Hey,

I realise this is a little off topic - but many of you seem very clued up so I'm gonna ask anyway.

I have a vintage Kenwood KA-501 High Speed Integrated Amplifier (70Wrms/channel into
8ohms apprently). I am using this to drive two bi-wired KEF Calinda (100Wrms) speakers.

I have two Technics turntables hooke dup through a mixer to the amp.

My question is, (and I'm not sure if this is even anserwable without knowing the amp so just say if not) how do I know if I'm overdriving the amp?

It has two meters on the front, which measure watts output (the manual says ithey protect speakers by giving you an idea of the output levels). These meters come lcose to maxing out (fluttering around/just above 100) before the volume knob reaches 5 (out of 10 = halfway).

If the last question is not possible to anwser then another one which springs to mind is if I do overdrive them Amp will it blow fuses or could it cause damage?

Thanks for any help offered
James

A speaker's impedence rating is a nominal imp, and the impedence will vary with frequency. Most meters will not adjust for impedence changes. So the meter reading can be misleading. Quite frankly, most meters are worthless. They just there to look 'cool'. It gives you an idea, but it really isn't accurate indicator of how much power the amp is really putting out.

Blowing fuses is a good indicator your're overdriving the amp,and you could damge it. You hope the fuse will blow before any damage will occur to the amp. But fuses are imperfect protection devices. If you're constantly replacing fuses, I would back off a bit, and consider getting bigger amps.

So what you're saying is the best way of knowing if I am overdriving the amp is if fuses are blowing?

I've never blown a fuse with this particular unit. . . so i guess that means i MIGHT be fine

Quote:



It's not the only way. If the speaker starts screaming "ouch!", I would say it's time to back off! But really, the speaker will start to distort if overdriven. So you are either overdriving the amp and/ or speakers.

My guess is, the Kef's can take all the power the Kenwood amp can put out, and I think they match well. Depending on the situation, the Kef's may be happier with a bigger amp, too.

Thankyou!

The likelyhood of the amp giving out before the speakers is pretty slim. If it is being over-driven it will most likely start clipping, and the fuse will blow from being over-heated. It's much more likely the speakers will distort before this will happen.
If you are driving power-hungry speakers (mostly 4 ohms and lower) you may want to invest in a seperate power amp in the future.
The meters are usually hocus-pocus unless it's a reference product, or serious hi-fi product. I would just pay attention with my ears.

Yeah, I use this setup to monitor while mixing (DJing) at home so any clipping / distortion would be noticed stright away.

Nothing like that so far - so onward!