Surround ?

VinnyP61

Hello I am gonna be using the Polk FX/300I with my Denon 3801 will it be ok?The speakers are rated at 100 watts and the receiver is 105 watts thanks.h

jrausch

Speakers can take much more power than what their rated at. As long as it's clean power. when you start to cause damage, you will know it. You have a better chance of breakng up your speakers with less power than more. Just remember distortion KILLS before more power.

Enjoy your new system,
Jer

jeberhart

You're not going to have any problem here at all. Just don't get too crazy. I have a 3801 and some Polk rear surrounds much smaller than yours, and they sound terrific even at high volumes. The previous post is absolutely right: The most frequent cause of speaker damage is a puny, UNDERpowered amp. I always prefer to go larger when it comes to power. Think of it this way: Your amp, hooked up to these speakers and listened to at a reasonable level, is going to have power to spare. That helps prevent distortion, and distortion destroys speakers. When I got my 3801, I just couldn't stand the thought of giving up my old Adcom 555, so I ran lines out to it and kept my old Polk 10Bs hooked up to the Adcom. Given the true impedance of the 10Bs -- they're supposed to be 6 ohms but I had 'em bench-tested and they were more like 4.5 -- I'm running a lot of juice into them off that Adcom, about 325 wpc. And they sound terrific. The only problem I had was that it was a huge pain in the **** getting the 3801 adjusted so that the whole 7.1 system sounded balanced. You won't have that complication to deal with, but I would recommend you spend a lot of time listening to the 3801 and tweaking until you get each speaker level where you want it. Even after I spent a lot of time doing that, I'm still in the habit of using the 3801's fader to adjust for various input sources, like DVD vs. CD vs. analog inputs such as phono or VCR. Of course, if you're not a stubborn old dinosaur like me, you don't mess with that old stuff.