How do I know if my speakers will be underpowered?
Kyle Bennet
Posted on
I just got the Kenwood VR7070 and am shopping for speakers to match (I don't want to spend more than $400). JBL's N3811 amd ND31011 look like good fits. The first is rated at 175 W max and the latter at 250 W max. Naturally I want the ND31011s because they have bigger woofers, but will my receiver damage them because it is only rated at 100 W RMS? Also, if I'm only driving at 100 W, is it even worth the extra $100? or will the difference in sound be negligible?
Derek
Posted on
The "Max" number is typically the amount of wattage it would take to damage the speakers with brief music. You should try and hunt down the RMS numbers. That is typically the amount of power it would take to damage the speakers with continuous sound because things would start to heat up in the tweeters. The RMS number will be lower, perhaps 1/2. Overpowering a speaker is much more dangerous to a speaker than under powering. You can only damage a speaker by abusing your amp. If your turn its up into clipping and the harmonics from the distortion is ridiculously high you will probably blow the tweeters.
You are probably fine with either one.
timn8ter
Posted on
I don't think you know what you're asking. Maximum power handling ratings are exactly that. The maximum amount of wattage the manufacturer says the speakers can be driven at for normal lengths of time, say an hour or so. That's all. It doesn't tell you anything about the quality of the speaker or how it sounds. It doesn't tell you what the minimum power rating is, which is actually what you want to know. A 100 watt RMS/channel receiver will power almost any speaker on the market assuming we're talking "clean" power (THD .1% or less). You'll NEVER approach driving your speakers with the full output from your receiver. If you only knew how loud 20 watts into a speaker sounds! As for whether it's worth the extra hundred bucks, who knows? Find someplace that will demo the JBL's driven by your model Kenwood and see how it sounds. Also, study a little bit about what all those specs mean that you see; sensitivity, nominal impedence, total harmonic distortion, frequency response, etc..
timn8ter
Posted on
You know Derek, I don't disagree with your definition of max wattage. There are no "set in stone" test procedures. Every maker produces their specs based on different testing methods. THD is a very good example. Some will produce numbers based on testing a 1K Hz @ 1 watt, others will base it on a broad spectrum. Sometimes it takes doing research into how the maker came up with their numbers. As for Kyle's question the bottom line is the same. There's no damage caused by "underpowering" speakers. I'm curious where conclusions like that come from.
timn8ter
Posted on
After some thought, I suppose a driver is similar to other electrical devices in that if you supply an electrical current that is so diminuative it doesn't actually engage the device you'll eventually experience heat build-up which could cause damage. In the case of loudspeakers of reasonable sensitivity that current would be so small I can't imagine the average home audio user doing that.