2.1 BIY Help

M

Monsieur Pantaloons

n00b
Joined
Nov 24, 2013
Messages
5
My old 2.0 speakers have died. I wanted to have a 2.1 system. Therefore, I did some research and found that I could build the system myself with better components. Essentially, I have an idea which components I want. However, I need help with compatability of my components and suggestions on how to properly hook everything up.

Please note I live in Canada prices are vastly different...

Components:

Speakers: Infinity Primus P153 (haven't decided if I should go with P163 for an extra $40)
Amp: Dayton DTA-100a
Subwoofer: Bic America F-12

Now I wanted to hook up these components like this diagram I found posted in these forums below. My dilemma is, I am worried that the amplifier in the subwoofer is far to powerful for the infinity primus p153 speakers to be set up like in the diagram below.

z8fmjsmall.png


Please help!

Thanks!
 
The subwoofers amplifier will not be powering the speakers. The inputs connect directly to the outputs on the subwoofer and simply tap a high level input from them to convert it to a low level. Some have a a filter on the output to filter out the lows the sub would be reproducing.
 
Really? I guess reading the specs on the subwoofer confused me. Leading me to think that the subwoofer could also power the speakers. So I can just follow the diagram to hook up my system. Thank you for the clarification!

Some more questions:

Do you think I can get by with a lesser subwoofer or should I stick with the one I picked out?

I was also wondering are there canadian equivalent components in my list (in my first post of the thread) that have similar quality that maybe cheaper here in Canada?

Thanks again!
 
I'd get a used receiver from the past 10-ish years ($50-100) and then couple that with 2 speakers and a sub. You can easily get this done under $200 CAD.
 
Monsieur Pantaloons said:
Really? I guess reading the specs on the subwoofer confused me. Leading me to think that the subwoofer could also power the speakers. So I can just follow the diagram to hook up my system. Thank you for the clarification!

Some more questions:

Do you think I can get by with a lesser subwoofer or should I stick with the one I picked out?

I was also wondering are there canadian equivalent components in my list (in my first post of the thread) that have similar quality that maybe cheaper here in Canada?

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

Your confusion didn't end there. There is no such thing as 'too much power for a speaker' as it is far more dangerous to drive speakers with an underpowered amplifier.

If you have a powerful amp that can feed clean power to your speakers you can push them much further without damage than what you could with an underpowered amp. This is caused by underpowered amplifiers tendency to clip - and clipping kills your tweeters. Sometimes even the bass.
 
I checked out the prices for everything I picked out using the cheapest Canadian vendors found.

The Dayton DTA-100a, infinity primus p153, and the bic america p12 run me up to close to $700 Canadian.

I am over budget on this. Any suggested changes to make a decent 2.1 sound system for around $200-300 Canadian?
 
Last edited:
I am building this 2.1 setup for my computer so speakers will be seating 2-4 feet away from me. I have a question for you guys related to choosing an amp for speakers.

If speakers have a power handling say 30-100W, speakers having sensitivity +89dB, and impedence of 8ohms. For my purposes would a LP-2020A+ Lepai Amp does around ~10W x 2 at 8ohms or a Topping TP21 does 14W x 2 at 8 ohms be good enough? Essentially, what I am asking will I need more power cause the speakers need 30W at minimum (or will this under powering cause clipping as stated above)?

Sorry for the double post...
 
Last edited:
Yes if the sensitivity is 89db it will produce 89db at 3 feet away. The speakers don't clip, the amplifier clips if it is being driven to hard. Clipping is the introduction of DC waves into the AC current being given to the speaker, This is bad because it heats the coil up very fast and the coil is no longer moving making it loose the ability to cool its self.

The power handling is the thermal limits of the voice coil IE the coils ability to dissipate the heat without mechanical failure.

The rating for the amp should be clean power, meaning that the lepai outputs 10 watts of clean power, the amplifier can output more but it will be a unclean signal that can cause damage through clipping.
 
mannyman said:
Yes if the sensitivity is 89db it will produce 89db at 3 feet away.
Click to expand...
Yes, at 1M with 2.83V RMS. So, sitting 2-4 feet away with a ~10W amp, you'd get about 100dBA RMS. This is pretty freaking loud.

mannyman said:
Clipping is the introduction of DC waves into the AC current being given to the speaker.
Click to expand...
No. Clipping occurs when an amp runs out of voltage. This clips off the top of the waveform, producing high frequencies, which explains why clipping tends to blow tweeters, not woofers. How would DC get to a tweeter through the crossover?

DC's bad too, just not as likely as clipping a smaller amp.
 
HammerSandwich said:
Yes, at 1M with 2.83V RMS. So, sitting 2-4 feet away with a ~10W amp, you'd get about 100dBA RMS. This is pretty freaking loud.


No. Clipping occurs when an amp runs out of voltage. This clips off the top of the waveform, producing high frequencies, which explains why clipping tends to blow tweeters, not woofers. How would DC get to a tweeter through the crossover?

DC's bad too, just not as likely as clipping a smaller amp.
Click to expand...

When you overdrive a amplifier it runs out of voltage. When you clip off the top of the wave form it becomes a square wave. When you look at a square wave with a oscilloscope the top and corresponding bottom of the wave are flat and are no longer alternating. They are DC current for a short period of time. Tweeters tend to blow when clipping more often due to the fact they have less cooling and often depend on having something to cool them like ferro fluid.
 
mannyman said:
When you overdrive a amplifier it runs out of voltage. When you clip off the top of the wave form it becomes a square wave. When you look at a square wave with a oscilloscope the top and corresponding bottom of the wave are flat and are no longer alternating. They are DC current for a short period of time. Tweeters tend to blow when clipping more often due to the fact they have less cooling and often depend on having something to cool them like ferro fluid.
Click to expand...

This has already been grinded to a bone in a previous discussion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipping_%28audio%29 said:
Effects of clipping

In power amplifiers, the signal from an amplifier operating in clipping has two characteristics that could damage a connected loudspeaker:

Difference between clipped and maximum unclipped waveforms
Because the clipped waveform has more area underneath it than the smaller maximum unclipped waveform, the amplifier produces more output power. (See the waveform to the right for an example.) This extra power can cause damage to loudspeaker components, including the woofer, tweeter, or crossover, via overheating.
In the frequency domain, clipping produces harmonics at higher frequencies than the unclipped signal. This additional high frequency energy has the potential to damage a loudspeaker's tweeter via overheating.

Other effects of clipping include:

Music which is clipped experiences amplitude compression, whereby all notes begin to sound equally loud because loud notes are being clipped to the same output level as softer notes
Click to expand...
 
Thank you for the explanation; I tried searching clipping. However, the explainations were either far more complex or overly simplistic followed by a sinusoidal graph. The graph now makes sense when it clips it stays in the same position...

Anyway, I decided to pull the trigger and got:

Audiosource AMP-100
Fluance SX6 Speakers
Bic America F12

Eagerly waiting for them in the mail!
smile.gif


When looking up bookshelf speakers someone suggested the ideal placement was for it to be at least 18" away from a wall. I am just wondering if thats true?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top