LSi power.

McLoki
McLoki Posts: 5,231
edited September 2004 in Speakers
I have just purchased an LSi system. (LSi-15's for the front, LSi-C, and LSi-7's for the rear) I was running them off of my old Onkyo 777 AVR. I read in a number of places that you really need to feed some power/current into the LSi series to get it to sound its best. (I can't wait to find out what they sound like with a decent amp, cuz I think they sound great now) Anyway - Here is my question:

Can you feed to much power into the LSi's? I purcahsed an amp off of audiogon (Cinepro 3k6 - currently with only 4 of the 6 channels working) here are the specs:
350/channel @ 8 ohms - 500/channel @ 4 ohms with 3.5db headroom. (1100 watt peaks @ 4 ohms available)

While I am sure that I dont have to run them at full bore, I was wondering if the new amp will end up harming my new speakers. (amp is supposed to be here some time next week) I know it is typically worse to run less power than more, but I am way over spec on this one. I plan to run the 15's and the LSiC from the amp and the 7's from my AVR until I get the 2 additonal channels fixed on the amp. How much danger are my speakers in. Since I love the way my speakers sound now, I will post a review of the changes once I get the new amp in and set up.

Thanks,

Michael
Mains.............Polk LSi15 (Cherry)
Center............Polk LSiC (Crossover upgraded)
Surrounds.......Polk LSi7 (Gloss Black - wood sides removed and crossovers upgraded)
Subwoofers.....SVS 25-31 CS+ and PC+ (both 20hz tune)
Pre\Pro...........NAD T163 (Modded with LM4562 opamps)
Amplifier.........Cinepro 3k6 (6-channel, 500wpc@4ohms)
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Comments

  • Early B.
    Early B. Posts: 7,900
    edited September 2004
    Awesome setup! No need to worry about overtaxing your speakers. Just plain common sense is all that's required.
    HT/2-channel Rig: Sony 50” LCD TV; Toshiba HD-A2 DVD player; Emotiva LMC-1 pre/pro; Rogue Audio M-120 monoblocks (modded); Placette RVC; Emotiva LPA-1 amp; Bada HD-22 tube CDP (modded); VMPS Tower II SE (fronts); DIY Clearwave Dynamic 4CC (center); Wharfedale Opus Tri-Surrounds (rear); and VMPS 215 sub

    "God grooves with tubes."
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  • bknauss
    bknauss Posts: 1,441
    edited September 2004
    The power handling specs are for a constant power signal. Unless you're listening to pink noise or sine waves, you're almost never ever going to be running a constant power like Polk specs. That being said, I would probably keep the gains down a tad bit during use. I'm sure you wouldn't want to hear a constant 300-350W signal coming out of each LSi15s anyway (loud!!!)

    The general statement of "more power is better than less power" is fairly true... with caveats. What usually happens with lower powered amps is that people jack up the gain all the way, clip the heck out of the signal, and the clipped signal kills the speakers. Speakers and clipped signals are not good friends. On the other hand, you can almost always give some extra power to the speakers as long as its a good clean signal. Keep in mind that speaker manufacturers will be conservative in ratings as a buffer of sorts.
    Brian Knauss
    ex-Electrical Engineer for Polk
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