Help with speaker choice

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Hello there everyone, long time no post.

Im wondering if i could perhaps have a little help with my standmount speaker choce please

I have a cambridge audio 340a with a rega appollo as source and some old trusty sony speakers, obviously the speakers should be the next upgrade but i think my amp is going to hold me back as far as choice goes,

I have set my self a £1000 max budget and have a short list off

Dynaudio Excite X12 - Neat motive 3 - Revolver music 1 and a couple of others from pmc and spendor

What i would like to know is....will my weedy amp drive these any of these speakers adiquetly, as ive read a couple of times that a low power amp can damage fairly demanding speakers,

Im really worried that my £150 40wpc 340a will not be enough for the class of speakers i want, i dont really want to buy a new amp as im really happy with this one at the moment and also im enjoying the hobby factor of building the system up and dont want to buy two big componets together as the amp will be my next upgrade after the speakers.

What is my best option here guys??

thankyou 🙂
 
I think it will be fine, but at some point you will need to upgrade the amp to something more powerful and capable.
 
You have a fine source there in the Rega and the Cambridge is a decent amp but Joel is right, you will hanker after a better amp so if i were you i would go for a Rega brio and their R3 speakers, both will come in under your budget and leave plenty more to buy more cd's. If you feel this is not right for you then a better amp and cheaper speakers maybe the way to go. The Naim i is a lovely amp with the Rega r1 speakers but the best advice is to take your cd to your dealer and listen to a combination of amp and speaker. I really dont think your amp will do justice to the speakers mentioned.
 
I just bought the Dynaudio X12 speakers. I know you don't want to buy a new amp, but the Rotel RA-04 drives these Dynaudios with ease. No problems at all.

The X12 are amazing speakers BTW. Like Clare said, they are incredibly musical.
 
Your amp is way below the class of your cd player and any of these speakers and will be a big dissapointment, trust me! It is very seriously, the weak link in your system.

I would suggest that with your budget of £1k or just over, you get a Roksan Kandy LIII amp and a pair of B&W 385's, which to me personally, makes a lot more sense for your money (if new).

This also happens to be the recommended mid-range system by What Hi-Fi, since you already have the Rega Apollo.
 
i agree with evilwolf, i had the cambridge 640a, and when it had some expensive speakers on it............total rubbish. the roksan kandy amp is far superior in every way. if it was my money i would upgrade the amp before even thinking about spending more then £200 - £300 on speakers.
 
Hi there,

Cheers for the replys, but im afraid im non the wiser from my original post,

I totally understand my amp is weedy, i totally understand than my cdp is the main component of my set up, i totally understand that my amp will not compliment the speakers i want in the way a more expensive/compitent amp would (as thats what ill upgrade after).............but i still dont understand nor am i anymore aware of the problem of my amp DAMAGING the kind of speakers i have stated.
 
Dont know about motive3s but i can deffinatly vouch for motive 2. They are really class speakers. If you look around you should be able to pick up a pair for a lot less than 1000. Then id upgrade your amp.
 
Right, ive kinda got the £500 Revolver music series 1 at the brain at the moment,

The revolver website says that these speakers have a 6 ohm impendence and 90db sensitivity and can be driven from an amp 15wpc-100wpc, now am i right in thinking that these might be a very good choice in my situation,
taking into account that the speakers will be getting complimented with a much better amp at a later date and also get me out of the the situation with the power of my current amp... and also ensuring the prevention of doing any damage to the speakers through not been driven properly....until amp upgrade time ???

Also just to add that the spendors-pmc's and neats are all off my shortlist as ive confirmed through there websites etc that 50wpc is the very minimum the manufacturers reccomend to drive them.

thankyou
 
Basically if you have too little power from your amp to drive the speakers at a given volume the amp starts to top and square waves the signal. This is clipping where the amp is driven to work at and above it's headroom, clipping the top off the curved sine wave. When this happens you will get clipping distortion which is high order distorted harmonics i.e. a very high frequency signal, being sent to the tweeter. This may overheat the voice coil in the tweeter and melt/distort it.

