Well I've been looking around at some amps. I must say some are quite pricey! But I've figured I need to educate myself about the 'basics' on firstly electonics and then the features.

a) I did study electronics briefly at school but never got into it. But now I have more of an interest as it's related. I still don't see why you 'ground' something eg.turntables.

b) On amps and speakers they have a level of resistance in ohms (from what I was told yesterday). This has to match or else you could 'fry' your speaker(s). There is also so many watts of power? that the amp and speaker(s) have. I still don't understand RMS .

So maybe if someone could address the two above points and give me an indication of what level of watts would be suitable for an amp/speakers at various DJ levels/parties eg. bedroom DJ, house party, hall party, large gig

Although we're not going to be able to tell you how many watts youll need, since each venue is different.

As for the Ohms/impedane issue, have a search (with the search option) for "ohms". Theres quite a few topics on exactly what (watt?) youre asking.

The primary, paramount commandment is dont have speakers which are rated and labelled at one power (at 8ohms) connected to an amp which (at the same number of ohms) is equal or more than the speakers.

Why? its a game of Russian roulette. Some people DO "appear" to get away with overpowering their speakers, normally for one of two reasons(or both)

1) Their amp is expecting to see (say) 1000millivolts of input, but the mixer outputs are only rated @ 775millivolts, sometimes via a trimmer control hidden on the rear of the mixer.

2) Some speaker manufacturers "under quote" their speaker specs to improve MTBF (breakdown/failure) figures

A good quote by Kazzachi:

Hi: I would have to say get the best you can afford basically the sound quality is everything no point having a terrific light show if the sound is only medioca,

my personal fave for amps is QSC cant go wrong really give yourself lots of headroom as for wattage - remember it will only be as loud as you push it,

Another example of quality stuff is the Tannoy system i use only rated at 200watt @ 8 ohm the tops but i regularly throw double that at them with no sign of distorsion. The secret here however is a halogen bulb which illuminates inside the cabinet if too much power is given.

On a budget i would have to reccomend Idex (which i believe Chris sells) which are great speakers using OHM drivers, which are quality, They did have a problem with the tweeter cutting out if you pushed too hard but i believe that is fixed now. Rated at 300watt with a 15" driver you can easily get that out of them.

Basically look at a range of speakers you have had reccomendations on, like IDEX, look at there power handling and find an amp to match....

To match the Idex I would say about 400w per chan - so you can avoid clipping the amp at max power. Geminni make a reasonable cheap but clear amp for around £300 so i reckon thats about £900 at the most for the lot
2x Bins
2x 15" Tops
400w amp & cables


Come on Chris Steer the lad right whats the real price!!

That "Max power" rag of a magazine certainly has a lot to answer for....namely keeping re~cone companies in business and sales of replacement drivers high.

If a speaker says 300watts at 8ohms, dont connect it to anything that will give it more (at 8ohms) once the amps had its attenuator turned down. eg: Use a 600watt amp, but turn it down to halfway.

Ohm (the make) are indeed a good make of speaker, and I suspect that what THEY label as a 300watt speaker, is really a 350watt or 400watt with a "safe" label on it. But, on most other makes 300watts will REALLY mean 300watts...and on some speakers you are simply not gonna know what make (or overpower tollerance) they will have.