i was wondering when the do the Continuous power rating, what type of amp should i go with.

like i was reading on the jbl site that i should go with an amp that does 2x the about needed. i wondering though like if i have a Continuous power rating of a 120watts should i look for a amp that does 220watts or what that puts out 120watts.

please help i dont really understand this aspect of speakers and amps.

i was going with Eclipse SC8264, and not really sure what amp to get for it. please help

 

You're probably not going to run your speakers at max continuous power... if you wanted 'em that high all of the time, you'd probably buy something that could handle more power.

You also don't want an amp with the same power level. Here's where the arguments start to fly, and there's a LOT of bad info out there. If you intend to use 120W of power, you want that power to be undistorted. When you run an amp near its limits, you're going to begin seeing distortion coming through. So, the idea is to buy a more hefty amp than what you intend to use it for with the understanding it will not be turned up near its limits. Double the power is as good enough a figure as any other, so go with that.

 

thanks, that really cleared it up totaly

 

Mac? double the RMS power?

a little high in my opinion, but good advice all around. i usually suggest closer to 125% to 150% the rated countinuous (Wrms or nominal) power handling of the speaker. still, this is pretty much an opinion thing, and i'm not arguing w/ Mac, just throwing in my $.02...

still, whenever you do this, be it 125% or 200% the power - learn to recognize distortion and how it sounds. both clipping and speaker (mechanical), and turn it down a tad when you start to hear it.

 

He suggested the doubling of power... I just went with it. There's nothing wrong, and it will give him a bit of room to grow for the future. He just needs to make sure he keeps the gain set to a reasonable level.

 

Are there any drawbacks to not running setting the gains to the point that the speakers are getting their RMS?

For example, I have speakers that are rated at 65 RMS iirc and my amp puts out 75 watts per channel, yet I have the gains set to roughly 1/2 of max right now. Seems plenty loud for my tastes right now, but don't know if I'm missing sound quality as a result.

 

Mac....

no problems man... i wasn't saying anything otherwise.


Cathan, please check the S2000 Audio FAQ and my section on setting gains. it should clear up your confusion. i believe it's close to the bottom in the #Amplifier section.

 

Just make sure you're not looking at the amp's Peak power. If you buy an amp that has a peak rating twice that of the speaker's Root Mean Square power rating, then you will be out of luck. Some stores like to advertise the Peak power rating when it's actually a very useless number.