4425 Amplifier Choices

[corvettedcg]

I've had my 4425's for about a month now, powering them with my old Marantz 2238B. A friend of mine has a number of Crown amps he told me he would part with, if I was interested. He has some DC300 II amps, and some PS400 amps. I'm thinking I may go with either one PS400, or two strapped for mono. My question is, would one PS400 be adequate, or would I benefit from using two strapped for mono? Thank you.

[Mctwins]

Nice speakers

[Mctwins]

I have 4429 and have tried a Crown XLS1500 and it sounds great.

[BMWCCA]

FWIW, I use a single PS400 in stereo on the 18-inch drivers in my 4345 bi-amped pair. I have no reason to think I need more power . . . but I have spare PS400s and even a Studio Reference-II so maybe some day I'll see what they might add.

[Wagner]

I've had my 4425's for about a month now, powering them with my old Marantz 2238B. A friend of mine has a number of Crown amps he told me he would part with, if I was interested. He has some DC300 II amps, and some PS400 amps. I'm thinking I may go with either one PS400, or two strapped for mono. My question is, would one PS400 be adequate, or would I benefit from using two strapped for mono? Thank you.

How large is your room?
Listening preferences and material?
If the old Marantz is healthy, then it's rated 38 watts (VERY conservative, again, if healthy) should fill a "normal" residential "living" room with very nice sound quality if your demands are reasonable
And play loudly

[grumpy]

...one would be adequate.

[Chris Brown]

Damn those are beautiful speakers

I'm not particularly familiar with the PS400, but I do run a pair of bridged Yamaha P2201 amps into my JBL L100T speakers for about ~700wpc. The L100T speakers use the same 2214H woofer as the JBL 4425 studio monitors. I tend to push them very hard, especially with so much power at my disposal. When I removed the 2214H woofer to inspect it, I was extremely shocked to see that the spider was beginning to disconnect from the frame . I can only speculate as to why that actually happened but I assume it is related to how hard I push them. If you do decide to push that much power through them, keep an eye on those spiders!

[Wagner]

Damn those are beautiful speakers

I'm not particularly familiar with the PS400, but I do run a pair of bridged Yamaha P2201 amps into my JBL L100T speakers for about ~700wpc. The L100T speakers use the same 2214H woofer as the JBL 4425 studio monitors. I tend to push them very hard, especially with so much power at my disposal. When I removed the 2214H woofer to inspect it, I was extremely shocked to see that the spider was beginning to disconnect from the frame . I can only speculate as to why that actually happened but I assume it is related to how hard I push them. If you do decide to push that much power through them, keep an eye on those spiders!

Adhesives will do that over time for due to a number of causes, including but not exclusively due to not enough being applied in the first place
Not necessarily because of being over driven; any combination of fatigue, out gassing, tired outer compliance (just plain "worn out") any of which can be exacerbated by environmental conditions
Some manufacturer's drivers (adhesive formulations) worse than others
If that had been the (only) cause (driven too hard), you would have, should have heard the problem long before the separation occurred
But then again, machines often fail in mysterious ways
Easy fix if things haven't separated all the way round yet (use a glue syringe for accuracy using a suitable spider to basket glue on the separated section) and augment the still attached areas with a thin bead of epoxy where the edge of the spider touches the frame
I suggest Bob Smith's "Slow Cure" for that
Or, Bob Smith Industries also makes a rubber bearing, flexible cyanoacrylate; both of these adhesives are available at the HobbyTown on Clayton Road
I'd still use a traditional PVA or "the black stuff" on that already separated area (fabric to metal)

[corvettedcg]

The room with the 4425's is 13' x 30' with 8' foot ceilings. The price was really good so I took both PS-400 amps. Right now I'm using one PS-400 with the 4425's in one room along with a Marantz 2238B as a preamp with a ClearAudio Concept TT. The other PS-400 is in another room with 4311BWX speakers and a NAD 1300 preamp. I think I need some better preamps...

[Dave M]

PASS Aleph sounds really good with those speakers. DIY version can be bought around $600-700.