installation • chapter 2

Power and Protection

What size power amp should you use?

Alesis recognizes that professional speakers need to be strong to survive, so the Monitor One is designed to handle twice the power of most other near- field monitors. This was achieved by using proprietary high-power drivers and oversized crossover components, choices made principally to offer the user an extended margin of safety. Therefore, an amplifier with a 150 watt power rating into 4 ohms, like the Alesis RA-300™ Reference Amplifier, is recommended for most monitoring situations. Higher or lower power amplifiers may be used, depending on the size of the listening room and the engineer's preference for normal working levels.

Be sure to verify that your amplifier is rated for 4 ohm speakers. Some older amplifiers are not and may fail if overloaded. Alesis is not responsible for any failures caused by the use of an improperly-rated amplifier.

Also, there is no situation where an amplifier rated beyond 200 watts per channel should ever be used because of the danger of damaging the Monitor One. To do so is asking for trouble and will void your warranty. On the other hand, if you use too small of a power amplifier, it is possible to damage the Monitor One if you run it into heavy clipping and distortion in an effort to get sufficient volume. This can lead to failures of both the amplifier and the speaker, as the amplifier’s clipping generates high frequency energy sufficient to damage the high frequency driver.

Should I install a fuse?

Alesis does not suggest the use of any external protection devices, but considers such devices as fuses, lamps and/or thermal breakers safe to use, so long as they do not cause failures or require modifications to the Monitor One's construction which would void the warranty. Actually, many such devices are generally considered ineffective and can additionally alter the speaker's sound character, an undesirable trait for a studio monitor. The best protection against speaker failure is to mix at a reasonable listening level.

®Alesis is a registered trademark of Alesis Corporation.

Monitor One Mk2, SuperPort, and RA-300 are trademarks of Alesis Corporation

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Monitor One Mk2 Reference Manual

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Alesis MONITORONEMK2 manual Power and Protection, What size power amp should you use?, Should I install a fuse?