Will -
Jim,
I'm surprised that 200 or 300 watts per driver would be recommended on a fully active design, especially the tweeter. Several years ago I had purchased Newform ribbon hybrid and contemplated an active crossover. The designer recommended consideration of a resistor prior to the ribbon as protection, especially on start-up. Do you recommend such and would you leave the DEQX on all the time or make sure it is powered on sequentially before the amps?
Regards,
Will
Well, you are certainly on the right track here. The tweeter needs nowhere near this amount of power and will never use it. The midrange probably not either. But if you are a glutton for punishment, you can drive a 200 watt amp into clipping on the woofer circuit (I've done it, but would never play anything at those volumes for longer than necessary).
But these are the options for this particular line of 6-channel amps. I do not know of any comparable amps with equal gain that have different power levels per amp as an option in a 6-channel format. Given equal gain, you could always use three stereo amps from the same manufacturer - say 300, 150 and 50-watts respectively.
But the DEQX unit will not drive the tweeter (or midrange) at anwhere near the power levels of the woofer. So it is really not an issue with good amps.
The ATI's have a "soft-on" feature that is very effective. So I would power up the DEQX and then the amp. You can also use a cap to protect the tweeter if you don't feel confident (I don't, but you could).
Keep in mind that the tweeter power level is much lower than the others. Chances are you would blow the other drivers first. But the nice thing is, if you do blow the tweeter (I never have, but I suppose it is possible), you can just install a new ribbon element ($10) and you're back in business. It is the only moving part in the tweeter and is field replacable.
- Jim
