 watts unless your ina huge barn like room or like to listen at deafening levels. Geez these speakers can play over 100db with 1 watt! Thats louder than most people listen to a majority of the time. I do agree that flea powered tube amps werent punchy enough in the bass to play heavy rock music, Ive tried them(2a3 and 300b's). But if you have a small room and listen to lighter types of music you wouldnt have a problem. When I was using a SET 300b amp with my RF-3's they played plenty loud they just lacked some punch in the bass, which i think has more to do with the design of SET amps than a lack of power. Also the misconception that tube watts are some how differant than SS watts is BS. A tube amp will just clip very gently and wont sound bad like a SS amp, but a watt is a watt doesnt matter tube or SS, tube amps just sound better near their limits. Also SS amps tend to have far less distortion which can make them actually sound quiter. Im not knocking tube or SS because I like both equally. So to all you guys/gals who insist on buying 200 watt amps for your RF-7's, by all means go and spend your money i could care less, ill just spend the money I save on a 50 watter on more music which is all that matters anyways! Happy listening everyone and dont forget its all about the music dont get to caught up in gadgets and tweaks.

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"I get a kick out of people who ask for advice but who are actually just looking for someone to agree with what they've already decided."

Well I was just looking for some answeres wasnt just looking for people to agree with me although a majority of people on this forum who have a clue have agreed that 50 watts in a small room is "way underpowered".

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"sort of figure the guy is as excited as a kid at X-mas time and just wanted to chat about his new speakers and all the endless possibilities for amplification."

You couldnt be more right, sorry for my excitement, I saved for a long time to get these speakers. I think I deserve to be just a little bit excited, dont I??

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On 5/19/2005 12:29:18 PM DeanG wrote:

Unless you live in a barn sized living room and/or feel the need to run them up to THX levels during movies, you can get by nicely with 30 to 60 watts.

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As usual, Dean is on target. People buying the most efficient speakers made, claiming they need massive power is just plain nuts. This would make buying any other speaker brand with lower (92 or below) efficiency a waste of money. We all know that you can listen to many different brand speakers and many will sound quite good, just not as good as Klipsch, especially with a premium crossover.2.gif So, in the end, only upgrade unless you want to!

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Ah Ha!

Pegged you circle, I get pretty darn excited too even if it is only new crossovers for some dumb old speakers.1.gif

Dont get too serious about this stuff.....I am here for fun and enjoyment.....

.....some get tooooooooooo serious.

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Some folks like to listen to classical music like the 1812 Overture with cannon shots. A small amp will potentially have a clipping problem with 35 watts unless the operator is very careful.

Also, the 35 watt amp really needs to be able to comfortably drive a 4 ohm load, if it is to run RF-7s.

Klipsch recommends the wattage based upon the RF-7s' most common use, home theater. I agree that for home theater, most 100 watt amps will not cut it, much less 50 watts. There are always exceptions to every rule however.

With a solid state amp, I want to operate in the area of safe operation for the output devices. I also want to operate in the area where the output devices are most linear. This leaves out most low watt solid state amps, except pure class A amps that are not clipped.

Bill

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I agree that for home theater you may need alot more power, but I told him it was a music only system. Also I agree that the amp must be able to drive lower impeadances since the RF-7's dip down to 3ohms. I could understand if you are talking bout a 40 watt amp that you would buy at radioshack or something. But if you know about Exposure you know they are very good quality "audiophile" amps, this is not your average 40 watt amp, its got a large fully regulated power supply, and was build strictly for sound quality. It doesnt have any fancy lights or controls, not even a balance control or remote control. Every penny went into sound quality and it cost $1500 almost 15 years, Id love to know what something similar would cost today?? It has no problem drivig 4 ohm speakers. I attached a naked picture of my amp so you can see what it looks like inside, the extra two transistors in the middle are the regulators, there are only a pair of output transistors per channel. These amps were completely hand built in England, which makes it very easy to replace parts if you should ever need to make a repair, no surface mounted parts or computer chips in here just discrete components. Just thought some of you tinkerers would like to see whats inside.

post-17786-13819266050492_thumb.jpg

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The RF-7s sound very good with the Exposure. I havent driven the Rf-7 with anything else yet I just got them a few days ago they arent even broken in yet.. But I didnt try many amps with my old RF-3's. I had a Cary/AES SE-1, Jolida 102b, NAD C340, and an old Musical Fidelity A2. They all had there good points and bad points but I liked the Exposure best for my taste in music which is alot of rock and alternative. The Exposure just does rock really well it has very good "prat" as the brits call it and its very punchy.

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