Advise me on HT speakers (I know this is asked all the time, but...) (1 Viewer)

[William_Morr]

Altan,

Check the Yamaha's manual and make sure it can handle 4 ohm speakers. 100 W at 8 ohms is something like 150-200 W at 4 ohms. Your M&Ks can handle that but the amp might not which will produce distortion and clipping, thus destroying the speaker. Good luck.

 

[Robert_Gaither]

The Yam most likely can't do a 100 wpc just simply because of the power supply (most AVRs in that price category have usually less than a 300 watt supply and can only do surges for a fractional of a second at best mostly from the caps), but the good news is that if I remember correctly the 5250 has all channel pre-outs and simply adding an amp to this should remedy the situation (AMC, HK, and Adcom might all have models on the used market pretty cheap that could help this out). I think the reasons the M&K blew was simply that the Yam clipped to fill the size of room that you have when most likely playing at a level close to reference.

 

[altan]

Interesting.

Strictly speaking if somebody wants 100watts x 5, they need a receiver with a 500 watt power supply...?

I just looked at the Yamaha spec and it says it has a 310 watt power supply!!!

Do most manufactures rate things this way?

Also, since you have all been so helpful, what does

"Damping Factor: MAIN L/R, 20Hz-20kHz, 8 ohms...80"

and

"Dynamic Power per Channel MAIN, 8/6/4/2 ohms...130/150/190/240W"

mean? This is straight from the Yamaha 5250 web page.

... Altan

 

[Peter Jessee]

For what it's worth, I personally really disliked the Klipsch Reference III (3Rxxx?). I guess I'm just one of those people that do not like the horns.

It seems our taste in speakers are very similar. I love the Studio 20, 40 and 60, and really don't care for the Klipsch horn sound. You might look at some other speakers I like:
Phase Technology - can't always find them locally, but very nice. Large range, and all I've listened to sound good.
Vandersteen - excellent imaging, but very large, and somewhat expensive. Would probably be difficult to get 5 speakers for your budget.
NHT - I have the old SuperOnes, but the angle-front speakers like the 1.5, 2.5, 2.9 and 3.3 are even better, if more expensive. The SB/ST series from last year also sound very nice. Need a lot of amplifier power.
Mirage - we lost our local dealer, so I haven't heard them in a while, but they were quite good. I don't like bipoles much, so I'm talking about their monopole designs.
Paradigm Performance series - If you want to save a few bucks, the MiniMonitor & Monitor 3 sound really good for the money.
I think Energy and the latest B&Ws sound good, but I think they're poor values compared to the one's I've listed above.
Subs - You know that you don't have to match the sub brand to the speaker brand, right? The Paradigm PW-2200 and Servo-15 are great subs, but pricy. The Hsu VTF-2 at $500 and Adire Rava at $400 are excellent, especially for the price. I've owned a Rava, and my cousin had a VTF-2, so I've heard them both extensively. You really don't need to spend more than this for really good bass in a small-medium room. We've both since built our own DIY subs, which gives you even more bang for your buck, if you have the time to design and build one.
Just some ideas to consider. Good luck and have fun!
Peter

 

[Robert_Gaither]

Unfortunately Altan the answer sadly is yes most manufacturer's do. Weird part is though that most stand alone amps are rated usually about half what their power supply can pull (my adcom 535 claims 60 wpc x 2 but draws 300, and my other amps AudioSource amp 1A 80 wpc x2 draws 300 as well; but the AudioSource Amp 3 draws 7.9 amps to power 150 wpc x2 though seriously I doubt both AudioSource amps are truly this powerful though they still sound nice). Maybe the most accurate way to assess an amp is what the rail fuse is rated on the amps themselves.