Power Amp Questions (1 Viewer)

[Niti]

I am new to including a power amp to my home theater. My questions are:

1) What type of interconnect cables do you recommend? I am not trying to break the bank. I just purchased a used Acurus A150 to power my mains (Wharfedale Modus One Six). They are rated at 150 watts. As you can see these speakers are not total audiophile ones, but are very underrated. I extremely like these.

2) Some say to leave the power on at all times on power amps. Is this recommended? Wouldn't it suck a lot of electricity? Wouldn't the life of the amps decrease by having it on all the time?

3) The Wharfedales are bi-ampable. It is as stated rated at 150 watt. If I am looking to bi-amp each, should I get a 75-100 x 2 power amp? More wattage will probably fry either the drivers or melt the internal wire in due time?

4) I am somewhat embarrassed to ask, but how do I bridge a power amp that has two channels so it becomes one in order to have more power to drive a center?

As mentioned, I am a total rookie with power amps. I have always bought integrated amps, but would like to move toward separates. Any knowledge in this world would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[DavidSGT]

Hiya Niti,

I am not an expert, but I do run an old Rotel 985 from my AVR...

1. Why don't you use Beldens 1694a's or 89259, if you are nifty with a soldering iron , you can even DIY

2. If it has a switch, use it, that's my motto, but of course that is me...

3. Don't worry about the dicrepancy in watts, unless you drive the speaks like a disco for 8 hours a day, I doubt you will fry anything so get as much power as you can afford, the more headroom the better...at the very least it will have a slight protection to the virus, Upgraditis...

4. Bridgeable power amps usually have a switch behind that you can, uh, well switch to a monoblock.

Hope this helps...
Regards.
DavidSGT

 

[Andy_A]

the amp needs to have a bridging switch to bridge it. Remember that when you bridge an amp it cuts in half the ohms it sees. So if you have an 8 ohm speaker, the amp would see 4 ohms. This shouldn't be much of a problem. You can pick up the audiosource amp one/a, which is bridgeable to 200 X 1 for under $100.