Good ol' Google.
 
igglebert:Basically if you have too little power from your amp to drive the speakers at a given volume the amp starts to top and square waves the signal. This is clipping where the amp is driven to work at and above it's headroom, clipping the top off the curved sine wave. When this happens you will get clipping distortion which is high order distorted harmonics i.e. a very high frequency signal, being sent to the tweeter. This may overheat the voice coil in the tweeter and melt/distort it.

Good ol' Google.

but will this happen to the revolvers by using my weak amp??
 
Perhaps a phone call to Revolver? If they say 15wpc minimum, I'd go with that. If your speakers fry, then Revolver have some explaining to do IMO!
 
marcymarc555:igglebert:Basically if you have too little power from your amp to drive the speakers at a given volume the amp starts to top and square waves the signal. This is clipping where the amp is driven to work at and above it's headroom, clipping the top off the curved sine wave. When this happens you will get clipping distortion which is high order distorted harmonics i.e. a very high frequency signal, being sent to the tweeter. This may overheat the voice coil in the tweeter and melt/distort it.

Good ol' Google.

but will this happen to the revolvers by using my weak amp??

IMO not with the Series 1 and that amp (unless you go mad and turn it up to max dial turn). I think you will get a good sound. Enjoy.
 
igglebert:marcymarc555:igglebert:Basically if you have too little power from your amp to drive the speakers at a given volume the amp starts to top and square waves the signal. This is clipping where the amp is driven to work at and above it's headroom, clipping the top off the curved sine wave. When this happens you will get clipping distortion which is high order distorted harmonics i.e. a very high frequency signal, being sent to the tweeter. This may overheat the voice coil in the tweeter and melt/distort it.

Good ol' Google.

but will this happen to the revolvers by using my weak amp??

IMO not with the Series 1 and that amp (unless you go mad and turn it up to max dial turn). I think you will get a good sound. Enjoy.

Glad you think so igglebert,Im feeling quite a bit more positive on the matter now.
 
Come on, a grand budget for speakers used with a 150 pound amp? madness! You can make a massive difference if you buy wisely, marcymarc has a fine cdp, add a roksan kandy mk3 and a pair of moniter audio rs1's and you should get a very chunky improvement in all areas. just my thoughts after a couple of glasses of red..
 
jimm:Come on, a grand budget for speakers used with a 150 pound amp? madness! You can make a massive difference if you buy wisely, marcymarc has a fine cdp, add a roksan kandy mk3 and a pair of moniter audio rs1's and you should get a very chunky improvement in all areas. just my thoughts after a couple of glasses of red..

Totally agree with all of what you say tbh, but putting the £150 amp with the now £500 speakers is not a perminent arangment, just good enough to give me an improvement on my current sound and also having a quality speaker at amp upgrade time......thats when i think my set up will come into its own.
 
Would mr Duncan be able to elaberate on this topic...please........pretty please??
 
I agree with JoelSim. The setup will be fine but you may suffer for a while sound wise compared to what you could achieve in the long run. If you are DEFINITELY going to upgrade the amp in the near future to something that will suit the speakers of your choosing, and then plan to keep the system for a long time, I think you will be happier and better off if you get the set up you want instead of constantly upgrading. Just my philosophy.ÿ
 
Unless you listen regularly at ear-bashing volumes you won't damage the speakers. I agree with you, buy the best speakers you can now and you will notice a huge difference, work hard and then buy a new amp for £700 or so, and you'll be laughing with a very nice system.

Then buy a matching power amp.

Where does it all end?

It doesn't!!!!!!!

Enjoy.
 
JoelSim:
Unless you listen regularly at ear-bashing volumes you won't damage the speakers. I agree with you, buy the best speakers you can now and you will notice a huge difference, work hard and then buy a new amp for £700 or so, and you'll be laughing with a very nice system.

Then buy a matching power amp.

Where does it all end?

It doesn't!!!!!!!

Enjoy.

