[bundee1]

Look at Klipsch speakers. They are usually higher efficiency. How far will you be sitting from the speakers? I have a 25 watt amp that sounds beautiful with 89db speakers.

 

[sumone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bundee1 Look at Klipsch speakers. They are usually higher efficiency. How far will you be sitting from the speakers? I have a 25 watt amp that sounds beautiful with 89db speakers.

I'll be about anywhere from 2 feet to 12 feet away. Sounding beautifull....does that mean loud also?

 

[bundee1]

Really how loud do you want it? Do you want to piss people off? Or do you just want impact?

 

[sumone]

Don't wanna piss people off. May sound stupid (as us 20yr olds think funny) but I just want the ability for someone just walking down the street to be able to hear a lot. With my current speakers, which are 7 watts & 23 watts for the sub, it can get "up" there, but the quality is horrible with the distortion and all.

That's one thing I hate...people who think they're playing their music loud when it's just laced with distortion!

Usually when I'm getting ready to go to a party, while ironing my clothes, I'll throw on some good music to get me pumped up...and it's gotta be loud! Can't play Lil'Jon & the Eastside Boyz at a low volume; it's just wrong! I also sometimes have people over just "chillin" and we like our music loud. Of course this is only with rap & some club music. Other times I just like to see how a certain song sounds loud. Aside from that, I could care less about loud music. I'm primarily focused on quality though, but I don't want to not be able to get crazy sometimes!

 

[bundee1]

How big is the room and how much do you want to spend? Im thinking you should get a used power amp for around $200 (Adcom), Used tower speakers(Wharfedale or older PSBs), and a cheap used preamp(Nad). Youll get loud music that sounds pretty decent. That sonic impact amp is for someone who is really going to sit down and get into the music, so it doesnt need to be loud. You arent going to get bass slam from 5 watts, even into a high efficiency speaker. NO LIL JON FOR YOU!

 

[JWFokker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sumone Don't wanna piss people off. May sound stupid (as us 20yr olds think funny) but I just want the ability for someone just walking down the street to be able to hear a lot. With my current speakers, which are 7 watts & 23 watts for the sub, it can get "up" there, but the quality is horrible with the distortion and all. That's one thing I hate...people who think they're playing their music loud when it's just laced with distortion! Usually when I'm getting ready to go to a party, while ironing my clothes, I'll throw on some good music to get me pumped up...and it's gotta be loud! Can't play Lil'Jon & the Eastside Boyz at a low volume; it's just wrong! I also sometimes have people over just "chillin" and we like our music loud. Of course this is only with rap & some club music. Other times I just like to see how a certain song sounds loud. Aside from that, I could care less about loud music. I'm primarily focused on quality though, but I don't want to not be able to get crazy sometimes!

Dude, you give us 20 year olds a bad name. First off, you shouldn't contaminate a T-Amp with Lil' Jon and the Eastside Boyz. Or any audio equipment for that matter. If you absolutely have to listen to rap, put on something decent like old school Busta Rhymes albums. Rap has not improved since The Coming and When Disaster Strikes. And second, no one ever said the T-Amp was intended for use with a subwoofer. Buy a cheap sub and amp, a sonotube, slap it together, and for $150 you have your thumpin' bass. Of course, you're probably better off buying a good quality amp and a 12" Shiva sub to use with the sonotube, but that's about 2x the cost. T-Amps are for driving satellites, not subs.

 

[CSMR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sumone You can't go deaf with only 5 watts

That sounds like an advantage to me, but to each his own.

 

[RnB180]

the sonic t amp recommendations as an actual amp for home speakers are usually from over-enthusiastic fanboys

obviously if youre serious about music with some good speakers, the sonic t is a joke.

they might be neat for mutilmedia use though, not for critical listening. Since people have tried to drive real deal speakers with them doesnt mean that the Sonic t is good at it, I think its a novelty.

 

[MrJoshua]

I really like the sound the Sonic T produces.

OK, it's not going to make you go deaf (good), but even with drum & bass music, my JBL's accurately produce the whole range of the music at a decent level with no obvious distortion.

I suppose that's why I've just spent almost twice the purchase price on a nice Hammond case and decent binding posts, RCA sockets etc etc...

I'm going to take it to shows etc so we can listen to music at a decent level without having to find a power outlet.

 

[philodox]

You are a fanboy if you use the t-amp with home speakers!?

