Speaker dilemma

Frosty

I have just recently upgraded the electronics and I am slowly going to upgrade my speakers. I have Rotel 1068 driving a Earthquake Cinenova 5. Presently I have a old pair of LS70's in the front with the original Polk center channel speaker and a old pair of M100 wall speakers. I have been looking at the LSi line of speakers but since I plan on replacing the center and surrounds first with LSiC and LSiFX's. but these are 4 ohm speakers and the LS70 are 8 ohm speakers. Will the difference between the two cause a problem? The Earthquake amp will put out 600 watts into a 4 ohm load, will this be to much for these speakers since they are rated for 500 watts? I also looked at the CSi5 center and the FXi5's for surrounds they are 8 ohm speakers which will be the same as the LS70's and they will handle 300 watts which is what the amp puts out with a 8 ohm load. The LS70's are about 12 years old and I still like them. Eventually I will replace them in my home theater system and just use them for audio. Help and opinions are appreciated.

schwarcw

Hi Frosty! Welcome to the Club Polk Forums! Too much power is not a bad thing. Don't wory about the amp overpowering the speakers. You can use the channel level adjustment to blend them. Do you have an SPL meter? Looks like you have a pretty nice system. Thanks for joining us.

Sax

when an amp is rated to a certain power, like 600 watts in this case, that's usually its peak amount.. .is that the "RMS" rating? or its peak, do you know?

Either way though, if a speaker is rated to 500 and you hook a 600 watt amp, it should be ok. and in some cases sound better, because you won't need to be then working the amp as hard to get the same sound out. just don't push anything too hard and you'll be fine.


For instance, my car I'm running Clarion Pro Audio SRR1686's which are rated to about 60 watts RMS, but I have a 2x100 watt HiFonics amp powering them but with the gain down almost all the way. works fine..haven't blown 'em yet.


As schwarcw said though, you just may need to blend/balance them together with the other channels due to the different power loads.

Frosty

Yes I do have a SPL meter, I used it when I changed the amp and pre to set the speaker levels. I was running a Denon 3200 but the center channel was hard to understand, after replacing it with the Earthquake it sure did clear up quite a bit. I see you are from Pittsburgh, I am from Swissvale my self.

schwarcw

Frosty wrote:

Yes I do have a SPL meter, I used it when I changed the amp and pre to set the speaker levels. I was running a Denon 3200 but the center channel was hard to understand, after replacing it with the Earthquake it sure did clear up quite a bit. I see you are from Pittsburgh, I am from Swissvale my self.

Kewl Frosty! No pun intended! I'm up the road in Monroeville. Not too many Polkies from the 'Burgh here. It's good to have another around. Welcome again!

Carl

cfrizz

ALL speakers will be happy with that amp!!!!

Upgrade away & welcome!

wingnut4772

The LSIs love the Earthquake!

halo

Welcome to the Club!