Regarding amps and current numbers among amps/receivers..
aaharvel
Posts: 4,489
is there any standard number that defines what makes an amp/receiver have "good", "great" or "little" headroom in terms of amps?
My H/K 235 has +/-35 amps of current and my H/K Signature amp belts out +/100 amps of current.
Other than a "more is better" approach, what is the standard if any when it comes to this spec on receivers and amplifiers? I've never seen this figure even advertised except on H/K stuff.
My H/K 235 has +/-35 amps of current and my H/K Signature amp belts out +/100 amps of current.
Other than a "more is better" approach, what is the standard if any when it comes to this spec on receivers and amplifiers? I've never seen this figure even advertised except on H/K stuff.
H/K Signature 2.1+235
Jungson MagicBoat II
Revel Performa M-20
Velodyne cht-10 sub
Rega P1 Turntable
"People working at Polk Audio must sit around the office and just laugh their balls off reading many of these comments." -Lush
Jungson MagicBoat II
Revel Performa M-20
Velodyne cht-10 sub
Rega P1 Turntable
"People working at Polk Audio must sit around the office and just laugh their balls off reading many of these comments." -Lush
Post edited by RyanC_Masimo on
Comments
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It mostly comes down to the # of output tranny's and the quality size of the PS and bypass caps. There is no hard and fast rule or spec to look at. It all comes down to design and how eveything works together.
H9"Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul! -
As with all manufacturers,they pick and choose whatheiney9 wrote:It mostly comes down to the # of output tranny's and the quality size of the PS and bypass caps. There is no hard and fast rule or spec to look at. It all comes down to design and how eveything works together.
H9
they want to highlight,when prom. their products.Is there
a standard?Not really,as said above,design and how everything works together is most important.Have heard gear build with the best
of the best inards and sounded no better than some mid-fi
gear.Isn't that why we all chase down that older,well designed
gear to begin with?That and they sound as good if not better than some of the crap out there today.HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
aaharvel wrote:is there any standard number that defines what makes an amp/receiver have "good", "great" or "little" headroom in terms of amps?
My H/K 235 has +/-35 amps of current and my H/K Signature amp belts out +/100 amps of current.
Other than a "more is better" approach, what is the standard if any when it comes to this spec on receivers and amplifiers? I've never seen this figure even advertised except on H/K stuff.
We know the amount and that's it. I think a good compliment spec to peak #amps should be the duration of the peak and the amt of distortion during the peak and maybe at which frequencies also..
I also wondered if an amp is putting out ~35 amps and higher, shouldn't this amount of current fry a typical 14-16 guage speaker wire??
Oh yeah, how is the new amp??Receiver: harmankardon AVR235
Mains: polk R30
Center: polk CSi3
Rear Surrounds: polk R20
Subwoofer: polk PSW404
DVD: Panasonic DVD-S29 -
Watch out just using maximum amps ratings. Rail voltage also plays a big part as well (Especially with higher ohm speakers).
It is poosible to design an amp that can handle say 1,000 Amps (or whatever other absurd number you like) and if it only has 1V on the rails, the amp spec is worthless.
I would check the rail voltage, total amount of capacitors, and transformer sizing as well as the max amps and compare it to the rated power. That should give you a better idea of headroom.There is no genuine justice in any scheme of feeding and coddling the loafer whose only ponderable energies are devoted wholly to reproduction. Nine-tenths of the rights he bellows for are really privileges and he does nothing to deserve them. We not only acquired a vast population of morons, we have inculcated all morons, old or young, with the doctrine that the decent and industrious people of the country are bound to support them for all time.-Menkin -
Rail voltage is the key, yes. Also a poorer design maybe able to quote a specific rail voltage, but saggiing rail voltage is an issue. At some point all RV will sag, but for the more robust designs this is not an issue until you are beyond normal operating limits. Remember one part of the current equation is Voltage.
As for the 35 amp and speaker wire. The 35 amp rating is a peak for less time than it takes to snap your fingers. Continuous output in that ampre range would certainly fry more than just the speaker wire insulation.
H9"Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul! -
Mike682 wrote:We know the amount and that's it. I think a good compliment spec to peak #amps should be the duration of the peak and the amt of distortion during the peak and maybe at which frequencies also..
I also wondered if an amp is putting out ~35 amps and higher, shouldn't this amount of current fry a typical 14-16 guage speaker wire??
Oh yeah, how is the new amp??
should be getting it today or tomorrow. My speakers aren't that hard to drive anywhoo, so i'm thinking 100x5 at +/-100 amps of current is overkill for what I have- but oh well. Thanks for the knowledge. I don't know anything about current or amperes except for what I said earlier and I guess that more is better.. -
jdhdiggs wrote:Watch out just using maximum amps ratings. Rail voltage also plays a big part as well (Especially with higher ohm speakers).
It is poosible to design an amp that can handle say 1,000 Amps (or whatever other absurd number you like) and if it only has 1V on the rails, the amp spec is worthless.
I would check the rail voltage, total amount of capacitors, and transformer sizing as well as the max amps and compare it to the rated power. That should give you a better idea of headroom.
thanks JD I'll do that. According to the pdf file, the amp's got 2caps per channel, and has a heft transformer. The thing weighs 47lbs, so i'm guessing that's prob. average for a 5ch. amp. Again, I don't really know that much about power amps except for what I learned on here and the whole wattage rating issues with most a/v receivers. -
Check the Ferrad readings on the caps if you want to be a big nerd. Those would be your power reserves for any big dynamic peaks. The reason is that caps can only be a reserve. The transformer will tell you the the sustainable power.
V=IR V= Volts, I= Amps, R= Resistance
Or V/R= I and Watts is V*A or so I think. I'm a couple bottles of wine down and I don't want to find my circuits book right now. Hold on, asking the rock nerd wife... Ah crap, everyone's toasted and now her co-worker is actually looking it up. Nevermind, he just got more beer. We are giving up tonight.
Edit: drunkThere is no genuine justice in any scheme of feeding and coddling the loafer whose only ponderable energies are devoted wholly to reproduction. Nine-tenths of the rights he bellows for are really privileges and he does nothing to deserve them. We not only acquired a vast population of morons, we have inculcated all morons, old or young, with the doctrine that the decent and industrious people of the country are bound to support them for all time.-Menkin -
jdhdiggs wrote:Check the Ferrad readings on the caps if you want to be a big nerd. Those would be your power reserves for any big dynamic peaks. The reason is that caps can only be a reserve. The transformer will tell you the the sustainable power.
V=IR V= Volts, I= Amps, R= Resistance
Or V/R= I and Watts is V*A or so I think. I'm a couple bottles of wine down and I don't want to find my circuits book right now. Hold on, asking the rock nerd wife... Ah crap, everyone's toasted and now her co-worker is actually looking it up. Nevermind, he just got more beer. We are giving up tonight.
Edit: drunk
Sounds like quite the party going on Honoured to be, an original SOPA founding member
Stuff...
RTi12's - front
CSi5 - center
FXi3's - surrounds
RTi4's - surrounds
SVS PB12-NSD/2 - sub
Denon 3805
Rotel RB-985 5-Channel Amplifier -
MrNightly wrote:Sounds like quite the party going on
yeah I don't know that much about it- but considering the 8ohmers i'm going to be driving this Sig. with, like i said it's probably overkill anyway. At least from judging from this amps specs, this thing could probably support 5 lsi monitors with no problem.
