Do speaker amps make it clearer or louder?

[Pickler 10+ year member]

So ive been running my [4] http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/products/db570/ just off of my HU http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v3/pg/product/details/0,,2076_310069880_291009705,00.html

I dont really listen to it at really high volumes, and thats when it starts to sound bad. Is it worth it to get an amp for these? Will they sound clearer/better and the lower volumes?

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[revrider1 5,000+ posts]

Yes

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

I dont really listen to it at really high volumes, and thats when it starts to sound bad. Is it worth it to get an amp for these? Will they sound clearer/better and the lower volumes?

Within your listening habits there probably wouldn't be much to gain from adding an amp, but I bet if you do - you'll like it.

 

[Twistid 5,000+ posts]

it will make it "come alive" in clarity and loudness

 

[Lakota 5,000+ posts]

it will make it "come alive" in clarity and loudness

Yeap.

 

[SSS 18734 5,000+ posts]

It doesn't matter what speakers are being used... a powerful external amplifier will make a world of difference.

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

think about it, you may not regularly turn the system up to full volume, but the effectiveness of equalizers are limited by your system's total output power

the more power you have, the bigger the contrast that's possible between loud and soft frequencies

definitely makes a world of difference so long as the speakers can handle the power

and as for sounding bad at high volume, if it's due to clipping the amp will help, if it's due to the speakers being overpowered and distorting, it may make the problem worse, or you may just need a high pass filter to keep the midrange drivers from trying to reproduce frequencies that are too low, which an external amp will provide you

 

[GordonW 10+ year member]

An amp CANNOT make a signal clearer. What signal is there, is there... it can't "clean up" an existing signal. There's several laws of physics at work here, that prevent it from "re-creating information" that might be lost in the original signal.

That said, a good amp will remain CLOSER to an EXACT COPY (only at a higher power level) of the original signal. A bigger amp will play to a louder level before distortion (literally, a DEGRADATION of the signal) takes place.

So, usually, larger amps won't make much difference in low-level listening... but if you were getting anywhere CLOSE to clipping the smaller amp, then yes, the bigger amp will do a better job of faithfully recreating the original signal...

So, yes... if the new amp is BETTER quality AND larger (in power) than the old amp, then the signal will be closer to what it should be... ie, "clearer". But, if it's a "nasty" big amp (the original Punch 150s come to mind here), then it might NOT be clearer...

Regards,

Gordon.

 

[CBFryman2 5,000+ posts]

PaulD, an AF mod and Member of SSA, stated that if a speaker is playing at 1w RMS (theoretically the SPL of the speaker if you are 1m away from it not factoring in cabbin gain or cancelation) and the signal has a 30dB crest factor the amplifier must be able to sustain 1000w Peak (which means 500w RMS with a sine wave) in order for there to be absolutely no clipping. Overhead is ALWAYS best, espesially with mids and highs.

 

[supraman1379 10+ year member]

It will make it louder and more clear. I hooked up my amp to my highs he day before yesterday and I was surprised at the difference. But it would definately sound better if you amplified them