Amp for 700 Watt speakers

What kind of speakers are you running?

The wattage rating of the speakers matter less than you think. Impedence (Ohms) is more important

Can you provide the make and model of the speakers?

Get 2 of the $300 Crown XLS1000 & bridge them to make 700watts 8ohm/ 1100watts 4ohm.

http://www.crownaudio.com/amp_htm/xls_drivecore.htm

As far as I can see there is no information on these speakers anywhere other than the listing you linked to. The key questions are is the 750 watts peak power? What is the sensitivity of the speakers? How loud do you want to play them? Do you like the way they sound? Does the person who custom built these know what he is doing?

Without knowing what kind of components these have it would be hard to tell what we are looking at here. I would be cautious before spending $500 on these and make sure you know what you are getting. They do remind me of the rip off "white van" speakers.

you could get much better speakers used for $500 to be honest.

worry more about the quality of the amplifier as opposed to the power rating it offers. Same goes for speakers.
In regards to underpowering a speaker, there really is no such thing. You need enough power to reach the volumes you desire with enough headroom to handle transient demands, To determine that amount of power, you need to know the details of the speakers you plan to use, like their impedance, sensitivity, and so forth, along with the listening environment variables like the room dimensions, seating distance, sound treatment, carpet or hard floors, ceiling height, and so on. A lot of variables go into that sort of thing.

the power handling spec of a speaker simply tells you how much heat the coils can handle without physical damage. The number has nothing at all to do with the amount of power required to reach full excursion (Xmax of Xmech) or how much power is required to reach peak output, or the level you desire in your situation.

the power ratings of an amplifier are nearly as useless for a number of reasons, one of which is that the power rating, as it's measured, is not a power rating you can attain with a music source while driving speakers. Another reason is because typical listening levels use only a small fraction of the power nearly any amp is able to deliver.

The power rating of a speaker is the maximum power you can apply without damaging the speaker. Any amplifier rated for 500 watts per channel OR LESS is OK.

The power rating has nothing to do with the power required to drive the speaker. That is determined by the sensitivity rating of the speaker, in db per watt.

For example, if a speaker is rated for 88db/watt, then 100 watts will give you a sound level of 108db, 200 watts will give you 111 db etc.

You question is like asking what kind of car you need for some tires rated for 130 MPH; the answer would be...any car that will not go over 130.

You're getting some good comments.

Your question (unknown to you perhaps) is a bit non-sensical. I don't mean that to be rude. Here's an example.

My speakers are rated at 1200 watts max. How big of an amp do I need....?

Well, my speakers are very efficient horn speakers and will go to 109 db at 1 watt of input.

Suffice it to say that if you start juicing 25 watts through them you are not going to want to go much louder while in the same room. Would I therefore need a 1,200 watt amp? (no)

I know a guy who's got the same speakers who's running them with some 8 watt 300B amps, another guy who's runing them with some 2A3 PP amps (that might also be around 8 watts) and you have me at the other end of the spectrum who's biamping mine with a pair of Crown K2's (500 watts channel)

Is that overkill for residential use? Yes however, I have the gains on them turned to about 25% gain which kills all the hiss noise on these efficient horns and if I ever want to turn things up (while outside, for an outdoor movie or a party which we do) I have all the horsepower on tap that I need.

So as has been asked....you need to start at the other end of the spectrum and find out how sensative your speakers are. That might be of more help. Using the max rated input is a bit misleading. (IMHO)

Those woofers are in a bandpass alignment.... I cant imagine those speakers sounding very good, they probably have a ton of 40hz bass though. Dont be fooled when you listen, you will have tons of treble and boom.

There are actual legit large speakers in your price range

http://www.overstock.com/Electronics...3/product.html

http://www.amazon.com/BIC-RTR-EV15-E.../dp/B003H3L76I

http://www.shopcerwinvega.com/detail/CER+XLS-28/XLS-28

http://www.shopcerwinvega.com/detail/CER+VE-12/VE-12

Where are you going to go listen? What amp is the seller using? Why do you want these speakers?

Wow, those are quite large. Reminds me of the Dominator speakers in Ruthless People.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19CvEO3Riy0

I think based on what you're looking at, those speakers will satisfy. If you can get BIC's in Canada, the PL89's would be a better buy though.

Thick Plexi Sheild over bottom Pairs.

How do the woofers move any air if they are covered by plexiglass?

Bandpass alignment

Interesting, thanks! Didn't know about that.

I'm not an expert on this stuff by any means. If it copies/pastes well, I made a little spreadsheet. Middle column starts at 1 watt. The left column is an 88 db pair of speakers (at 1 watt) and on the right is a horn loaded pair of speakers that are 109 db at 1 watt.

Look at how much power you need for the left spekaer to hit 109 db's (about 128 watts). The horn speaker hits that at 1 watt.

Think about it a different way.... if you are driving a Honda Civic and trying to pull a full sized loaded trailer behind it.... it might do it. It might have some acceleration issues.

Take that same trailer, put it behind an old muscle car of the 70's and that car will not only be able to pull the trailer effortlessly (lower speaker distortion) BUT, it might also be able to out accelerate a normal car while at a stop light!!

Ask me how I know... I used to have a 1971 Olds 4-4-2 and had a trailer behind it after leaving college. I could easily keep up in traffic and if needed, easily pass people WHILE still pulling that trailer.

DB's Watts Horns
88 1 109
91 2 112
94 4 115
97 8 118
100 16 121
103 32 124
106 64 127
109 128 130

Just realized I skipped over this...

It's not really 88 dB per Watt, but rather 88 dB at 1W input and measured 1 meter away.
At 100 Watts, it's one hundred times more power than 1 Watt, so a 20 dB increase (10 dB for each 10x power increase).

88 dB at 1W implies 111 dB at 200 Watts if there is no compression (still within the linear range of the speaker). (88 dB at 1W, + 20 dB for the 100x increase from 1W to 100W, + 3 dB for the 2x increase from 100W to 200W).

There's really no such thing, I would guess, as a 50 dB at 1 Watt sensitivity speaker. It's very very low.

Hello everyone.
I know this is a slightly old topic, so sorry for bumping.
I just wanted to clear something up.

First: The link to the site is dead. The title got replaced, which changes the URL.
You may now view it here: http://www.allsold.ca/pair-of-custom-built-1070watt-speakers-51-tall-6149

Second, they aren't 700 Watts, we were wrong. We opened them up, and they are a total of 1070 Watts each, 8 ohm.
We took a couple more pictures of the back of the speakers to show everyone.

Just thought I would let everyone know

And very informative conversation

The Allsold.ca Team