Preamp/Amp/Speaker setup question

[Imdonostiako]

I have KEF reference 3 metas soon to be delivered and they will be powered by an Apollon purifi 1ET9040BA DM stereo amplifier using a Marantz AV20. I also have dual KEF KC92. I will eventually use DIRAC ART when it goes on sale but audessey in the meantime.

The speaker are rated for 300w at 4ohms (min 3.2ohms), 86db sensitivity while the amp can produce 750w at 4ohm.

There is a gain setting on the amp of 12.8, 20.5, 27.5 and 29 dB

In order to to ensure foolproof usage of both the amp and speakers with my family while listening to music and home cinema, can you provide advice on how to setup to ensure the speakers will not be damaged by improper volume control.

Thank you.

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[john61ct]

The way to protect your speakers is to keep the volume turned down below the point where clipping starts.

Some amps (or pre) like Wiim Ultra can be continuously configured with a hard voltage maximum, and / or a max percentage of volume level.

I suppose your gain setting is a stepped version of that.

The problem is, you want headroom for dynamic range, it's needed for brief transients.

The speaker only gets damaged if those very high levels are maintained for too long that's why power handling at RMS might be e.g. 150W but 300W peaks are no problem.

Some people try using fuses but I haven't seen a guide for noobs on that, and suspect more for protecting against catastrophic amp failure rather than just turning volume up too high.

Do a search here, lotsa relevant threads, here's a recent one

Speaker protection needed

Hi all, I built myself a power amp a few years ago, and have now hooked it up, together with a musical fidelity P140 for the tweeters, to a pair of Tannoy monitor gold speakers which I’m bi-amping through a mini DSP eight crossover, I’m thinking it’s best to have some proper speaker protection...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Every device added to the chain has some impact on signal fidelity.

 

[Chrispy]

Your pre-pro should have a volume limit that you can set per input to limit general use of the volume control. I'd go with lowest gain that meets your volume needs.