Need help choosing amp for speakers

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DEF Hater

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Messages
133
I just bought a pair of Polk TSi200s that I would like to use as computer speakers. I am looking for a stereo amp or receiver to power them for around $100.I am currently looking at this amp. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Also, I will not be running a sub.
 
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I just sold 1 of those dta-100a's on the techtalk fourm a few days ago they are really nice.
 
450 said:
"Out of Stock - Due 11/24/2010"

DEF Hater: Consider buying used. I'd get a good integrated amplifier (think receiver w/o tuner), something around 40-80 WPC should work fine for you.
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Are you crazy that T-amp is 90% effiecient and @ 30wpc is 006% HMD
 
Pyle makes pro amps--in this case your typical heatsink is replaced by a pair of cooling fans. Pro amps aren't bad, they just have a bit of a noise overhead from the cooling. Also they typically have a nonexistent Class A section which is an additional reason why they are so light.
 
What is HMD? Are you trying to say THD? Those numbers are typically at 1 KHz and not 20 - 20 KHz sweeps to make them look better against competing Class A/B designs. If you did a full sweep, digital pulse width amplifiers will have a much higher THD profile than Class A/B amps.
 
jakeshields said:
What is HMD? Are you trying to say THD? Those numbers are typically at 1 KHz and not 20 - 20 KHz sweeps to make them look better against competing Class A/B designs. If you did a full sweep, digital pulse width amplifiers will have a much higher THD profile than Class A/B amps.
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did you even read the specs??
 
oh wow hahaha idk what iw as thinking hahahaha cant believe i posted that hahahahaha
 
jakeshields said:
What is HMD? Are you trying to say THD? Those numbers are typically at 1 KHz and not 20 - 20 KHz sweeps to make them look better against competing Class A/B designs. If you did a full sweep, digital pulse width amplifiers will have a much higher THD profile than Class A/B amps.
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Maybe, but not enough that it matters. Digital amps are pretty good these days, depending on how they are made. Rotel uses them, as an example.

You also have to keep straight how low a THD is useful. If you have really good speakers you are going to have a THD in the range of 0.1-0.3% on midrange and higher frequencies, and more in the realm of 1-5% on low bass frequencies. This is for top notch speakers mind you, for THD numbers that low you need something like a ScanSpeak Aircirc tweeter. Cheaper speakers will be significantly higher.

So that sets a realistic useful limit for you. While you don't want an amp to add any significant amount more, if the amp is an order of magnitude or more less, then it just doesn't matter.

While that amp might not be enough for really good speakers, at least if you play them louder (THD rises for both amps and speakers with volume) it will be fine for normal speakers. You'll probably find that they hit 1% THD over most frequencies (and higher for lower ones) at 90dB or so, which with their efficient is at 1 watt. So This amp should not be adding any major amount of distortion, nothing audible I'd imagine.

I'm not saying it is never worth getting a good amp, just that you need some rather good speakers first before it even has the potential to make a difference. Even then, amps are just much less of the equation than many like to pretend.
 
Rotel and Bel Canto (among a few other companies) just stick the B&O ASP into a box and sell it for a premium. The ICEpower ASP is an integrated amplifier board with a class-d chipset, capacitor caps, and a switch mode power supply. So regardless what the name on plate is, it's the same amp :)

And I have ICEpower myself so I'm not trying to bash the technology, but all of these competing amp technologies were created to save power while attempting to maintain sound quality.

My main point was all those extra (zero) digits with a lot of these Class-D designs are marketing numbers and do not match true output--since we listen to 20 Hz - 20KHz, not 1KHz sine tones.

Btw, the scanspeak arcirc seems to run closer to 0.5% - 0.6% THD in the midrange

svs-mts-01-speakers-thd+n-vs-frequency-large.gif


Regarding pwm designs, for example, the ICEpower chipset has 0.03% or less THD at 1KHz, but at 6.67KHz it has 0.2% THD, which would be an order higher than a typical A/B amplifier. So in this case, I would the amp would be adding audible distortion to the final output when you considering a hypothetical high end tweeter itself will only put out around 0.5% or less. For me personally, it's an acceptable compromise. I'd rather take the extra 0.2% THD than deal with a 100lb monster Class A/B power amplifier (I tried that before and it heated up my room like a pressure cooker--not to mention finding a rack for something like that is nearly impossible, and lifting it takes 2 people).
 
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I would not recommend "Pyle" audio equipment to any one. Look at parts express for a stereo amp, you will find much better options for the money.
Read other post to find the recomendations for the stereo amp people have had good results from off ebay, don't remember the name off the top of my head.
 
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