Guest mrhagerty Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 I'm upgrading my SAE 50 watts/channel Mark XXXI to a Yamaha Home Theatre offering 100 watts RMS/channel (8 ohms) 195/chan (for 4 ohm ARs.)Considering the age of the AR3s, (recently re-foamed,) am I risking an overdrive or overheating condition? I have a fuse recommendation for the ARs.But is this acceptable RMS power or am I playing with fire?Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bret Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 >Considering the age of the AR3s, (recently re-foamed,) am I risking an overdrive or overheating condition? I have a fuse recommendation for the ARs.<Unless you, personally, lose your mind with the volume control or someone "has an accident" like they experience silence when they KNOW the selector switch is on FM, so they crank the volume all the way up, leave it there, then discover the "tape monitor" button is depressed, depress the button and "BOOM!" FM at full volume, you'll be fine.There really is no such thing as "too much power" for a speaker so long as the speaker isn't driven beyond reason on purpose or there isn't an "accident."I have listened, as loudly as any sane person would want to (and I like it loud), for extended periods of time to a relative's AR-3a's with more than 300w/channel (4 ohms) into them with no ill effects. I have driven AR-2ax's with 300w/channel (8 ohms) with no ill effect until the amplifier popped a couple of resistors and fried everything in its path (your SAE wouldn't have spared the speakers in a catastrophic failure like I had - I may have been the victim of lightning at the transformer). My children each have 2ax's connected to 100w/channel HT receivers, and I have a pair of AR-17s (8" 2-way) connected to a 100w/channel HT receiver.I assume you know that explosions in movies can be hard on your woofers - but driving an amplifier into clipping (asking it for more power than it can deliver) can be hard on everything. So one picks one's poison and tries to be careful.If you want to be really careful, sure, fuse them. Do realize, however, that you are probably going to be using a big slow-blow fuse in an exposed fuse-holder. That's great to keep the speakers from damage from being turned-up too loud for too long, but a huge transient signal might damage the speaker before the fuse pops, so don't consider even the fused speaker invulnerable.Bret Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mrhagerty Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 Thank you for your advice and experience. I'm pretty careful, but I understand how accidents happen. Thanks again.MRH>>Considering the age of the AR3s, (recently re-foamed,) am I>risking an overdrive or overheating condition? I have a fuse>recommendation for the ARs.<>>Unless you, personally, lose your mind with the volume control>or someone "has an accident" like they experience silence when>they KNOW the selector switch is on FM, so they crank the>volume all the way up, leave it there, then discover the "tape>monitor" button is depressed, depress the button and "BOOM!">FM at full volume, you'll be fine.>>There really is no such thing as "too much power" for a>speaker so long as the speaker isn't driven beyond reason on>purpose or there isn't an "accident.">>I have listened, as loudly as any sane person would want to>(and I like it loud), for extended periods of time to a>relative's AR-3a's with more than 300w/channel (4 ohms) into>them with no ill effects. I have driven AR-2ax's with>300w/channel (8 ohms) with no ill effect until the amplifier>popped a couple of resistors and fried everything in its path>(your SAE wouldn't have spared the speakers in a catastrophic>failure like I had - I may have been the victim of lightning>at the transformer). My children each have 2ax's connected to>100w/channel HT receivers, and I have a pair of AR-17s (8">2-way) connected to a 100w/channel HT receiver.>>I assume you know that explosions in movies can be hard on>your woofers - but driving an amplifier into clipping (asking>it for more power than it can deliver) can be hard on>everything. So one picks one's poison and tries to be>careful.>>If you want to be really careful, sure, fuse them. Do>realize, however, that you are probably going to be using a>big slow-blow fuse in an exposed fuse-holder. That's great to>keep the speakers from damage from being turned-up too loud>for too long, but a huge transient signal might damage the>speaker before the fuse pops, so don't consider even the fused>speaker invulnerable.>>Bret Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tysontom Posted April 26, 2005 Report Share Posted April 26, 2005 >I'm upgrading my SAE 50 watts/channel Mark XXXI to a Yamaha>Home Theatre offering 100 watts RMS/channel (8 ohms) 195/chan>(for 4 ohm ARs.)>>Considering the age of the AR3s, (recently re-foamed,) am I>risking an overdrive or overheating condition? I have a fuse>recommendation for the ARs.>>But is this acceptable RMS power or am I playing with fire?>>Thanks.Bret has answered your question pretty thoroughly, so I couldn't add much other than to ask you if you have AR-3s or AR-3as? The reason is that you state that they were "recently re-foamed." The AR-3 always had the cloth surrounds (unless someone later replaced the woofers with later AR-3a-type ceramic woofers) that rarely needed to be replaced unless they had been damaged. If you have AR-3s, the one thing you need to consider is that their impedance falls well below 4 ohms in places, and this speaker draws a lot of current and can tax some amplifiers, causing them to run quite hot. The AR-3a has a somewhat higher impedance curve throughout its operating range, and does not fall much below 4 ohms. The AR-3a also has somewhat higher power-handling capability than the AR-3. Yet with all this it is still better to have too-much, rather than too-little, amplifier power when driving AR speakers. Consider that about 99.5% of the power from the amplifier is dissipated in the form of heat when driving an AR-3/AR-3a speaker, with the remaining one-half of one percent converted into acoustical energy. --Tom Tyson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mrhagerty Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 Sorry for the long delay.I do have the 3a Improved. I'm assuming since the owner did not do this himself but had a pro shop do it that the surrounds were properly replaced. As for damage, they seem pristine, and I have a pretty refined ear.Thanks,Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.