Quest handling power?

[roboticstar77]

Hi,

I wanted to ask if my '93 Quest have a handling power of 200 W per channel; it also has a recommended amplifier power of 80-200 W per channel

Can I buy a amp rated at 150 W per channel for a 2 channel amp or should I buy an amp that has a higher rating closer to 200. Would the 150 W amp be the bare minimum or just right.


Thanks

Knowledge is Power!

 

[Burke]

Your quests can handle just about anything you can throw at them. I am powering my Summits with a pair of Sanders ESL mono blocks rated at over 800 wpc. and my scripts (far smaller than your quests) with a Sanders ESL amp rated at 360 wpc. So the max power rating is not a problem.

What is important is quality watts not quantity watts. The amps need to be able to supply huge amounts of current when called upon (the impedance drops). The amp should double in watts as the impedance halves. Roger Sanders has a white paper on ESL amplifiers that is an interesting read. I think his amps are as good as it gets for powering up ML speakers (I own four). And would highly recommend one of the 2 ch ESL amps, but is it far outside the price range you stated in another post.

The Rotel, Bryston, Outlaw Audio, and Sunfire lines come to mind as amps in your price range that are known to work well the MLs. Have a look through the member pages to see what everyone else is using. Most members are zealots not only about the speakers but their amps as well.

To directly answer the question asked, yes 150 quality watts would be a bare minimum. A 200 wpc Sunfire is my recommendation, they should be well under $1000 used.

Another approach, if you can afford it a 5 channel 200 wpc Sunfire would be ideal as well then you could bi-amp the Quests (one channel for the woofer and one channel for the panel). This would take four channels for the Quests, and leave one for your center.

 

[JonFo]

+1 to Burke's excellent post.