I have a simple wattage question.
10-18-00, 01:06 PM
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Hi,
I feel kind of stupid asking this here, but here goes. I have a Yamaha RX-V596 receiver that puts out 100W to each of the five channels. I've been thinking of upgrading my center and surround speakers to 150W max and 125W max respectively. My question is: is the 100W per channel enough to run these new speakers at high and low volumes or will they distort or play at a lower level? As you can probably guess, electronics are not my specialty. Thanks for the help.
I feel kind of stupid asking this here, but here goes. I have a Yamaha RX-V596 receiver that puts out 100W to each of the five channels. I've been thinking of upgrading my center and surround speakers to 150W max and 125W max respectively. My question is: is the 100W per channel enough to run these new speakers at high and low volumes or will they distort or play at a lower level? As you can probably guess, electronics are not my specialty. Thanks for the help.
10-18-00, 01:29 PM
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It will be fine. The rating's you described are the maximum wattage the manufacturer claims the speakers can handle. That is the peak power handling of the speakers, not a minimum power requirement.
Your 100 watt amp will be more then enough to power virtually any speaker to relatively loud levels.
Your 100 watt amp will be more then enough to power virtually any speaker to relatively loud levels.
10-18-00, 05:23 PM
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It more depends on the efficiency of the new speakers. 100W is not much, if your new speakers are NOT efficient it will not get REALLY loud, but this is all relative. IMO you should not be too concerned with the watt rating on the speakers themselves. They really do not mean much.
10-18-00, 06:09 PM
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There probably is a concern with pairing really large speakers with a really small receiver. If you have to turn the receiver waaay up to get adequate volume from the speakers, the receiver may distort, sounding like crap. But you'd have to really try hard to screw up that bad, so don't worry about it.
10-19-00, 09:45 AM
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Do not worry about power ratings in general.
Most speakers have a sensitivity rating, usually given in dbs (typically 87db, the higher the more sensitive). This is the sound level produced with 1 watt at 1 meter. You may see this number on the back of the speaker with the max wattage figures.
Doubling the power (1 to 2 watts, 2-4, 4-8, etc.) yields a 3db increase in volume. Since the db scale is logrithmic, it takes a 10db increase for a sound to "sound" twice as loud. 3db is perceptible, but not really significant.
By going through the math, it takes about 10 times the power for a doubling of perceived volume. Thus, 100 watts should drive the speaker to about 20db over their rated sensitivity.
One thing to keep in mind, most people listen at an average level that only require 1 watt or less, with the remaining power only tapped into on loud peaks in sound.
Most speakers have a sensitivity rating, usually given in dbs (typically 87db, the higher the more sensitive). This is the sound level produced with 1 watt at 1 meter. You may see this number on the back of the speaker with the max wattage figures.
Doubling the power (1 to 2 watts, 2-4, 4-8, etc.) yields a 3db increase in volume. Since the db scale is logrithmic, it takes a 10db increase for a sound to "sound" twice as loud. 3db is perceptible, but not really significant.
By going through the math, it takes about 10 times the power for a doubling of perceived volume. Thus, 100 watts should drive the speaker to about 20db over their rated sensitivity.
One thing to keep in mind, most people listen at an average level that only require 1 watt or less, with the remaining power only tapped into on loud peaks in sound.
