Matching an Amp with Speakers?

venterminator

So if a center channel speaker is rated at 150 watts, and the amp can drive 200 watts per channel with all channels driven, will that blow the center channel?

I'm unsure how the wattage rating of speakers relates to the continuous watts put out by amps. Should the speakers wattage rating be higher or right at the watts put out by the amp, or is it OK to have an amp that puts out a lot more wattage than the speaker is rated for?

jinjuku

In a nutshell no. The speaker will have a higher peak power handling than the RMS value.

You can provide too much power but we are talking insane amounts.

zingo

The rule of thumb is that too little power, not too much power will kill your speakers.

If you drive your speakers hard with too little power, the amp will clip and possibly damage your speakers if done for hard or long enough. With too much power, the speakers will most likely be too loud to listen to before you start to do damage, or they will start to distort or the woofers bottom out. Either is a sign to turn it down before you do damage, and either way it will be VERY loud.

Habanero Monk

Just lurking, taking it all in. Thx for the tidbits

Carry on.

venterminator

So in a nutshell, if I have 3 speakers for the left, center, and right channel, and each are rated at 150 watts, and an amp can drive 200 watts RMS to each of them, that will not damage the speakers and will allow me to get really good sound?

Pycroft

Generally, yes...

It would help if you posted the receiver/amp and the speakers we are talking about!

James

B Run

It'd be much better to have a 200 wpc amp running at a fraction of its power than a 100wpc amp running at the upper end of its power. This keeps distortion down and gives you a good clean sound. Just don't throw a party and crank it up to ear beeding levels and you'll be fine.

TrashyTrucker

Pycroft wrote: »

Generally, yes...

It would help if you posted the receiver/amp and the speakers we are talking about!

James

LOL the OP has two seperate posts going on at once. He started a new thread when he should have asked and stayed in the first thread.
BTW :
happy new year USA'

Matt :biggrin:

comfortablycurt

Speakers are blown by having too little power...not too much. There is no such thing as overpowering a speaker...you can underpower or overdrive a speaker, but not overpower it.

Say you're driving a speakers that's rated at 200 watts, with a 50 watt amp. When you turn it up, the amp isn't driving the speaker with enough power, which causes the speaker itself to work harder to attain higher volume levels. This causes the voice coils to get really hot and can over extend the drivers...which leads to damage and blown speakers.

Now, take that same speaker that's rated for 200 watts, and drive it with a 300 watt amp. When you turn the volume up, the amp is going to be able to provide all the current that you need to reach the volume level you want, and the speaker isn't going to have to work nearly as hard to attain those volume levels. You're going to have more power on tap to handle big dynamics and transient bursts...which the 50 watt amp wouldn't be able to handle.

This is called headroom. An amp is almost never actually pushing it's maximum rated output. That 300 watt amp in general may only be pushing 10 watts or so on average...however, when a big dynamic burst occurs, it can draw the amps maximum power for very brief periods...sometimes only for fractions of a second. The 300 watt amp is going to be able to provide all the power that the speaker needs to handle this big dynamic burst, where as the 50 watt amp is going to run out of steam real quick, and cause the speaker itself to work much harder to reach that same volume level.

It is possible to blow a speaker by overpowering it, but that would be due to recklessness. The speaker will begin audibly distorting/bottoming out long before you blow it. As long as you don't go completely crazy with the volume knob, there's really no way to accidentally blow a speaker because of too much power. With a high powered amp, odds are, you will never even have a desire to turn them up to that point. You'll be able to reach your desired listening level long before the drivers begin to distort or bottom out.

venterminator

There are some incredibly informative and helpful responses here. I'm glad I came to the right place. I can only hope to give back to the community in such a fashion, but I don't know if I will ever reach that level of knowledge!

tonyb

venterminator wrote: »

There are some incredibly informative and helpful responses here. I'm glad I came to the right place. I can only hope to give back to the community in such a fashion, but I don't know if I will ever reach that level of knowledge!

Knowledge is gained by experience. Don't fret about it,we have lots of members with varying degrees of knowledge. Audio is a person journey, some reach their goals faster than others. Stick around, jump in and ask questions no matter how dumb you may think it sounds. The club is here to guide people to better sound regardless of what level your at. Welcome to the club.

cfrizz

Terrific post Curt! Welcome to Club Polk Venterminator! You will be amazed at what you will learn on here, and be able to pass on to other newbies with continued personal experience.

wayne3burk

you would probably blow your eardrums before you'd blow your speakers....