Powering Carver Amazing speakers?

disneyjoe7

Ok, so I power these speakers with a Halo A23 amp, bridged 400w @ 8ohm. They sound ok but they seem that they need more power, I know these speakers are 4ohm and I'm powering them with a bridge amp which don't like 4ohm speakers. But you know these speakers maybe easier to power then my old speakers Rt150i since they are cooler and don't shut down at all.

So the question is what do I need to power these speakers right?

reeltrouble1

do not be foolish, your little parasounds are clipping into a speaker that can actually handle high current and wattage if I remember you got the Originals which are not easy to drive and are 86 db effecient. You need a BAT vk-500 or 600 with the BAT-PAK and nevermind what the peanut gallery says, I started with bridged NAD's (sound familiar) went to the Carver Silver 9t which are powerful but lack refinement to the BAT-VK-500 and then the BAT VK-120 tubed mono-blocks, they were also exceptional and could beat the 500 for mid-range but not for bass which I know you love, you little geek.

RT1

edit--scratch the vk-120, I used those with my Amazing Platinums which are easier to drive than yours, just get the BAT-VK-500.

thuffman03

If I had the $$$ and a set of those speakers I would try to get my hands on a Sunfire 600x2 or a Carver TFM 75.

Those speakers love lots of power and can handle a boat load.

megasat16

No to the Bridged Amp! Amps on the Cheap for Carver Amazing Platinum are probably bi-amp setup. Two TFM-55x bi-amping the Amazing Plat would sounds good or go with Silver 9T or 7T. I've bi-amped it with Pioneer Elite M90 (ribbon) and M91 (woofer) but found the ribbon is stressing on the M90. I have other amps that I tried with Amazings and have excellent results are old man sand amps.

Technics SE-A3 (very smooth amp for not a lot of $ but hard to find)
Onkyo Grand Integra M-510 (can push Amazing to the limit and then some, RT1 - I want to try soundlabs with this amp)
Mark Levinson 335 and undoubtedly 336 (but $$$$)
Denon POA-3000

Face

Try them unbridged and see if they sound any better.

disneyjoe7

I don't think that unbridged will make these speaker sound better. They seem to need about 1000w to power these speakers correctly.

reeltrouble1

eff the watts, you need current, you need speed, you need an amp with lots of smaller capacitors, not some big slow **** coke can looking things.

RT1

george daniel

I like Ted's suggestion regarding the BAT and Bat Pac,, say that fast ten times..Bat Pac,,Bat Pac--good luck--happy listening.

engtaz

9t's kick arse. and sound fantastic. They do drop down to close to 2 ohms I believe so try to make sure the amps good at 2 ohms.

Ricardo

Pass Labs X250 or higher; Belles 350a Reference; plenty of current, sweet sound, and none of those little nasty glass thingies

TroyD

DJ,

I am INTIMATELY familiar with your speakers (I was the original owner, for all intents and purposes).....listen to Ted.

On the solid state side, scrap the bridged amps....I ran numerous amps on them.....the Silver 9t's are probably the best option from Carver. My favorite combo was with the Classe 25 (250 wpc, doubles in power as the impedance drops). Played with a Sunfire as well, better than the Carver amps, not as good as the Classe.

Take care of my long lost children!

BDT

megasat16

reeltrouble1 wrote: »

eff the watts, you need current, you need speed, you need an amp with lots of smaller capacitors, not some big slow **** coke can looking things.

RT1

I agree to the part "eff the watts" and speed and resolution!

But with Planar Speakers and Electrostatic, you just don't need current, you need High Voltage Current. An amp with Higher Rails Voltage will works a wonder on them. That's why the Carver Amps works well with the Amazing. Their Rails Voltage are a whooping 80-100V for each rails. But personally, carver amps lack the refinement sometimes.

Coke Cans With Very High Voltage High Capacitance Works Wonder for my Amazing. For an amp with smaller caps, you'll need a bunch of Higher Voltage Smaller Caps.

disneyjoe7

Troy,

LOL I know you owned these speakers, when I heard them the first time I loved them. I sold them to RT1 Ted, Ted sold them to George Daniel, George sold them to Zero Jason, Jason sold them to me. Now you brought the updated Amazing speakers from RT1 Ted, I know you're a FAN of these speakers.....


Ted and I was driving to your house once, and he told me he can't listen to a car stereo because of what he can listen in his house..... Now I got these home Sunday, listened to them liked what I heard.... Liked it so much needed to listen again Monday morning, I turned it off.... Got in my truck to get to work, now I know what Ted was saying (Sorry Ted, I was listening, but didn't really understand what was saying) I can't listen to my truck stereo it sounds FLAT. I hate it now.....


One word.


THANKS

disneyjoe7

megasat16 wrote: »

I agree to the part "eff the watts" and speed and resolution!

But with Planar Speakers and Electrostatic, you just don't need current, you need High Voltage Current. An amp with Higher Rails Voltage will works a wonder on them. That's why the Carver Amps works well with the Amazing. Their Rails Voltage are a whooping 80-100V for each rails. But personally, carver amps lack the refinement sometimes.

Coke Cans With Very High Voltage High Capacitance Works Wonder for my Amazing. For an amp with smaller caps, you'll need a bunch of Higher Voltage Smaller Caps.

Ted and small caps, is he talking about TUBES?

george daniel

I think that he may be referring to the charge/discharge rate of the smaller capacitors in ss amps,IIRC,.

FWIW,, I have heard these with a variety of amps,, IMHO, the Silver 9's and the BAT proved to be the better,,vs the Adcom 555's,,565's,Odyssey Stratos Extreme mono's,Carver TFM 45.Just my .02.Good luck.

disneyjoe7

george daniel wrote: »

I think that he may be referring to the charge/discharge rate of the smaller capacitors in ss amps,IIRC,.

FWIW,, I have heard these with a variety of amps,, IMHO, the Silver 9's and the BAT proved to be the better,,vs the Adcom 555's,,565's,Odyssey Stratos Extreme mono's,Carver TFM 45.Just my .02.Good luck.

Anything about Carver TFM 55?

disneyjoe7

Ok I rewired the speakers to unbridged the amp, sounds about the same just a little lower in volume. Now what's the problem if these amps are bridged, if they work ok? Are they harming the speakers or the amp?


Bat or Classe amps, very nice amps indeed.... A little pricey right now but I place it on my short list.

ben62670

If you bridge an amp they can only handle half the impedance load. So if your amps can handle 4 ohms not bridged then they can only handle 8 ohms bridged. Those speaker can dip to 1.5 ohms if I am correct. Jerry had my 565's, or 585 on them and not so good. 9T's very nice the other Craver amps not so good. Listen to Troy and Ted;)

treitz3

The only Carver amps I have heard that can do them justice would be the Lightstar amps, 7t's, 9t's or the Silver series tube amps.

disneyjoe7

ben62670 wrote: »

If you bridge an amp they can only handle half the impedance load. So if your amps can handle 4 ohms not bridged then they can only handle 8 ohms bridged. Those speaker can dip to 1.5 ohms if I am correct. Jerry had my 565's, or 585 on them and not so good. 9T's very nice the other Craver amps not so good. Listen to Troy and Ted;)

Ben,

A little odd, I had these amps bridged to power Rt150i speakers. The amps always got hot, they seem like they didn't like those speakers. I was a little afraid that these amps would be PISSED off when I hook up the Amazing speakers. as they are 4ohms. The amps where cooler, they never seem to be over loaded, Not that a Halo A23 amp is bad, I like the sound, but the speakers seem a little underpowered.

ben62670

Parasound has some fat caps, and a big tranny. Why they didn't run hot has me scratching my head. I wish I could have gotten over there. Missed you again. I will try this April again.
Take care Steve.
Ben

megasat16

If you have two A23s, I think you should try vertical bi-amping with them instead of bridging. Bridging amp sees half of the load impedance of the speakers for each channel so it puts more stressing on the amp to deliver more current than unbridged mode.

