100w Receiver w/ 125w Speakers? (1 Viewer)

[John Patrick]

Hi all,

I presently have a JVC RX-8010VBK Receiver and are looking into getting the Polk Audio RM6200 speakers. It sates that these speakers are 125w. My receiver only handles 100w x 5 min RMS.

Does this mean that I should not get any speakers that have over 100w capacity?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Neil Joseph]

First of all, let me be the first to say that most of the time, these power ratings on receivers are a load of crap. Some manufacturers (Sony for example) talk about peak power compared to others (Harmon Kardon) that speak of rms power, but I digress.

If your speakers are rated above 100W that is fine. If they are rated below 100W then that too is fine. The real problem arises in amps with really low power that are cranked up and produce a lot of distortion (clipping). Dirty power is what can blow your speakers. Obviously if tyour receiver is 100W and you hook up 10W speakers and crank it, your speakers will have a problem with that too.

 

[Mark Austin]

John,

You should be just fine with the setup you have mentioned.

Neil,

Some manufacturers (Sony for example) talk about peak power compared to others (Harmon Kardon) that speak of rms power, but I digress.

Every piece of literature I have seen from Sony receivers speak of rms ratings. I'm not sure where you have learned this info.

 

[Ron Shaw]

Amplifiers should have a statement about how the unit is rated. Something like '100W RMS into 8 ohms from 20-20kHz, both channels driven'. Look for this info in the manual. Now on to speakers, you will find more clouded information here. When you find a speaker rated for 125 watts, what the manufacturer is RALLY saying is that the speaker should handle the output from a 125 watt amp, unclipped, playing typical musical material (which usually has at least a 10db average to peak ratio, or more). Do not think that these speakers will really handle 125 watts continuous, which they most certainly will not. Some driver manufacturers (such as Electrovoice), used to advertise the sine wave power handling of their drivers. This is true continuous power. The highest power handling driver they made then was the SRO line of musical instrument drivers (the SRO12 and SRO15), claimed to handle 60 watts sine wave! Most home loudspeakers will handle no more than 20 watts sine wave, or less. Using the typical 10db average/peak rating, I would expect those 125 watt speakers to handle about 12 watts sine wave, but try to sell a pair of speakers these days rated at 12 watts!

 

[Mark Austin]

What good is a sine wave rating if you don't play sine waves through your speakers? It doesn't really tell you a whole lot.

 

[Ron Shaw]

I was just trying to shed some light on speaker power ratings. A speaker rated at 125 watts will not handle 125 watts, in case someone expected it to do so. It would be maybe more realistic to say 'This loudspeaker will handle the unclipped output of a 125 watt amplifier playing typical musical material', but this would probably just confuse most people. I have seen drivers (such as the Eminence Kilomax Pro series) which are rated at 1000 watts. Will this speakers voice coil actually dissapate 1000 watts? Not on your life! Using the continuous sine wave rating tells the true dissapation capability of a voice coil, and is a more accurate way to rate a speaker.

 

[Michael Botvinick]

As stated above, the better the amp the less chance of the amp clipping and thus damaging the speakers. A more sensitive speaker (90db+) connected to an amp that is rated higher that the speaker is OK if the amp is of good quality.

You would be more likely to ruin speakers with an underpowered amp compared to speaker ratings that would clip the moment you turn it above reference point.

Ratings on Amp power is like Horsepower and 0-60 times in all the car magazines. What the car manufacture claims as horsepower and 0-60 times always differs from what is tested.

 

[John Garcia]

BHP ratings for cars is also misleading, as they rated at the crankshaft, not the wheels, and is often taken from a mule engine that isn't even mounted in a car. This is the same thing as manufacturers rating an amp at 100WPC, Sony in particular (fine:print = @1Khz, PEAK) This means that the amp was not tested across the entire frequency range, and will not provide the claimed power, continuously driven with full range material.

As stated, the most important thing is not to drive the amp to distortion as this will certainly damage your speakers.

 

[RobP]

Sony in particular (fine:print = @1Khz, PEAK) This means that the amp was not tested across the entire frequency range, and will not provide the claimed power, continuously driven with full range material.

Good point. Another thing manufacturers will do (such as Kenwood) is rate their reciever as "Surround Power: 100 Watts x 5" with 20Hz - 20kHz, 0.7% THD, 8 ohms. For one the THD is extremely high. Which means yea the kenwood will do 100 watts. . . with the amp distorting quite a bit. Kenwood also neglects to tell you that this is each channel driven independantly. Check out this site for more reallistic real world performance ratings.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Holl...1/ratevsac.htm
Rob