Mini Hi-Fi advice

tigerstyle

tigerstyle

tigerstyle

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
8,968
Location
UK
We currently have a Sony TA-FE370 Amplifier and similar spec Sony+Denon CD and Radio units as the sources, powering Eltax Liberty 5+ speakers. Happy with the sound, quality etc, just not the size of the unit. We would like to replace it all (but keeping the speakers) with a smaller unit. It's not used for anything fancy, just background music, bit of radio, and having DAB would be nice.

Denon and Onkyo seem to do decent range of mini H-Fi systems, but in basic terms, how well will the amps in those compare to the Sony? Sony should be 70WPC @ 4Ohms.

The Denon DM-40 is 30WPC @ 6 Ohms. ???

We don't need max volume all the time, but noob here; the numbers look a lot lower, will it struggle? I'm pretty sure not as although these are floorstanding speakers they shouldn't need more power than the bookshelf speakers they basically are anyway, but occasionally we will want it pretty loud.
 
Thank you but no. We need a smaller unit, and want something that'll be easy to play CDs from, my dad isn't that digital enough yet to stream everything.
 
ahhhhhh ok, marketing waffle has clouded what I thought were real numbers there! I see that a more sensitive speaker needs less watts to drive it, we like the size/shape of the speakers so will keep those, and at 87db they aren't that sensitive so will need a bit of power to drive them, but it sounds like what I thought was a pretty powerful amp (the existing Sony) actually isn't, so it might be comparable with the 'lower' output Denon anyway?

DENON DM40 DAB is £170 online, so budget is around that, low I know. But it is just a basic system that we require. Even looking out for second hand stuff but the value of those seems high for what they are.

Would like something with a lot of power to know it has some in reserve, but doesn't seem anything around? Could for an amp sat in the cupboard with just the inputs out and on display, but can't find anything like that either.
 
EdButler said:
I can recommend the Cambridge Audio One. I have one driving some CA SL30's in my Kitchen/Diner and it had plenty of punch but the speakers are definitely holding it back. I managed to get a perfect condition 'refurb' on the bay for ~170.

The whole thing feels well thought out and it handily has a USB out to power a Chromecast. DAB is quick to navigate and sounds great.
Click to expand...

Oh wow, there are some on eBay for 175 currently.

Am I right in saying 70 Watts at 4 Ohms is the same as 35 Watts at 8 Ohms?
 
Psycho Sonny said:
i don't think it's safe to just change ohms like that. there should be a setting in the amplifier. also lower ohms are harder to drive i believe which causes amps to overheat.
Click to expand...

I've never seen any options like that? I thought it was kind of auto-selected? So the speakers just have as much resistance as they 'have' are built with naturally. And the amp drove as hard as it could naturally, almost like a car driving flat out into a headwind, it'll just do what it does?

Thanks for the explanation Hornet, I can see that ideally that is how things work, but electrically it's not a perfect conversion each time, circuits have inefficiencies etc.

Edit, just seen this in the eBay ad: 30 watts rms (into 8 Ohms) or 40 watts rms (into 6 Ohms)

Edit 2, This is really confusing me, the speakers say 4-8Ohms, the amp gives power ratings for 6-8Ohms, so erm, what will it 'do' when connected?
 
EdButler said:
Just buy it and thank me later :)
Click to expand...

Oh it's bought thank you! Should be here friday for testing hopefully.
Was asking the further questions to try and understand this more complicated side of what should be semi simple electronics! It is interesting stuff, as seemingly even most of the pros don't quite get it, just go on connecting expensive things to expensive things and saying yeah "it's good" I like to get into the science...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom