It seems I am unable to drive my amps to full power with my Aragon Soundstage. (1 Viewer)

[James W. Johnson]

I THINK I am unable to drive my Parasound amps to full power with my Soundstage, the gain is up all the way on the Parasounds
yet when I reach 80 on my Aragon Soundstage it seems that its not as loud as it should be...or its still clean sounding and seems
I have alot more headroom left to get into...now not that usually play my movies or music at this level for extended periods its just
that I want to see the amp pushed abit harder.
I am thinking that either there is something I missed in the Soundstage set-up or its alot loud than I think, or the Parasounds
have some sort of anti-clipping circuitry in them.. I need to check with my SPL meter tonight to see exactly what levels I am getting.

BTW it has no problems driving my Berhinger FD to clipping and there are no clip lights on my Parasounds so the logical explanation
is that the sound is louder than I think it is or the Parasounds have some clipping circuitry in them...I hope its not the latter.

Also FYI the input sensitivity on the Soundstage is the Dolby Reference of 200mV, output impedence is 50 ohms.

I will say that is nice to have a sysytem that I can crank up all the way to full throttle and have it sound as clean as it did at whisper levels.
I would test SPLs right now but I dont want to bother the neighbors on a Saturday morning..not that I wouldnt do it because I would but I am feeling nice today.

 

[Ricky T]

James,

What are the sensitivity of your speakers?

 

[James W. Johnson]

Around 99dB 1 watt @ 1 meter.

 

[Ricky T]

I don't follow.....how would your amps reach full power or clip when your speakers are extremely easy to drive.....you cannot be using more than 5 continuous watts. If you pump any where near your Parasounds' 220-250 watts, either your ears or your speakers would blow. No way you can come close to clipping your amps....

 

[James W. Johnson]

I guess I dont follow your line of though either.

I am saying I have the Aragon's gain up to MAX and the Parasounds are not clipping, or at least it seems that way.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

James- 99 dB effieciency is pretty high. What speakers do you have? I.e., the only speakers I know with efficiency that high are Klipsch with the horn tweeters.

My speakers are *only* 89 dB efficient, and I have 125W/ch, and I simply cannot turn it up as loud as it will go. No clipping (amp or speakers), just too dang loud.

 

[Ricky T]

Kevin,

Click on James' link ---- he built his speakers.


James,

What do you expect to "hear" when you have the Aragon's gain at max? When you do this, you have a source playing? What SPL does your meter read?

 

[James W. Johnson]

Ricky, yes of course I have a source playing.

I expect the amp to clip before I reach the pre-amps max gain. My Parasounds do have have clip indicators , only
Current Overload LEDs.

"The Current Overload LEDs for left and right channels will only illuminate if the unit is driven past its
maximum current capacity. These LEDs are not clipping indicators, but rather are designed to signal you
when you are exceeding the limits of your amplifier. If these LEDs light, it’s usually a sign that your
speaker impedance is too low, resulting in too much current draw from the amplifier's power supply. In
virtually all imaginable listening situations with recommended loads, these LEDs should never illuminate."

Anyways I know what clipping sounds like and I am not reaching that point as far as I can tell.

Really the SPL levels are irrelavant here...whats relevant is the Aragon cannot drive the Parasound to clipping.

Perhaps my speakers are such an easy load that the Aragon just does not have enough voltage output to push the amp?

I am going to ask Parasound Tech support and Wayne Parham at Pi Speakers for their opinions.

 

[Wyatt_Y]

There should be specs for your amp:
1)Input voltage required for full output.

and for your preamp:
2)Maximum output voltage.

To get maximum power out of your amplifier, specification #2 needs to be greater than or equal to specification #1.

 

[Ricky T]

James,

If you are using an analog source, I believe the Aragon has a gain setting....check the owner's manual.

 

[Kevin. W]

James here are some specs I could find on your equipment.

Aragon output: 50ohms/8v
Parasound input: 33-50kohms/1.4v full output.

So if I'm reading this right your pre/pro should have no problem getting you amp to max output. Now looking at the specs on your speakers you say the sensitivity is 99db. So like Ricky said your probably just using 4-8watts continious power for a db reading of 108-111db. So there is no way without blowing your speakers or destroying your ear drums that you could clip you amp or pre/pro.

Kevin

 

[James W. Johnson]