Polk RT800i Maximum Wattage!

hamzahsh

According to my Polk RT800i specs. the max. power should be 250w RMS. My question is what is the max. RMS ??? amp I can use?

VR3

Is that a trick question?

Peak is Peak...

Continuous is continuous

They are rated for 250 continuous...nothing 'max' about it

hamzahsh

My question is about continuous wattage, Let's say, if I want to run a 300w x 2 continuous AMP. Is it ok, also is it safe, because I don't want to blow them up. The specs. says 250w max in the manual of RT800i. I'm not sure whether Polk says peak or continuous? Need some help?

In other words, can I under power my speakers and what would be the max. continuous amp can I use with my RT800i's.

Airplay355

you should be ok with 300 continous

hamzahsh

Ok, then how about 500w continuous?:D

VR3

The more power the better, just keep your ears open for distortion. More power can knock the cones right out of the speaker into your face

Just listening responsibily and don't listen while driving...

hamzahsh

I guess I got my answer, the max. should be 300w continuous and anything more will blow the speakers. Got it!

:eek:

VR3

Here is a good example...

My Dad has an Atrium 55 pair in his garage. The speaker wire length is about 100 feet per speaker, give or take. And my Dad is running 275 watts of power to them. This is in a garage, and these speakers take 275 watts at times, when (I dont wanna look it up) they are probally rated for half that.

These speakers are filling in a large area, and are very far away from the amp --

Power is power, the more power is better than less power. You could send your RT800i 1000 watts of power continuous, just as long as you paid attention to how they sound when you play them to make sure they don't distort.

Polk does NOT make the Tri-Lam replacement anymore for that speaker, so I warn you now...

bknauss

Originally posted by hamzahsh
According to my Polk RT800i specs. the max. power should be 250w RMS. My question is what is the max. RMS ??? amp I can use?

This sounds like being "kind of pregnant".

jdhdiggs

Originally posted by hamzahsh
I guess I got my answer, the max. should be 300w continuous and anything more will blow the speakers. Got it!

:eek:

NO!!! Only if you actually use that power! You could have a 999999999 Watt amp hooked up and the speakers wouldn't blow unless you turned the volume way up. For the RTi800, the following gives you a rough idea of how loud vs power (~Anechoic at 1 M):

90dB/1W 93dB/2W 96dB/4W 99dB/8W 102dB/16W 105dB/32W 108dB/64W 111dB/128W and 114dB/256W

So unless you turn you stereo up to earbleeding levels, you will most likely never run more than about 4W countinous with 64W peaks. With this in mind, anything over about 80W/channel would be fine.

venomclan

As long as the power is clean you will be fine. It is not easy to overpower a speaker, underpower is more common and usually blows most speakers. Cliiping the amp will kill the speakers. All amps are not created equal. Some will clip at lower levels than others. That is why some amps cost $500 for 200 watts, others are $5000 for 200 watts.

I run a 250 watt amp to speakers rated to handle 150. No problems. Remember, as the ohms dip, a speaker will receive different power levels. All speakers dip in ohms. My 8ohm rated speakers can dip to 4.6 at certain times. My amp gives them 250 watts at 8, 500 watts at 4. So at some time they are given over 400 watts. No problems at all.
Jeremy

McLoki

I have a pair of LSi7s that are rated at 150watts. I currently am running these with a 500 wpc amp. I have driven them pretty hard (to the point you could no longer stand in the same room as them) and they still sounded great. I think you can drive most speakers WAY above their normal ratings with music and movies. (not going to reccommend a solid tone or static)

Clipping seems to be what blows speakers. If you drive your more powerful amp to clipping I dont think your speakers stand a chance. You can drive your speakers louder and they will sound cleaner, but when you push your amp to far - your speakers will pay for it.

(I think thats the way it works anyway)

Michael

steveinaz

Speakers also have whats called a "maximum SPL" or sound pressure level. I don't think Polk publishes this spec, but it amounts to how many decibles (peak) the speaker is capable of putting out before failure.

Your amp only puts out the power you request via the volume knob, I'm pretty sure you will know when your RT800i will start letting you know when they've had enough.

Tour2ma

steve,
Had to look, but darned if you are not right about the max spl no longer appearing... It used to be in the SDA line's spec's, but it's not in my Mon 10's. Wonder why it was dropped?

Originally posted by McLoki
I think you can drive most speakers WAY above their normal ratings with music and movies.

This is true for transients, as you imply in your follow up comment about "solid tones". It's not uncommon for a speaker to handle a tone burst at twice the power it is rated to handle continuously...

vc (jeremy),
Great point on the dynamic nature of speaker impedance. Many do not realize that published specs are nominal ratings.
And of course in your amp example, you're alluding to relative current capacities of two, 200 wpc amps.
I drove a pair of mid-level Yammie speakers (rated for 60 w continuous) with a Carver M-1.5t (375 wpc contin/ 600 wpc dynamic) for many years. And unless excessive power promotes surround rot, they did just fine...

jhd,
Great catch on hamzahsh's ill-founded conclusion...
However, remember that spl decreases by the square of the ratio of the distances from the driver.
So at 3 meters (a reasonable sweet spot almost 10' in front of the speakers) the wattage needed to make 96 dB has increased from 4 to 32 W... Now you only have about 1.5 dB headroom left if you are using an 80 wpc amp. :eek: I smell truble brewing... or maybe that's tweeters flying.

jdhdiggs

Yep Tour, I know what you are saying, I was just giving him some examples. He will also have some room gain so I figured I'd leave as is. The point is, I can not imagine anyone listening to music loud enough to blow out speakers like the 800's without hurting themselves first.

You remember at TPG2 how we got one burst to go over 200W, everything else maxed in the 20's regardless of the speaker driven and those systems were turned up loud.

Tour2ma

Yuppers. dding the acoustic imnpact of the room to te mix is another layer of complexity... I stopped shout of adding in te impact of a second speajer or more...

Yeah, we did push a bit in January.... Know what you are saying. Unless masochism is part of your life, you shpould never max out a high powered amp. I never saw the "Headroom Exhausted" lights come on my Carver M-1.5t.