What's the handling in RMS for SRS 3.1TL Speakers?

18power

Does anybody know how many watts (RMS) can SRS 3.1TL s handle? I have a pair without a manual!
thanks...

hoosier21

found this in an old post

SDA-3.1TL 15Hz-26kHz overall 35Hz-20kHz +/- 3db 500w max

DarqueKnight

hoosier21 is right. I have an old SRS brochure that lists the max power as 500 watts. Polk will mail you a manual free of charge. Just email them at polkcs@polkaudio.com.

rskarvan

I have an original pair of 3.1TL's with the original manual.
I've even fax's my manual (once) to a guy in AUSTRALIA who
wanted a copy. However, if you want to post your e-mail, we'll work out a method for getting you a xerox of the manual.

Yes, Polk lists the 3.1TL as an 8-ohm speaker rated for 500 watts.
I drive mine with 250 watts into 8--0hms. My amp doubles into 4 ohms and doubles again into 2 ohms. So, I have lots of good clean power for the 3.1TL's. These speakers are too difficult to drive for any receiver. You can do it - you'll just risk clipping your tweets and you'll never appreciate what exactly the 3.1TL is capable of. ITS A FINE, FINE SPEAKER when powered correctly.

Don't make the mistake of thinking your speaker can actually handle 500 watts into 8ohms. It definitely can't. What actually happens is the impedance (ohms) drops off at certain frequencies. With the lower impedance, you get more power handling. Thus, 250 watts into 8ohms probably equates to 600-700 watts of power at the frequencies where the 3.1TL's have lower impedance. Wish it were simpler - its just not.

18power

Hey! rskarvan, I would love to get a xerox copy of the manual.. I could not find your email.. Please email me how we can work it out. My address is mnahal18@hotmail.com
See ya and thanks!!!!mnahal18@hotmail.com

Andohaspolk

I too would like a copy! My email isstevencarey63@gmail.com thank you!

mlistens03

Think so... I’ll do some digging

pitdogg2

Andohaspolk wrote: »

I too would like a copy! My email isstevencarey63@gmail.com thank you!

Yea good luck on this.

la2vegas wrote: »

Is 16 years a record for reviving an old thread? Congratulations if it is.

Well i think it is a record..
This is some REAL necrothreading...

tonyb

Ando,

Better perhaps to start your own thread and ask if anyone has a copy.

K_M

https://polksda.com/pdfs/SRS3.1TLBrochure.pdf

This says:

Recommended amplification: 50-500 Watts/channel
Which to me translates to 50-250 Watts in reality.The woofers being rated at 35 watts max each Times 5 woofers would be roughly 175 watts.

Temp wise the woofers would be fine with more than 175 for peaks, but excursion wise, I have seen ours run out of excursion with under 200 watts on some deep bass stuff.

Jstas

OK, sorry, been thinking about this and this may not be as easy as you think it is.

So I get the math you are doing but that's just drivers and does not take into account the crossovers networks or even the amount of wire in the circuits or even the voicecoils. All of that can affect impedance which will draw down power. The crossovers also have circuitry that will absorb wattage as well, like capacitors and diodes that require power to work properly.

In addition, just because it says "500 watts per channel" doesn't mean that you're necessarily using 500 watts per channel. If you have an amp that is pushing 500W x 2, it's highly unlikely that your speakers are actually seeing 500W continuous even if that is the rating on the amp's output. Just like a car, if you have 500 horsepower and are just trundling through traffic going to get a carton of milk or something, you're not using 500 horsepower. Especially if your peak power comes at, say, 4500 RPM and you never get above 3000 while you are puttering around in traffic.

Same goes for amplifiers. Moderate listening levels, you're probably using 200 watts and only hitting 500 watts at the most extreme peak dynamics. If you were actually listening to the speakers at full tilt on 500 watts, you'd be in pretty significant discomfort if not actual pain and unable to hear neighbors/cops pounding on your door about how loud it is.

So anyway, I said that to say this. If you're hitting distortion at a sub-200 watt level and it looks like your drivers are reaching the Xmax or Xmech, it's likely due to amplifier clipping.

OK, so first, if you are running a speaker that is rated to 500 watts max, what that is really telling you is not that it will handle 500 watts easily but that it's actually a complicated load to drive for an amplifier. A 500 watt amplifier will run at 200 watts all day driving that speaker at reasonable or even a bit above reasonable SPLs. It won't clip, though, because it has 300 watts of high current power in reserve to handle the demands that the driver array is going to put on it.

When you are powering a 500 watt speaker with a 200 watt peak amp, you can reach reasonable listening levels and stay there all day without damage to the speaker or amp. However, if you want to go a bit above that or you start listening to stuff with extreme dynamic peaks like, say, a Michael Bay movie then that 200 watt amp is going to be over-drawn fairly frequently. When you start pushing the demands on the amp, you drive it into clipping.

Now, clipping means that it's literally clipping the signal. Electricity travels in sine waves. For every up, there is an equal and opposite down. We've all seen the signal diagrams. So draw two horizontal lines on a paper and then draw a wave that the top touches one line and bottom touches the other line. Congrats! You've just diagrammed an amplifier response curve in an audible spectrum running at it's peak on a single frequency.

Now draw two more lines and then draw a wave that goes past the top line a bit and past the bottom line a bit. Congrats, you just drew the same signal as before but only in a clipping wave form. See that little hump above the top line and that little dip below the bottom line? You can no longer hear those in your programming material. This is because you now have more power going through the pipe you drew than your pipe can handle.

So left to right on your graph there is the time axis. For every millisecond that wave forms extends beyond those bars, your driver is actually stuck at the excursion represented by that wave form. That's because the wave form is pushing peak power for the amount of time it is beyond the pipe and it is also not transmitting programming material. It's basically going ":HHHHHNNNNNNGGGGGHHHHH!!!" until the wave form drops back into the ok range for the amp (or comes up from the bottom). So not only are you forcing physical distortion on your drivers but you are running peak power through the amp and crossover network as well as the voice coils at what basically amounts to infinite impedance and generating excessive amounts of heat that will eventually let all the angry pixies out and they take the magic smoke with them. That is a great way to damage everything in your stereo system after the amplification circuits.

So if you are driving speakers with a complex load that are 500 watts capable with a 200 watt amp, if you see or think the drivers are reaching Xmax or Xmech, it's likely possible but not because the speakers can't handle it but more likely because the amplifier can't handle the speakers. You should quit pushing them so hard and if you want to listen at that level, get a more robust amp(s).

Hope that helps.

Andohaspolk

As much clean power as you can afford is best. I’ve had $10,000 plus car audio systems for over 25 years now and have found that I blew more drivers while using the specified max wattage for said drivers. Had much better luck using double or triple the specified max wattage on drivers. This applies only with the assumption that one is using quality amplification and NEVER, I repeat, NEVER pushing the amplifiers to the point of clipping. Clean, sterile power is your best friend.