While it may runs cooler for a short period of time, it may probably runs into protect mode for high dynamic peaks or used it for extended amount of time. It does not need to get hot before it shuts itself down. It may still be cool to the touch externally but the transistors may gets very hot for some high transient peaks (lots of current flow) and the amp self protection will kicks in to protect itself from any serious damage.

A23 is rated at 125W into 8 and 200W into 4 ohms so it's a bit under powered even if you use two for vertical bi-amping.

ESavinon

Krell Ksa-250.

engtaz

treitz3 wrote: »

The only Carver amps I have heard that can do them justice would be the Lightstar amps, 7t's, 9t's or the Silver series tube amps.

Yes, the 7t's and 9t's were specifically made for the ALS's because the ALS's can dip down to 2 ohms while you’re running them. If you have an amp that can't be stable at 2 ohms then there is a potential for problems.

Good Luck and Congrats on the ALS's,

reeltrouble1

You should also know that Troy and I rubbed several of our body parts over these speakers, not sure what George may have done, I can only imagine. Remember that when your dusting them.

George is correct about the smaller caps, its the way to go, you can get a BAT for 2 Large, remember I had the Carver 9t's and sold them after putting the BAT VK-500in the system and listening for months, the BAT offers a much more refined sound, so save your shekels, of course you probably need a better pre, so like Adam who bit the apple your eyes are opened and you realize you have been in the Rabbit Hole with me all along, well, at least ever since that day we took that car ride.

Since you like Parasound the JC-1 mono-blocks would be viable.

RT1

george daniel

Very Well put ,Sir Ted,,,, as for what I rubbed on em'',,, well lets just say it has some "mojo" on em now.;)

disneyjoe7

reeltrouble1 wrote: »

You should also know that Troy and I rubbed several of our body parts over these speakers, not sure what George may have done, I can only imagine. Remember that when your dusting them.

George is correct about the smaller caps, its the way to go, you can get a BAT for 2 Large, remember I had the Carver 9t's and sold them after putting the BAT VK-500in the system and listening for months, the BAT offers a much more refined sound, so save your shekels, of course you probably need a better pre, so like Adam who bit the apple your eyes are opened and you realize you have been in the Rabbit Hole with me all along, well, at least ever since that day we took that car ride.

Since you like Parasound the JC-1 mono-blocks would be viable.

RT1

It's all down hill NOW. :eek:


BTW yes I was wondering what was on these speakers, I cleaned them twice now. Every time it comes off dirty, and leaves a haze, I going to take some car wax to them next. But now I know you and Troy put some personally WAX on them first. :rolleyes:

TroyD

DJ,

I found that goold old paste wax worked pretty well....

BDT

reeltrouble1

DJ,

Well on the bright-side you should know TLW did touch them (OK, put her hands on them) and SHE is Smokin Hot.

Well knowing they are there for you each day to hear when you get up is quite comforting, isn't it????

RT1

ohskigod

best I've ever heard them was at george's house, with Ted's a REAL close second. george owning his for awhile and having what is probably perfect placement most likely has alot to do with it (get close enough to move them...and he gets edgy, for good reason). George's were biamped with 2 Carver TFM42's (actualy a tfm42 and a carver 4.0t, which is the same amp inside)

mine are currently powered by one carver 4.0t and sound pretty darn good to me. unfortunatly my pair can not be biamped....which is the only thing I dont like about my pair.

as much as they love power (clean power/current), they DEMAND perfect placement as well. Play with them, by the inch....i **** you not, it makes a difference.

disneyjoe7

ohskigod wrote: »

as much as they love power (clean power/current), they DEMAND perfect placement as well. Play with them, by the inch....i **** you not, it makes a difference.

Hmmm..... Got me thinking I just placed in room to see how they sounded. More of a system test. Shame on me.