[Oddworld]

I would like to get some tower speakers for home audio, but they require 200-400 watts to drive.
Where can I find such an amplifier? Most home theater receivers are 100 watts / channel. Please point me in the right direction. I would like to be somewhat economical (budget $500 - $2,000)
 

 

[Frankie K]

You could look at DecWare, they have some nice amp's and pre amp's. I know some one else out there will come thru with some more name's. If not contact SkyLab or a few of the other Senior member's! Or contact Steve at DecWare. Is Your character from Oddworld if I remember correctly! 

 

[Oddworld]

YEA!I love that game, thats why my name is oddworld. Any other ideas on amplification?
 
I would like to power these speakers: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290160
Wouldn't a 100W per channel home receiver be a little too wimpy to power this thing?

 

 

[Frankie K]

I wish I could tell You some more, try contacting SkyLab, I know He does a lot of amp review's and such. Good Luck, I wish I could be of more assistance than this My Friend.

 

[Jubei]

I'm quite sure one doesn't need 200-400 watts to drive those speakers - 89db with nominal impedance of 8 ohm shouldn't represent too much of a load. Maybe someone with more experience can elaborate on the science ... 
 
Realistically, if you really need that type of output power, AV receivers isn't the way to go. You would probably need a dedicated power amp.

 

[Uncle Erik]

If your budget is $500-$2,000, you could do a lot better with speakers. Go to Audiogon and poke around - you can buy into the high end. I love Magnepan, Quad, Vandersteen, PSB, Klipsch (heritage models), and there are many other good ones. If you can go audiophile, go audiophile. You won't regret it.

Do not worry about the Watts from an amp. A lot of the figures are fudged and you don't need hundreds to power most speakers. If you need to drive a tough load, like a ribbon or planar, you do need the power. But only worry about that if you go for Magnepans or Apogees. Everything else will make your ears bleed and summon the police with 50W-100W. I even got the ESS-AMT1s up to uncomfortable levels with the Moth Si2A3. It puts out around 3W.

Keep in mind that it's logarithymic. If you want to double the sound level of 1W you need 10W. Double 10W needs 100W. So going from 100W to 200W won't be that noticeable. Also, amps aren't always putting out peak power. A 100W amp might loaf along at 15W or 20W at normal listening levels.

$2,000 is plenty to get you into excellent sound. For example, I got Quad ESL-63s for about $700, a Conrad-Johnson MV52 for about the same and a Conrad-Johnson PV-2 for around $300. They sound great. Right now, I'm using the MV52 with a pair of ProAc Response 2.5 clones I spent about $1,000 on.

But there are many other great combos in this range. The older Conrad-Johnson EL34-based power amps deliver classic tube sound. So do the Dynaco ST70 amps which are affordable. You could also pick up a classic McIntosh integrated or solid state power amp in your budget. Other good solid state amps are made by NAD, Adcom, Krell, Pass Labs, Bryston, and many others. Do not be afraid to buy used, either. These are well made and hold resale value - you'll be able to get your money out. Same goes for the speakers.

I think you should spend some time researching speakers. Consider your room size and the kind of music you play. You will find some excellent speakers to fit you. Then pick an amp/preamp or integrated that works well with your speakers.

Skip the whole HT thing. Stereo works great for video and you'll be able to enjoy your music more, too.

 

[AmericanPzycho]

As far as an amplifier to drive the speakers, the cheapest most reliable source I have found is EMOTIVA. I own an XPA-5 and it rocks. http://emotiva.com/

 

[SiriuslyCold]

I'm curious what the speakers are that require 200~400W to drive.

 

[Uncle Erik]

The speakers that need serious amplification tend to be planars, like Magnepans, Apogees and Carvers.

