[ptarmigan]

My love affair with McIntosh amps ended about a month ago when I moved. After moving 3 150+ pound MC 402s, I decided to retire the McIntosh amps for good. Last week I bought three 7b SSTs for my front sound stage (Paradigm Signature S8v2 mains and C5v2 center). I love these amps, and at only 50lbs! My concern is all three amps are rated at 635w RMS at 8ohms. The ‘digms have a recommend amplifier range of up to 500 watts. As long as I don’t play at extreme volumes is there any risk to my speakers?

[KeithA]

None whatsoever!

I'm running a 14B rated at 642 wpc into a set od speakers rated for 200-250 wpc.

Keith

[TomW16]

Although it is possible to blow speakers with a high wattage amplifier, most speakers have damage because the amp is too small and the amp clips.

I would much rather have too many watts than too few watts in my amp.

Cheers,
Tom

[splittailz]

28B's into 250 watt speakers and let em sing here. not worried about trashing the speakers in the least.

[niels]

No Bryston is overkill into anything really, although 500 watts for a set of horns rated at 105db/1meter can be discussed.
A huge amp into speakers rated at for instance 60 watts is a big advantage as you will hear when the speakers had enough. A 20 watt amp into speakers rated at 150 watts will lots of times result in blown tweeters because of distortion from the amp.....

[James Tanner]

My love affair with McIntosh amps ended about a month ago when I moved. After moving 3 150+ pound MC 402s, I decided to retire the McIntosh amps for good. Last week I bought three 7b SSTs for my front sound stage (Paradigm Signature S8v2 mains and C5v2 center). I love these amps, and at only 50lbs! My concern is all three amps are rated at 635w RMS at 8ohms. The ‘digms have a recommend amplifier range of up to 500 watts. As long as I don’t play at extreme volumes is there any risk to my speakers?

I remember about 10 years ago I was doing a demo at the CES Show in Vegas and we had just taken on the distribution of PMC speakers in the USA.  The demo consisted of a pair of PMC - LB-1 speakers a BP25, Roksan Turntable , arm and cartridge and a pair of 7B's in a room about 12x15. For those unfamiliar with the LB-1 it is a small 2-way (4.5 inch woofer and 3/4 inch tweeter).

The owner of PMC came in for the show on the second day of the show and came to the room for a demo. He looked at the setup and said - "James ---7B's on LB-1's --- isn't that a bit excessive?"  I fired up the cut and his jaw dropped.  It was one of those room/speaker/system interfaces that was simply magic in its presentation.  I will never forget how incredible that particular demo sounded.

So I agree having a lot of power has certain benefits.


james

[richidoo]

The big amp doesn't kill drivers, turning up the input signal too high is what kills them. The driver will only draw as much current as it needs to move with the voltage signal.  If you raise the volume too high, the driver will ask for more current than its coil can handle in order to obey your command and obey Ohms law. A cone driver will sound pretty bad before it kills itself, but sometimes tweeters don't hiint their pending demise. I have played my 4" full range drivers rated for 25W with 100W tube amps and even MC402, sounded nice...

I would love to hear your comparison of the Bryston and Mac sometime.
Rich

[ptarmigan]

I still own the MC402s, I just “leased” them to my father’s system until I finish my commitment  w/ the fed (someone has to pay off my 120k in student loans). I switch to a new location every year, and the 402s became a BIG burden. I love the 7B SSTs! I will take the Brystons to my dad’s and do an A/B comparison in the new future and post my findings. I can’t give an honest comparison between the two at the moment, as I had the 402s in a dedicated and treated room and the SSTs are in a temporary space w/ no treatment.