CSi5 - Wattage limits?

2.5XT

Hey guys,

I have RTi12's as my L/R and a CSi5 as my center. I am powering the RTi12's with a Behringer EP4000. I had this laying around and thought I'd give it a shot since its 550w/c at 8ohms. Previously, I was just powering off my Onkyo's 135w/c.

Anyway, I know the CSi5 is rated at 200 max RMS. What can this puppy really handle? I feel putting 550 to each RTi12 leaves the little CSi5 lacking. What would you recommend?

comfortablycurt

There really is no such thing as having too much power. You're more likely to damage a speaker with too little power, than too much power.

The CSi5 is a beast...it can handle whatever you can throw at it.

Amherst

comfortablycurt wrote: »

There really is no such thing as having too much power. You're more likely to damage a speaker with too little power, than too much power.

The CSi5 is a beast...it can handle whatever you can throw at it.

Agreed!

MANSKITO

2.5XT wrote: »

Hey guys,

I have RTi12's as my L/R and a CSi5 as my center. I am powering the RTi12's with a Behringer EP4000. I had this laying around and thought I'd give it a shot since its 550w/c at 8ohms. Previously, I was just powering off my Onkyo's 135w/c.

Anyway, I know the CSi5 is rated at 200 max RMS. What can this puppy really handle? I feel putting 550 to each RTi12 leaves the little CSi5 lacking. What would you recommend?

"Hears" the break down man. Sound pressure levels do not progress linearly when it comes to the human ear.

What that means is if you had one speaker playing music at a given volume and then powered on another speaker playing the exact same music at the exact same volume it would not double the Sound pressure level in fact it would not even come close. To double the volume you actually would need 10 speakers just to get double the volume. This is due to the fact that
selective pressures during the course of our evolution have given us a ear that must be able to hear sounds ranging from the tiny, a pin drop to the large a jet taking off. This wide range of sound pressure levels that we encounter and therefore must hear, have ruled out an ear that hears linearly.

So as this relates to speakers, doubling the power dose not double the volume. Every Db you go up takes EXPONENTIALLY more power then it did the last. Aka going from 1watt to 10watts has a huge delta in volume but the same is not true from going from 50watts to 100watts there would be almost no net change in volume in that case we are talking maybe 3db.

Basically what I am saying is realistically you don't gain much sound pressure from your average speaker in your average sized room by buying an amp with more then roughly 50watts (remember most Polk speakers are 88-91Db with JUST ONE WATT of power) The reason amps with more watts generally can be pushed further is the fact that they are built with better parts and don't have to work as hard to generate the power to drive your speakers, but in both the 1000 watt and 50 watt amps case, generally neither one of them actually generates more then 50 watts, (unless you like hearing damage). If you where driving your average polk speaker 5.1 set up with 50watts of CLEAN power to each speaker it would be window shaking loud, we are talking AC-DC levels.

Don't worry about wattage ratings, give the amps a listen and if they sound good and get to the kind of volume that you require on a speaker that represents roughly the same load (8 ohms impedance with a high 80 low 90 sensitivity) buy that amp don't worry about the wattage ratings because in most cases they just don't matter.

MANSKITO

/\

To answer your question even if you had say a 1000 watt amp you will NEVER putt anything close to 1000 watts of power on a speaker with roughly the same sensitivity of your average Polk. In fact I find it unlikely that you would even need to put more then 100 watts of power on a speaker of this nature, even if your a guy like me and like to LITERALLY ROCK THE HOUSE. Don't worry about the wattage ratings your speaker will not fall behind the towers. The thing you should be most concerned with is the fidelity of the amp in question if you do that you WILL get an awesome stereo.

MillerLiteScott

I have 2 100 watt channels powering my CSi5 with no problems and it sounds pretty good.

Scott

GTB

MANSKITO wrote: »

"Hears" the break down man. Sound pressure levels do not progress linearly when it comes to the human ear.

What that means is if you had one speaker playing music at a given volume and then powered on another speaker playing the exact same music at the exact same volume it would not double the Sound pressure level in fact it would not even come close. To double the volume you actually would need 10 speakers just to get double the volume. This is due to the fact that
selective pressures during the course of our evolution have given us a ear that must be able to hear sounds ranging from the tiny, a pin drop to the large a jet taking off. This wide range of sound pressure levels that we encounter and therefore must hear, have ruled out an ear that hears linearly.

So as this relates to speakers, doubling the power dose not double the volume. Every Db you go up takes EXPONENTIALLY more power then it did the last. Aka going from 1watt to 10watts has a huge delta in volume but the same is not true from going from 50watts to 100watts there would be almost no net change in volume in that case we are talking maybe 3db.

Basically what I am saying is realistically you don't gain much sound pressure from your average speaker in your average sized room by buying an amp with more then roughly 50watts (remember most Polk speakers are 88-91Db with JUST ONE WATT of power) The reason amps with more watts generally can be pushed further is the fact that they are built with better parts and don't have to work as hard to generate the power to drive your speakers, but in both the 1000 watt and 50 watt amps case, generally neither one of them actually generates more then 50 watts, (unless you like hearing damage). If you where driving your average polk speaker 5.1 set up with 50watts of CLEAN power to each speaker it would be window shaking loud, we are talking AC-DC levels.

Don't worry about wattage ratings, give the amps a listen and if they sound good and get to the kind of volume that you require on a speaker that represents roughly the same load (8 ohms impedance with a high 80 low 90 sensitivity) buy that amp don't worry about the wattage ratings because in most cases they just don't matter.

Excellent explanation, Manskito. Wish everyone on the forum would read it.

Greg