matching the best amp with blade/blade srs2

evhudsons

I have two parasound 1500hca's, but because my srs2 is blade blade I can't use both of them for my sda's. I also have a carver m-1.5t.

The wattage is much less for my four ohm speakers on the Parasound but I read everywhere that watts is not what I should be judging the amps by. without a pissing brand match, which do you think would be better, my lower wattage parasound or the higher watts but "smaller" carver?
The parasound is about twice as big physically but lists about twice as much watts. It also gets really hot where the parasound doesn't, most likely the larger casing?

It takes a while for me to rewire everything so I wanted a quick opinion before I tried anything. Thanks to this forum I know now that I can't strap the two identical amps together without involving the fire department.

If wattages aren't the total answer, what exactly do I look for in a high current amp?

Dawgfish

Unfortunatley in your case there is really no way to tell which one is going to sound better until you try both and see. As with any system, synergy with the rest of the components, cabling, the room, and your ears is the key. The only way to know is try them both.

You are correct in your assumption that WPC is not the end all/be all in telling the performance of an amp. To me amps that have large power supplies, transfromers, and caps and are able to handle peak demands better (or have more headroom) are more desirable than amps that have higher RMS ratings but can't handle peak demands as well. You can look at specs all day long and you can get an idea about which one should be able to handle these peaks better, but you really will never know for sure until you try them.

gdb

FWIW.....my SRS2 w/pin-blade IC sound very nice being driven by a Carver TFM-35 which is a 250wpc @ 8ohms amp. You'd be run out of the room before the Carver runs out of steam and starts to clip. I got the impression that the bld/bld models are of a lower impedance, not sure about either's specs, though. I'll bet the M-1.5t will be a nice match-up too.

Dawgfish

I'm running a Rogue Eighty Eight Magnum on my pin/blade SRS 2s and it sounds great with all the power I need. The Rogue is 70 wpc, but it's a tube amp. Again it's not always about the wpc. Again I would try your Carver and see which one sounds better to you. If you are not satisfied with either your Parasound or Carver you can go from there.

evhudsons

I did try it last night, I just took the time to move things around. I only tried one Parasound, but will try the other. I found that the Carver had a much clearer and pleasant sound, and the Parasound was good but not great. I am using the other Parasound on my CRS+'s and it's super awesome which is why I wondered about the different amps on the srs2's. I am thinking that I may find the other parasound to be better than the one I tried last night. I am assuming that if that is the case, I may need to refurbish the caps etc on the Parasound. I now have some soldering skills, good but not great.

For high current comparisons, what do I look for in each amp?