My next upgrades will be high level, component by component otherwise I will just go sideways. Next speakers need to be £2k+, next CD £2k+, next amp combo £3k+. RRP anyway, be buggered if I'll pay that much!
 
JoelSim:JoelSim:
Unless you listen regularly at ear-bashing volumes you won't damage the speakers. I agree with you, buy the best speakers you can now and you will notice a huge difference, work hard and then buy a new amp for £700 or so, and you'll be laughing with a very nice system.

Then buy a matching power amp.

Where does it all end?

It doesn't!!!!!!!

Enjoy.

My next upgrades will be high level, component by component otherwise I will just go sideways. Next speakers need to be £2k+, next CD £2k+, next amp combo £3k+. RRP anyway, be buggered if I'll pay that much!

Hey Joel, thanks for keeping an eye on my thread, Im glad someone understands, i was starting to feel like some kind of mad man lol

All im trying to do is build my self a nice mid range system gradually, im enjoying my little upgrade treat every now and then, imo it would just spoil the buzz if i bought to much at once, I mean if its gonna be a one off i might as well just chuck 10k at a system tommorow and have done with it...........but wheres the fun in that, i like buying all the hifi publications every month, scouring internet pages trying to find some info on my next upgrade... plus coming on here and reading what you lot have to say etc etc......you know the drill

I mean like you say about your next purchases, item by item, look how much fun your gonna have, all you will learn through researching these products etc etc, surly this is what its all about, expecially for us types who come on here, we are all obviously here for the same thing....we all love our music and we'll all do our best to get the best out of it...arent we all just looking to upgrade our music by upgrading our systems to see how good it can really get???
I like to savour this pleasure.
 
marcymarc555:JoelSim:JoelSim:
Unless you listen regularly at ear-bashing volumes you won't damage the speakers. I agree with you, buy the best speakers you can now and you will notice a huge difference, work hard and then buy a new amp for £700 or so, and you'll be laughing with a very nice system.

Then buy a matching power amp.

Where does it all end?

It doesn't!!!!!!!

Enjoy.

My next upgrades will be high level, component by component otherwise I will just go sideways. Next speakers need to be £2k+, next CD £2k+, next amp combo £3k+. RRP anyway, be buggered if I'll pay that much!

Hey Joel, thanks for keeping an eye on my thread, Im glad someone understands, i was starting to feel like some kind of mad man lol

All im trying to do is build my self a nice mid range system gradually, im enjoying my little upgrade treat every now and then, imo it would just spoil the buzz if i bought to much at once, I mean if its gonna be a one off i might as well just chuck 10k at a system tommorow and have done with it...........but wheres the fun in that, i like buying all the hifi publications every month, scouring internet pages trying to find some info on my next upgrade... plus coming on here and reading what you lot have to say etc etc......you know the drill

I mean like you say about your next purchases, item by item, look how much fun your gonna have, all you will learn through researching these products etc etc, surly this is what its all about, expecially for us types who come on here, we are all obviously here for the same thing....we all love our music and we'll all do our best to get the best out of it...arent we all just looking to upgrade our music by upgrading our systems to see how good it can really get???
I like to savour this pleasure.

Quite right, and don't worry about damaging the speakers unless you seriously cane the volume.
 
Just an update

Ive been trying to get intouch with revolver by both phone and email and have heard nothing so going to give then till dinner time today and if still no luck im taking my self off to Moorgate acoustics to get my self sorted once and for all, even if that means buying a new amp aswell......Supernait maybe??
 
Hi there, here is the reply i got from Revolver

Hi Marc

Thanks for your Enquiry about the Music 1 loudspeakers.

There should be no problem with matching your Cambridge 40w Amplifier
to the Revolver Music 1's.

The Music 1's are quite efficient and have a very smooth Impedance curve and therefore
do not give the Amplifier a difficult load. The Cambridge Amplifer should work OK without
any problem.

You would then be able to upgrade in due course to a better Amplifier when your budget
permits, without having to change your speakers again.

I hope this information is helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again if you need
any further product information.

Yours faithfully

Michael Jewitt
Technical Director

Sounds good to me.
 
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