 

[El_Doug]

Speakers for home theater often state something ridiculous such as "400 watts" because they assume two things: 
 
1)  You are too much of an idiot to know what watts/channel means, and therefore probably look at the total combined 7 channel rating of your receiver
2)  Receiver manufacturers lie and overstate power
 
In reality, once these two factors are considered, any 50+ watt amp would no doubt be fine, 100 watts will allow you to rattle the windows without clipping

 

[kwkarth]

If you're truly interested in SOTA speakers like that why not consider these?  They really do sound great:
 
http://www.goldenear.com/products/triton-two-tower
 
Here's the whole system:
 
http://www.goldenear.com/products/tritoncinema-two
 

 
 

[tr] [/tr] [tr] [td]

Triton Two Tower Specifications

[tr] [td] Speaker Dimensions[/td] [td] 7-1/2" W x 15" D x 48" H (height is with base installed, no spikes)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] Weight[/td] [td] 60 lbs (product) / 75 lbs (shipping)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] Base Dimensions[/td] [td] 11-1/2" W x 18" D[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] Frequency Response[/td] [td] 18 Hz – 35 kHz[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] Efficiency[/td] [td] 91 dB[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] Nominal Impedance[/td] [td] Compatible with 8 ohms[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] Driver Complement[/td] [td] Two - 5” x 8” long-throw quadratic subwoofers coupled to:
Two - 7” x 10” Planar Infrasonic Radiators
Two - 4-1/2" High-Definition cast-basket MVPP ™ mid/bass drivers
One – HVFR™ High-Velocity Folded Ribbon Tweeter

[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] Recommended Amplification[/td] [td] 20 – 500 watt/channel
[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] Built-In Subwoofer Power Amplifier[/td] [td] 1200 Watt ForceField Subwoofer
[/td] [/tr]

[/td] [td]  [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]  
 
With these, you don't have to worry about an amp.  When I listened to them, they were powered by about 50 WPC and sounded tremendous.  
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GoldenEar Triton Two

By Robert Deutsch • Posted: Jan 15, 2011

More than once in my years of CES-going, it has come down to the last day of the show for me to discover an important product. That was the case this time. The product was the Triton Two, the flagship loudspeaker from GoldenEar, the new company founded by Sandy Gross and Don Givogue, who had been partners at Definitive Technology, Gross having also co-founded Polk Audio. The company is new, but it draws on a wealth of experience in the speaker business, and it shows. There were quite a few speakers that impressed me at this show, but, taking price and sound quality into account, I have say that the Triton Two, shown here with Sandy, was my favorite. It’s a floor-standing three-way, narrow in the front (5¼”), widening in the rear (7½”), and just 48” high, making it visually unassuming. It uses an unusual driver complement, starting with what they call a High-Velocity Folded Ribbon Tweeter (a variant of the Heil AMT tweeter), two 4½” mid/bass drivers, and two 5”x9” subwoofers, each coupled with a 7”x10” passive radiator facing the side. Each subwoofers is driven by a 1200W DSP-controlled class-D amp. With all this technology—and truly full-range sound—the Triton Two costs just $2500/pair.
 

 

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[SiriuslyCold]

Uncle Erik - I hear ya Apogees are notorious for their power requirements

also, in my experience, towers require less power to drive than standmount (or bookshelf) speakers (because they are more efficient)

still, I would like to know what speakers the OP was talking about

 

[Uncle Erik]

SiriuslyCold, the OP was probably looking at some commercial speakers with "requirements" that call for the purchase of additional equipment from the manufacturer. 200W-400W is not normal unless you're driving a hell of a ribbon or one of the big Maggies.

Kevin, those are really interesting and I haven't heard of them before! I'll have to look into them more - ribbons and AMTs are always very interesting. Maybe I'll have to work a deal with my parents to get the ESS-AMT1s back. They might trade them for the ProAc clones.

 

[kwkarth]

Those GoldenEar Tritons are tremendous sounding....Sort of made me think that they were the LCD-2s of the speaker world.

 

[AmericanPzycho]

Quote:

Those GoldenEar Tritons are tremendous sounding....Sort of made me think that they were the LCD-2s of the speaker world.

I read about these awhile back in Sound & Vision. I definitely would like to demo these.