Speaker power rating

ls7z06

If my 140 watt Onk 876 receiver exceeds the 125 watt rating of my rear surround FXiA4's, will it hurt anything? All of my other speakers are rated for over 140 watts.

kawizx9r

ls7z06 wrote: »

If my 140 watt Onk 876 receiver exceeds the 125 watt rating of my rear surround FXiA4's, will it hurt anything? All of my other speakers are rated for over 140 watts.

Generally receivers don't put out anywhere near as much power as they say they do. You'll be fine in your situation. Speakers are more subject to damage if they're being underpowered as opposed to overpowered

wutadumsn23

+1, Freddy is right on. The 876 is listed as 140W per channel at 8 Ohms with two channels driven. The power will drop off considerably with 3 to 5 more channels added to the mix. Also, like Freddy said, it is much more possible to damage your speakers by underpowering them than overpowering them.

-Jeff

packetjones

I have a question about this as well. I have seen numerous times that under-powering a speaker may cause more harm than over-powering. I do not understand how this can be possible. I have no doubt that it is true but i do not understand why that is the case. Thanks for any explanation that you can give.

concealer404

packetjones wrote: »

I have a question about this as well. I have seen numerous times that under-powering a speaker may cause more harm than over-powering. I do not understand how this can be possible. I have no doubt that it is true but i do not understand why that is the case. Thanks for any explanation that you can give.

If the amp can't provide the power that the speakers are requiring at a certain volume level, it will clip, and/or distort. Distortion is what kills speakers.

1 watt of distortion can kill a speaker.

If you have more clean power available than the speaker will ever take, then it will always have clean power, no distortion.

That's the basic jist of it.

kawizx9r

packetjones wrote: »

I have a question about this as well. I have seen numerous times that under-powering a speaker may cause more harm than over-powering. I do not understand how this can be possible. I have no doubt that it is true but i do not understand why that is the case. Thanks for any explanation that you can give.

Someone would be able to explain it better, but this happens when speakers are driven to play loud while being underpowered. At higher levels, speakers require more power to play at those higher ratings. When you listen to your speakers at low volume lets say on a....100 watt amp/per chan, you're not using all 100 watts during that period.

packetjones

thanks for the responses.

I think i understand now. If you try to play very loud and the amp cannot supply the power needed to play at that volume then it will clip and this may damage the speaker. Would this be the same with too much power at a loud volume. Where the amp sends more power than the speaker can handle at said volume and blows(?) the speaker? I would assume that this is less likely as you would either need a high power amp or be at such a volume that it would actually damage your hearing before the speaker is damaged.

Just trying to understand so that in the future i can say that under-powering is worse and sound like i know what i am talking about. lmao.

apphd

I'm also not the right person to answer this but I'll add to what others have said. When an amp is sending signals to speakers they are not of a consistent power level. Generally it is a small portion of the power available. But then there is a section with a large dynamic increase above the average of what was being played. Such as an explosion in a movie. Now picture that signal as a sine wave, if you are listening at high levels for the average then one of those huge, very short requirements for more power (watts and more so current) that exceeds the capabilities of the amp. That sine wave then has flat tops and bottoms (clipping) that is the damaging part of the signal. Again not the best explanation but hope it helped.

kawizx9r

packetjones wrote: »

thanks for the responses.

I think i understand now. If you try to play very loud and the amp cannot supply the power needed to play at that volume then it will clip and this may damage the speaker. Would this be the same with too much power at a loud volume. Where the amp sends more power than the speaker can handle at said volume and blows(?) the speaker? I would assume that this is less likely as you would either need a high power amp or be at such a volume that it would actually damage your hearing before the speaker is damaged.

Just trying to understand so that in the future i can say that under-powering is worse and sound like i know what i am talking about. lmao.

You got it

concealer404

packetjones wrote: »

thanks for the responses.

I think i understand now. If you try to play very loud and the amp cannot supply the power needed to play at that volume then it will clip and this may damage the speaker. Would this be the same with too much power at a loud volume. Where the amp sends more power than the speaker can handle at said volume and blows(?) the speaker? I would assume that this is less likely as you would either need a high power amp or be at such a volume that it would actually damage your hearing before the speaker is damaged.

Just trying to understand so that in the future i can say that under-powering is worse and sound like i know what i am talking about. lmao.

If you're going to blow a speaker because of too much power, then yeah... on any quality speaker you'll probably damage your hearing first. We're talking sending a strong enough signal to the driver that the coil unravels or something due to over-excursion.

You'll really have to TRY to make this happen. It won't happen by accident.

jimbo1421

Here's more on the topic:
http://www.polkaudio.com/education/article.php?id=45

Jim