Am I giving my speakers enough power? (1 Viewer)

[Chad Isaacs]

I am not as concerned about my center and surrounds but I am a bit about my mains.

I am currently running...onkyotxds575 which I think puts out 70 watts per channel.My mains are Klipsch sf-2 and I read that they can take up to 400 watts.

Now,everything sounds fine to me,I am probably just looking for a reason to upgrade.I did read somewhere that its not good to underpower speakers and that got me a bit worried.

 

[Steve Daniels]

everything sounds fine to me

No matter what your speakers are rated to handle, or what your receiver is putting out, the above is all that matters.

So, your answer is Yes.

 

[aaron campbell]

Hi Chad, As efficient as those sf-2's are (96) 70 watts should be plenty.

Aaron

 

[Nick G]

Your Klipschs are very efficent speakers, I would hazard a guess that you could probably drive them to reference level with less than 10 watts.

Nick

 

[Chad Isaacs]

Ok,guess no need to upgrade then :frowning:

 

[SamRoza]

Wow, great speakers! You're nowhere near underpowering them.

Has anyone heard of a more efficient speaker? Just curious...

Sam

 

[Chris PC]

Just out of curiosity, are those klipsh speakers rated 96 dB anechoic or room?

 

[Bhagi Katbamna]

The venerable Klipschorns are about 103dB/W/meter efficient. The Avant Guard horns are also about that efficient.

 

[Dustin B]

There new RF7 is 102db/W/m

Just for clarifcation. The sensitivity of a speaker is the volume level (in dB) that a speaker can attain measured 1 meter from the speaker when 1 watt of power is applied.

Spl is a logarithmic scale. Every time you double in input power you should see a 3dB increase in output. Generally, it is said that it takes a 10dB increase for a human to perceive the sound as twice as loud.

So for Klipsch SF2 towers. One measured one meter from the tower you should see the following:

W = dB

1 = 96

2 = 99

4 = 102

8 = 105 (peak output required for reference level; if you were listening at 1m)

16 = 108

32 = 111

64 = 114

So at the full output of your receiver you speakers will be louder than you should be listening to them. Keep in mind though the level at your seating position will be quite different. It will depend on your distance from the speakers and the size of your room. Also notice how large the power increases need to be to get reasonable output once you get up to 64 watts. Ie the difference between a 70watt and a 100watt receiver will be just about nill.

As a final perspective look at the same type of number run down on a 87dB/W/m speaker:

1 = 87

2 = 90

4 = 93

8 = 96

16 = 99

32 = 102

64 = 105

128 = 108

256 = 111

512 = 114

What Klipsch SF2's can do with 64 watts, would require 512 watts to a 87 dB/W/m speaker.