amp for 3way rainbow SLCs

[seth350 10+ year member]

I need a good amp with clean power to run some Rainbow SLC 3-ways.

Thing is Im not sure what kind of power I should get for them. Do I need to take the RMS rating of the mid-bass, mid-range, and tweets and add them together?

Or do I go by what Rainbows site says for the SLC 3ways 150W max?

Plus, what amp would you recommend? The SLCs are 4ohm

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[DFW40 10+ year member]

The crossover will split up the signal and all speakers will get the appropriate wattage. I would send aound 150 per side. I use a Diamond Audio amp that sends roughly 150 rms per side to my Alumapro 2 ways that are rated at 100rms and they sound good and get loud.

http://www.hifisoundconnection.com/Shop/Control/Product/fp/vpid/1454978/vpcsid/0/SFV/30046

 

[LeX 10+ year member]

had great experience with eD nine.2 amp and Diamond D5/D6 2 channel

 

[3.5Max6spd 10+ year member]

The crossover will split up the signal and all speakers will get the appropriate wattage. I would send aound 150 per side. I use a Diamond Audio amp that sends roughly 150 rms per side to my Alumapro 2 ways that are rated at 100rms and they sound good and get loud.

Actually every speaker sees 150rms at their respective frequencies. The amp sees the xover as 1 load, the xover just splits up the frequencies.

 

[seth350 10+ year member]

So technically, you need an amp that will go down to 1ohm on both channels? Since it sees the xover as 1ohm?

 

[3.5Max6spd 10+ year member]

BTW i recommend ~120-200rms for that 3way set. Rainbows are pretty efficient, no need to ridiculously overpower them. A little headroom is nice to have at low distortion levels, but overdoing it wont get you anywhere but risk damaging a speaker or crossover. Set your gains accordingly.

 

[Flipx99 5,000+ posts]

So technically, you need an amp that will go down to 1ohm on both channels? Since it sees the xover as 1ohm?

No...you need an amp that does ~150x2@4.

 

[3.5Max6spd 10+ year member]

So technically, you need an amp that will go down to 1ohm on both channels? Since it sees the xover as 1ohm?

No the amp sees 1 4ohm load per channel to a passive xover. The xover does not wire the drivers in parallel with one another, it simply filters and redirects signals/frequencies to each driver.

So if you are using a 150 x 2 amp on your set..

The tweeter sees 150rms @ 3khz 12db til 20khz

Midbass sees 150rms @ 80hz-2khz 12db

This is relatively speaking should your signal/volume actually demand 150rms per channel at a given time. Music

is not a test tone, its dynamic and has crest factor and actual power output from the amplifier varies with the strength of the input signal

 

[PremierAudio 10+ year member]

Yep just find an amp with around 120 to 200watts rms like Don said and you will be happy.

 

[DFW40 10+ year member]

Actually every speaker sees 150rms at their respective frequencies. The amp sees the xover as 1 load, the xover just splits up the frequencies.

That is what I was saying that each speaker gets "their" wattage at their proper freq. Put your DMM on the wires going to the crossover and it should say 4 ohms even though several speakers are attached to the crossover, sometimes the tweets are 8 ohms and the mids are 4ohms but all the amp sees is one 4 ohm load. I would definately get an amp that does 150rms or more per channel.

you Mannyac

 

[3.5Max6spd 10+ year member]

Yep just find an amp with around 120 to 200watts rms like Don said and you will be happy.

Don=6spdcoupe

 

[LeX 10+ year member]

Don=6spdcoupe

6spdcoupe=crazy

but yeah im running 100w/side on my DLS MS6 which are like SLC's just distort a li'l more lol. I'd love to bi-amp some germs when I get some $$$

 

[PremierAudio 10+ year member]

Don=6spdcoupe

Lol Ya I noticed that after I posted you werent Don.

 

[BlackMaxima 10+ year member]

Don=6spdcoupe

thats what i was thinking too lol

 

[PatFitz9 10+ year member]

i'm planning on getting a set of these and using my kicker on them. ~120 watts... i hope it's enough