How many watts per channel do you run with?

I'm running 900 wpc (Silver 7t into 4 ohm Martin Logan Sequels) for the mains.

Plus 350 wpc (one M-500t running into 4-ohm Martin Logan Scenarios) for the rears.

Plus another 350 watts (one channel of another M-500t running a 4 ohm Martn Logan Logos) for the center.

And I'm also running a Velodyne F-1500B sub with an on-board 250w amp.


Total potential power output at clipping: 3100 watts

Every single watt of which is glorious Carver Solid State...
(except for the sub...)

But in all honesty, I never run my rig at anything much more than about 15% of it's potential output. If I did, I'd suffer permanent hearning loss within a matter of a few hours...

--Richard

Paul Klipsch once said "what the world needs is a good 15 watt amplifier"

Given that the peak to average ratio of most music is 10 - 20 dB, that 15 W amplifier would need to put out a clean 1500W for transients.

I'm running (right now) two bridged M-500t into stacked Klipsch Cornwall II's, Denon HT 's 90W to Klipsch surrounds/center and one bridged M-1.0t to a klipsch sub. Soon to be 5 M-500t and 2 M-1.0t

You Bum !

fronts: m1.5t on woofers,.m1.0t on mids and tweets (bi-amp) @8r about 800-900watts
sides: m1.0t @6r about 350-400 watts
rears: m1.0t@6r about 350-400 watts
center: m400t about 350 watts
sub m1.0t inverting bridged to 8R about 800-1000 watts
total power at clip all channels driven around 5500w-5700w all carver.
don't know what it would sound like never drove them all to clip at same time!don't know if 2 20amp circuits could bring them all up at the same time lol.

I'm pretty much in agreement with OBI56....with my new EPI 1000's, I can rarely get the oppurtunity to pump more then about 10-60 watts into them ("too loud" someone in family will complain...but really not ). But they are very smooth sounding so I can push my TFM-35's capability and get them to use the full 250 w/c; easier to do with classical or of course drum music like "Time" by Chamber Brothers, e.g.). But I agree, 90% of the time 15 w/c would be fine (with some headroom for the occasional transient...of course ). And I'm also very glad that I added a toggle switch to them so that I can toggle them between the four woofers all in // (with a 1 ohm 25 w resistor to boost the d.c. resistance up to about 3 ohm) to two groups in // in series (no resistor needed for about 7 ohm d.c. resistance). Kind of depends on what "mood" I'm in which sounds better: all four in // mode (how the later SN 1000's were wired) has maybe better, fuller bass (due to lower overall resistance thru the woofer leg in this mode vs tweeter leg of the circut), whereas the two groups of 2 in // in series (how the early SN 1000's were wired) has perhaps better "detail" and "brighter" tweeters due to opposite effect (more d.c. resistance thru the woofer leg of the circut relative to tweeter leg). aside: Both modes improved when I did an alignment recently of my TFM-35.... Of course the effects of either mode are subtle and end user subjective, but I very much like this flexibility built into "my" 1000's (anyone who wants the schematic for wiring in this 3PDT toogle switch (perhaps applicable to any set of speakers with four woofers; but probably not!), let me know; I have it in a Word doc format.

I'm running 400 Watts per channel into the AL-III ribbons, and another 400 WPC into the woofers.

Bill, you are running 800 wpc into each (riboon/woofer) if you are using your Signature amp (4r)...same as me!

Well, this will be a little tough for me... I need to do some math.........

The LS amp is rated: 300W into 8 ohms (24.8dBW), 600W into 4 ohms (24.8dBW), 1200W into 2 ohms

My ribbons are 2 ohms, and I get the meters bouncing around 75% at times...

The other amp, ODL HT-2 is rated @ 260 watts RMS per channel into 4 ohms, which is what the 12" subs in the speakers are rated....

So looks like I have to potential of running around 1400-1500 watts per channel, and the only thing that's going to blow would be the ribbons

Show me anyone else dumping 1000w straight into their ribbons.
I really plan on re-kaptoning my ribbons soon... but before I do, I plan on TRYING to fry them. Maybe I'll hold off till CarverFest, and do a live demo. I want to see the magic smoke crackle out of a ribbon. I would hope screaming 1200 watts into a ribbon would kill it.
So far, these ribbons have turned a TFM-45 into their 1st victim, let's see if they can withstand the wrath of the Lightstar.....

James, if someone brings a Sunfire Signature 600 amp, you could run 2400 wpc into them at 2r! And I'm pretty sure the ribbons would just suddenly quit working with no fireworks. That would be reserved for a passive crossover, which you don't run, right? Active?

575 WPC into the Plats, 350 WPC into the AL-III woofers, 350 WPC into the ALIII ribbons. Looking at another M-500t to bi-amp the Plats, 9t's on the woofers, M-500t on the ribbons.

Yeah, my system's avtive... cuts all the bad electronics out of the loop. I almost bought a Signature 600 a few months back, I had a GOOD line on one for $1600, but took the Lightstar instead.
I spoke to Sari and she said I'd be better off with the LS amp over the Sunfire, because all the Sunfire amps can handle a 2 ohm load, but for a very short period of time... my ribbons are 1.8 ohms static, and I'm sure they drop down to 1 ohm, or even lower when pushed hard.

So, I could have possibly hurt a Sunfire amp, and decided to go with the one I know could hold up to a dead short if needed, it just might be seeing a dead short at times

Yeah, my system's avtive... cuts all the bad electronics out of the loop. I almost bought a Signature 600 a few months back, I had a GOOD line on one for $1600, but took the Lightstar instead.
I spoke to Sari and she said I'd be better off with the LS amp over the Sunfire, because all the Sunfire amps can handle a 2 ohm load, but for a very short period of time... my ribbons are 1.8 ohms static, and I'm sure they drop down to 1 ohm, or even lower when pushed hard.

So, I could have possibly hurt a Sunfire amp, and decided to go with the one I know could hold up to a dead short if needed, it just might be seeing a dead short at times

I'd be interested in what else you learned about Sunfire -vs- Lightstar; everything I've ever read about Sunfire said they would light up a direct short for a limited time...

I run an “anemicâ€

M 4.0t (375 W.) on highs and the 1.5t (350 W.) on lows.

[quote="Phantom602"]I run an “anemicâ€

.....Rich, you scare me .......

I scare my wife too, although once when we were listening to "Silver Springs" my wife turned to me and said (more like shouted into my ear) "it sounds like Fleetwood Mac is in our living room!"

My latest scheme really scares her; it's a scaled down version of el-pipe-0

http://www.passdiy.com/pdf/el-pipe-o.pdf

using 'only' 15 inch woofers. One of the guys that built a large sonotube sub said he had to test it outdoors because sine waves would vibrate the sheetrock off the walls! That scared her!

Nominal impedance for the Martin Logan Monolith’s is 4 ohms and drops to 1 ohm at 20 kHZ. Like most ML speakers a hard load to drive.

Thanks for the link for el-pipe-o Rich. I think we can fit one right behind the TV to help out the center ribbon. LOL !!!!!