Baffled by Amps

[hybridauth_Twitter_2348481284]

i used to be a bit of a home cinema enthusiast and many years ago i got myself an AX750SE which has served me well for many years but these days i no longer have a 7.1 setup and started leaning towards HiFi, initially i had a pair of cambridge audio floorstanders and the AX750 handled them fine however last month i upgraded to a pair of Dali Ikon 6

and this is where my problems start, the AX750 is by no means an ideal amp for the job, just getting decent thickness speaker cables into the ports is tough and it doesnt take banana plugs at all and the sound is currently very unbalanced like i cant get the high end out of one speaker (its a cable issue)

but thats just the background, the obvious thing is i need to upgrade my amp, where i start getting confused is power, the speakers themselves are 6 ohm and labelled as 180W which seems gargantuan, the AX750 puts out 100w per channel and seems to drive them ok (if a little soggy sounding) but in the store i listened to them on an arcam A19 which is rated at only 20W per channel but they sounded fantastic, the only amp i can find that seems to come close power wise is something like the yamaha AS501 which puts out 100W per channel like the AX750 does

could someone please explain what im missing here and what sort of amp i actually need to drive them, im perplexed

 

[BigH]

The speaker power rating is the Maximum power not the required power, so amps around 40W plus should be OK. The Arcam A19 is not 20w its more like 50w at 8 Ohms.

 

[hybridauth_Twitter_2348481284]

hmm maybe the site i saw it on had it wrong then, thanks for the info, i may give my marantz 5004 from work a whirl on them and see how it goes

 

[BigH]

Stereo amps are rated per channel but I dont think AV recievers are, they are 1 channel and generally have much higher distortion. If you want more power then a Roksan Kandy K2 is about 140W, can be bought for about £400.

 

[Thompsonuxb]

I have a Yamaha ax-620 rated 90wpc - which is a similar vintage to yours.

Its driving speakers rated at 200watts@6ohm and it does so superbly, if I say so myself.

Side note:
decided for no particular reason to upgrade it a couple of years ago but in my home it outperformed stereo amps in the £600-£900 price bracket to my surprise.

So that said how do you have it set up and have you got your speakers connected to the Main Speaker terminals on the amp.

Ensure they're not connected to the surrounds.

Also if single wired make sure you're using a single speaker set Main A or B and the correct pair are selected and make sure they are wired in phase.

You can also switch off all unused channels in the menu and your Main Level is set to NRM (normal) and not -10db

If you have a Laser Cleaning test disc that includes system checks and identifies channels and imaging do check.

They can be bought from The Pound shop.
You'll get a sweep test and phase test on it.

If you've done all this... er.....as you were.

 

[SteveR750]

"Baffled by Thompson"

 

[Thompsonuxb]

"Baffled by Thompson"

Ugh!...... I'm baffled by your baffement.

It's a receiver similar to mine, the issue may be in the set-up.

Just addressing the basics first provided those are covered- if there is still
an issue the op can then move forward ref upgrading.

That amp is more than capable of driving those speakers to a very high level soundwise - it'll out perform the likes of an arcam a19 too.

 

[hybridauth_Twitter_2348481284]

thanks for the info all, i didnt know that a kandy could be picked up that cheaply, once my funds recover from buying the speakers ill look into it, until then i grabbed a cheap nad C320BEE to tide me over

 

[Thompsonuxb]

thanks for the info all, i didnt know that a kandy could be picked up that cheaply, once my funds recover from buying the speakers ill look into it, until then i grabbed a cheap nad C320BEE to tide me over

Did you not explore the potential of the 750se?

Or is it faulty?

Just curious to know.

 

[hybridauth_Twitter_2348481284]

thanks for the info all, i didnt know that a kandy could be picked up that cheaply, once my funds recover from buying the speakers ill look into it, until then i grabbed a cheap nad C320BEE to tide me over

Did you not explore the potential of the 750se?

Or is it faulty?

Just curious to know.

ive already gotten all i can out of the AX750, even my cheapo marantz beats it on them when i tested it out and it seems to have serious issue with the left side now anyway, i either get severly duff sound out of the left or when turning the amp on i get "Check Sp Wire" on the display, its had a good run, time for an upgrade

 

[Thompsonuxb]

Ok..... :-D