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Adam.Gonsman · 07-09-2003, 01:34 AM

Paul,
Your friend is part right, but I beleive he misunderstands exactly what he's talking about.

Under powering speakers can damage them. This is true. What happens, when an amp is ask to do more than it's capable of, it goes into clipping. What this does is truncates the waveform in the signal becuase the amp does not have enough power to produce the full waveform at the given volume. This causes your speakers to receive signals that can hold them in a given position rather than continuing to move. This can cause them to overheat and burn up. Tweeters are a lot more likely to take damage this way than woofers, but they can also suffer from this problem.

Now, the question of whether or not you're under powering your speakers. Likely, you're not. When your speakers are rated at 250 watts, that's how much power they can handle. This is useful to get a rough idea of what volume they are capable of. This is not how much power they need. How much power you need is determined by the efficiency of the speakers and the volume you need out of them. For most home theater applications, 100 watts per channel is very sufficient. Except in heavy bass situations, most systems only use a couple watts at a time anyway.

If you can give us the efficiency rating of your speakers and how far away you sit from them, we can help you figure about how much power you actually need to obtain the reference 85db at your listening position. This will tell you whether you actually need more power or not. Of course, many people don't actually listen at reference level either. If you don't turn your system up that far, you may need less power.

07-09-2003, 01:34 AM	#2 of 10
Adam.Gonsman Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Local Time: 03:05 PM Local Date: 12-01-2008 Posts: 134	Paul, Your friend is part right, but I beleive he misunderstands exactly what he's talking about. Under powering speakers can damage them. This is true. What happens, when an amp is ask to do more than it's capable of, it goes into clipping. What this does is truncates the waveform in the signal becuase the amp does not have enough power to produce the full waveform at the given volume. This causes your speakers to receive signals that can hold them in a given position rather than continuing to move. This can cause them to overheat and burn up. Tweeters are a lot more likely to take damage this way than woofers, but they can also suffer from this problem. Now, the question of whether or not you're under powering your speakers. Likely, you're not. When your speakers are rated at 250 watts, that's how much power they can handle. This is useful to get a rough idea of what volume they are capable of. This is not how much power they need. How much power you need is determined by the efficiency of the speakers and the volume you need out of them. For most home theater applications, 100 watts per channel is very sufficient. Except in heavy bass situations, most systems only use a couple watts at a time anyway. If you can give us the efficiency rating of your speakers and how far away you sit from them, we can help you figure about how much power you actually need to obtain the reference 85db at your listening position. This will tell you whether you actually need more power or not. Of course, many people don't actually listen at reference level either. If you don't turn your system up that far, you may need less power.