Pharphunuse
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Joined: Dec 4 2015 - 10:12am
Reccomendation for powering an old setup
commsysman
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Joined: Apr 4 2006 - 11:33am

I very much doubt that any amp Technics ever made could put out 360 watts RMS per channel. That is a LOT of power. Nothing like that ever existed, as far as I know. You need to revisit the RMS power specs on that carefully. I would be very surprised if its real RMS power rating was over 80 watts per channel.

The 200 watt rating of a speaker is the maximum power it can handle before overheating the voice coils and dying. The appropriate amplifier to use with them will usually be rated for a lot less power. An 8 ohm speaker typically uses only a few watts of average RMS power for normal use.

It is sort of like the maximum speed rating for a tire. A tire might be rated for 130 MPH, but that certainly does not mean you need to buy a car that will go that fast to put them on, or plan to drive that fast.

The sensitivity rating of the speaker is what is more important, when you are choosing an amplifier. It is given in decibels of sound the speaker will put out with one watt applied to it; for example "89 db/watt".

I suggest that you look at the NAD C326BEE or the Music Hall 15.3 amplifier. They are both high quality amplifiers that should sound a lot better than the Technics did, and they have enough power for 98% of the 8 ohm speakers on the market.

They both run around $500, which is about as low as the prices go for high-quality integrated amplifiers.

If you just want something cheap, and are willing to settle for a bit lower sound quality, you might want to look at the Sony STRDH130 receiver, which is only $98 from Amazon. It will probably perform just as well as your old Technics did. It has adequate power and lots of features for such a low price.

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