Do i have enough power ???

Dan2036

I have a harmon/kardon AVR120 which is rated at 50 watts per channel for 2.1 channels and 40 watts per channel for 5.1, if i have two Monitor 60's up front, would the amount of power i have lead to clipping or is it enough ?

Thanks,
Dan

Erik Tracy

Dan2036 wrote: »

I have a harmon/kardon AVR120 which is rated at 50 watts per channel for 2.1 channels and 40 watts per channel for 5.1, if i have two Monitor 60's up front, would the amount of power i have lead to clipping or is it enough ?

Thanks,
Dan

Depends on how loud you like to listen to for movies or music, the size of your listening room, how far away your listening position is, and the dynamics of the movies or music.

Power can be quickly used up depending on all these factors which may lead to clipping.

Dan2036

It is a small room, but i like to listen loud, it being a small room the listening position is fairly close, is it just volume power effects or quality overall ?

Erik Tracy

Dan2036 wrote: »

It is a small room, but i like to listen loud, it being a small room the listening position is fairly close, is it just volume power effects or quality overall ?

The Monitor 60 is fairly efficient at 90dB w/ 1 Watt input.

But again, if you like to listen loud then I would say that they would benefit in sound quality and security if you considered adding an external amp to your fronts (assuming that your AVR has pre-outs for connecting in an external amp).

Dan2036

i'll have to think about that, unfortunately no pre-outs on the AVR so i may have to consider a more powerful receiver. Thanks for the help

Erik Tracy

Dan2036 wrote: »

i'll have to think about that, unfortunately no pre-outs on the AVR so i may have to consider a more powerful receiver. Thanks for the help

I am only erring on the side of caution, cuz in my younger years, in my quest for volume I would clip and blow alot of tweeters in my speakers with a 40 watt Stereo Receiver.

At moderate volumes, I would say you would be safe/ok.

Dan2036

In terms of db what would you consider loud ? Cause it may only seem loud to me because it's such a small room

Erik Tracy

Dan2036 wrote: »

In terms of db what would you consider loud ? Cause it may only seem loud to me because it's such a small room

Sabbath loud!!

Dan2036

Ha, k Gotchya

selkec

I would suggest a new reciever with more power and pre outs for an amp. If a reciever says it puts out 50 watts per channel then most likely cut that in half. They always lie and overrate the readings to sell them. More power is always better no matter what. Once I had 2 emotiva xpa-1's which are the 1000 monoblock amps and I must say I never heard my speakers sound so good. They sounded like they had 12" subs in them. I recently sold them and am now using an xpa-3 and a upa-2 for surrounds. seperate amps is the way to go. the amps in receivers are junk and over rated and under powerd. There is no way a 25 lb reciever can put out the power it claims. They use cheap transformers and internal parts.

danz1906

Dan2036 wrote: »

I have a harmon/kardon AVR120 which is rated at 50 watts per channel for 2.1 channels and 40 watts per channel for 5.1, if i have two Monitor 60's up front, would the amount of power i have lead to clipping or is it enough ?

Thanks,
Dan

Welcome to the Club!

You should be ok with the H/k, Harmon rates its AVRs conservative.

mystik610

selkec wrote: »

I would suggest a new reciever with more power and pre outs for an amp. If a reciever says it puts out 50 watts per channel then most likely cut that in half. They always lie and overrate the readings to sell them. More power is always better no matter what. Once I had 2 emotiva xpa-1's which are the 1000 monoblock amps and I must say I never heard my speakers sound so good. They sounded like they had 12" subs in them. I recently sold them and am now using an xpa-3 and a upa-2 for surrounds. seperate amps is the way to go. the amps in receivers are junk and over rated and under powerd. There is no way a 25 lb reciever can put out the power it claims. They use cheap transformers and internal parts.

Harman Kardon is one of the few manufacturers that provide honest power ratings....they actually underrate their amps. If HK claims his receiver claims to push 40 watts, thats 40 watts RMS with all channels driven. 50 watts from an HK is equivalent to somewhere around 100+ watts from another manufacturer. HK receivers and amps are HEAVY. Despite how they rate their products, they make beefy stuff

Now 40 watts from even an HK amp isn't a whole lot, but the Monitor 60's very efficient and easy to drive. Plenty of people run them on receivers with integrated amps and are doing fine. I was driving a set of TSi300's (very close to the Monitor 60s) with my Onkyo 706, and was able to push them louder than I care to listen to for prolonged periods of time without distortion. With a speaker like the Monitor 60, the adding an additional would provide minimal benefits for the money, especially when you consider that a single mono-block amp will run more than the cost of a pair of Monitor 60's right now.

thuffman03

IMO you can never have too much power. You just don't have to use all that power. But it is there if you need it.

mystik610

thuffman03 wrote: »

IMO you can never have too much power. You just don't have to use all that power. But it is there if you need it.

True...to a point. Having more power gives you additional head-room which is especially important for movies, where there can be huge spikes in power requirements in scenes with a lot going on in the soundtrack. You also benefit from the increased dynamic range when you aren't constanty running an amp close to its limits. Honestly, I think the increased dynamic range and the overall 'fuller' sound across all volume levels is a much bigger improvement than the additional headroom and SPL.

While you can never have too much power, when you consider the price you pay for additional watts, you very quickly hit a point of diminishing returns unless you're running very high end, or very inefficient speakers. For a speaker like the monitor 60, which is very efficient, and has fallen very drastically in price, it would be most cost effective to upgrade the speakers than the amp.

MrGlobe

I ran monitor 60s off of an H/K AVR-140 (45wpc) for a long time, I have also run Monitor 40s, as well as Monitor 70s off this same receiver. I consistantly listen at around -10db (of +10db max) for a few hours at a time, with little in the way of heat build up (receiver is not vented very well either) and with no audible clipping. This is with a variety of media formats as well. Additionaly, I watch movies at about -17db.

The rooms is small (13'x11'x7') as well