Amp ?

[Hal H]

I just finished Paul's China Syndrome Center channel and hooked it up to my amp which is 200 WPC I can increase the volume to almost max and hear no distortion whatsoever. The woofers are rated at 70w and there are two of them so I expect them to handle lots of power but how are they taking 200W and still performing wonderfully?

They sound great BTW. Crisp mids and highs, just like designed.

[brianpowers27]

I just finished Paul's China Syndrome Center channel and hooked it up to my amp which is 200 WPC I can increase the volume to almost max and hear no distortion whatsoever. The woofers are rated at 70w and there are two of them so I expect them to handle lots of power but how are they taking 200W and still performing wonderfully?

They sound great BTW. Crisp mids and highs, just like designed.

THose are nice little speakers. You might want to test the output voltage at the speakers with a sine wave to see the actual volatage. Something tells me that you aren't getting 200 watts at the terminals. Perhaps the source signal isn't driving the amp loud enough. Anyhow, I bet they will take the watts and sound nice.

[Hal H]

I'm getting the "bars" from the amp and the source, which is a pre-amp for a turntable, is max without clipping. I can't drive the amp to clipping with the source so that may be why. My regular source, my iMac, is OOC at the moment so I may not be familiar with the way I'm driving the amp.

The CC does sound wonderful though!

[brianpowers27]

Got pics?

[Hal H]

Got pics?

I'll post some when I get the LR and surrounds done. I didn't post a build thread cuz I didn't use any special techniques. I did have some pitfalls and I'll illiterate those when I post the pics. I finished them with Walnut melamine and a flat black front baffle. Pretty mundane, but I didn't have any yet. They do look OK though.

Hal H

[brianpowers27]

I'll post some when I get the LR and surrounds done. I didn't post a build thread cuz I didn't use any special techniques. I did have some pitfalls and I'll illiterate those when I post the pics. I finished them with Walnut melamine and a flat black front baffle. Pretty mundane, but I didn't have any yet. They do look OK though.

Hal H

Don't sweat it. I must admit that Box construction and finishing it not my strongest suit. If I had more money I would pay one of the many talented woodworkers to do it for me.

[Paul Carmody]

Hal,
I'm glad you like the speaker. Nothing to be ashamed about melamine walnut.
Here's why I think you're not getting distortion...

Reason #1 - The sound most people typically associate with "distortion" comes from an amp clipping, not the speakers. Your amp apparently isn't clipping.

Reason #2 - The output of most home speakers is limited by the woofer's xmax. To be more specific, it's usually in frequencies below 100 Hz, as they requires the most cone movement to reproduce those sounds. If the amp has a High-Pass filter on the Center Channel (ie: a "small speaker" setting), it's probably not letting those frequencies play through the CC. Ergo, the speaker is no longer burdened with those low frequencies, and is free to play the midrange and treble REALLY LOUD.

[Hal H]

Paul, I was playing the speaker through a regular amp, not an HT one. I was playing an LP with no EQ, but here's what I found; As I mentioned before I had pitfalls with the CC build like I've never had. It's like I fell into a stupor whenever I worked on it. The two woofers are very close to the bottom of the cabinet, so instead of orienting the screw holes so that there were two of them at the upper and lowermost positions, I oriented them with one at the top and one at the bottom. I had to get out the Dreml to make room for the mounting screws. I retested it and it still plays loud and at the same levels.

I also marked the cabinets top and bottom so when I routed the baffles they would be oriented correctly. I managed to mark the top as a bottom also and Murphy took over. I ended up enlarging the holes so I could get the edges flush.

The (hopefully) last thing I klutzed was the phasing. I wired the woofers backwards. What a DUFUS!

OTOH I assembled 3 of the 4 LR/S tonight and had absolutly no problems at all. WTH, I think I'm losin' it. I like to think I'm a centered individual, but now I'm not so sure (the 4th on is waiting for parts that I need to get tomorrow, so I haven't screwed up yet )

Anyhow, Paul, you have another winner in my book! I was amazed by the soundstage presented. They also image very well given my less than ideal conditions. You're right the bass isn't like the Classix, but it's adequate. These really shine on classical music. I don't have an HT receiver yet, so I've been listening to them in stereo.

I did notice that they DO push some air out of the ports at certain freqs; something I haven't notice with my other speakers.

Anyhow Paul, more KUDOs from a fan of yours. The China syndromes are a hit in my mancave!

I'll post pix when my MAC is BAC. (I'm working on a stinkin' PC right now.)

Hal H