The t-amp fills the same void as SET tube amps: driving efficient speakers. There is no reason that you could not use a great source and great efficient speakers [moth cicadas or horn speakers for example] and have an awesome system that can go quite loud.

 

[tennisets]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sumone Okay, but at what distance...1 meter? Suitably efficient could be 200dB. But what speakers on the market are that efficient & actually sound decent? I'd guess and say most are between 88-100dB?? I don't know a lot about home-audio speakers however, which is my whole reason for asking these questions. And about money...recommending it cause it's cheap. Let's say someone recommended a $1000 amp that only did 5 watts. That's what I'm trying to get at.

Have you ever heard of SETs (Single Ended Triodes)? Obviously not. You normally couldn't get any decent soudning amp for under $1000 that "only" produces 5 watts. People pay big bucks for SETs because they sound great. Do you have to have pretty efficient speakers? Sure, but there's nothing quite like a good SET/High Efficiency speaker setup.

You also, apparently, do not know what sensitivity means. A speaker's sensitivity measure its loudness at one meter driven by one watt (dB/W/m).

Let's look at an example:
Say you take a speaker with a sensitivity of 93 dB (reasonably high, but certainly not the highest). Factor in room gain and you get an extra 3 dB. Every time you double the wattage, you get 3 more dBs. So with one watt the speaker will play at 96 dB at one meter. With two watts, it will play at 99 dB. With four watts (2A3 amp), it will play at 102 dB. With 8 watts (300B amp), it will play at 105 dB. Loud enough for you yet?

Granted, you would want speakers with higher than 93 dB senisitivity with an SET (probably), because you would want more headroom (more headroom = better dynamics, in general). But the T-Amp reportedly sounds much more powerful (and will drive less efficient speakers) than its wattage might indicate.

Me? I love DHTs (Directly Heated Triodes, typically used in SETs, sometimes in Push Pull amps). In fact, I'm building an amp using 2A3 output tubes starting in just a couple of weeks. It'll cost me about $800 (well, my parents, since it's my graduation present). Anyway, my point is it will produce about 8 watts, not much right? But you don't NEED much, with the right speakers, for fantastic sound! An amp like the one I'm building would cost anywhere from $2000 to $4000 dollars if it was sold commercially. Low powered tube amps can be very expensive!

Okay, I'm done now.

 

[Necros]

As the others have said, you don't need hundreds or thousands of watts to drive speakers- although it certainly doesn't hurt. You're correct that when a SS clips it is disastrous to tweeters. But I've heard 8W tube amp drive big JM Labs Electra speakers and they sound great, and more than loud enough.

And you won't get "200db" efficiency, the most I've seen is ~107dB.
I've got 2.2KW of power from my amps, but really don't need even half that. Still it's good I have reserves, I don't want to blow £120+ tweeters.

As for the Sonic T, but I would certainly consider it for PC speaker system amplifier...

 

[RnB180]

Quote:

Originally Posted by philodox You are a fanboy if you use the t-amp with home speakers!? The t-amp fills the same void as SET tube amps: driving efficient speakers. There is no reason that you could not use a great source and great efficient speakers [moth cicadas or horn speakers for example] and have an awesome system that can go quite loud.

I will state once again using the sonic t amp as your primary amp source for critical music listening is a joke. If you are using speakers refernece speakers using a t amp as the primary amp then you have some priority issues. If digital amplification is your boat then there are better digital amps out there then a battery power plastic t amp.

people like the sonic t because its $40 and performs more then expected from a $40 amp makes it so popular, but there there are the fanboys that think it can lauch rockets and drive them them around....

My fanboy comment was directed to a select group, if you were offended about my comment then you should ask yourelf why.

thanks!

 

[philodox]

The T-amp performs very well when run with a regulated PSU and there are a few options for modding them. I think that you are focusing a little to much on it being little and plastic and battery powered.

Have you heard the T-amp with efficient speakers?

 

[RnB180]

no, but then if i wanted a digital amp Id just get the panny sa xr70.
S7V rated it at roughly 70 watts all channels driven @ 8 ohms. also inexpensive for what it offers.

I already have a sold state that is capable of driving my speakers to reference decible levels. along with a couple of subs that hit the 115-120 dB mark just from the LFE alone. I have no need to spend $40 for a 5 watt digital amp to drive 2 speakers. dont get me wrong, I dont use anything special either, I use an entry level high current hk measured at about 55-60 (real) watts per channel all channels driven.

$40 is not expensive, but id rather invest $40 in a digital amp worth while.