Final verdict with amplifier


Hey all,
I recently posted how my Parasound amp wasn't providing much of an improvement on my Klipsch WF-34 speakers, which are rated at 125W RMS, and 300W peak, and my amp being 205W per channel. Most of the responses that I got was that I needed a decent preamp to integrate into my system. Well recently a buddy gave me his old Carver TFM 55 amplifier, rated at 380 Watts per channel 600 Watts mono, so I decided to give it a whirl. I know that I have to be careful cuz that much power could blow the fecal matter out of my speakers. Well I hooked it up BOTH WAYS. It was slightly better on stereo, and mono was a big difference, but even cranked it didn't harm my speakers. why is that? And how is a preamp supposed to help any of that?
kornkat2020
I don't know in your particular case but for some reason Carver amps seam to be rated at high power outputs but they don't seam to "sound" that loud. I remember years ago I had one of those Carver 400 "cube" amps hooked up to a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls and I could pretty much turn the volume all the way up with no harmful issues (to the gear, my ears, a different story).
Power handling is not your issue. You can ruin your speakers by unknowingly over driving a twenty watt solid state amplifier into clipping. Most consumer speaker manufactures provide basic amplifier guidelines for optimum performance. In this case your speakers 95dB sensitive is enough to be used with a low 15-75 watt tube amplifier. This will provide a fuller mid bass which, I'm guessing, is the area your trying to improve. Down 3dB @ 50Hz these are not bass heavy speakers and were probably designed to be used with a subwoofer.

While amplifiers do have character of their own the sound of their character is very small compared to the difference the signal it's given by the preamplifier and the source.

You wont damage your speakers unless you drive your amp into clipping. Clipping amp or overdriving the drivers should be easy to hear. Perhaps you could describe what you feel are missing?