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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2010 22:45:34 GMT -5
you think a speaker that is designed with a max level of 125 watts wouldn't fail on a amp designed to to push 1,000 watts at a reference level, basically you are comparing a avr amp section to the power amp and the max rating to what the speaker will work at before failure.. if you feel safe connecting a 125 watt speaker to a 500-1,000 watt power amp that's your right to do so, though suggesting people follow your advice and do the same is your folly... I've seen people do as you do and wonders why smoke is flowing from the speakers... I would even suspect the limitations of the speakers the OP has to eventually fail given the the specs of the xpa line amps.. never mind pairing the current speakers with the xpr line amps... I think your the minority here. You have a much better chance blowing a speaker with a lack of power than you do with a abundance of power. In 15 years of audio, I've always went by the rule, you should try to double the power to your speaker at it's ratings. I've never damaged anything, ever and I run at beyond reference when watching movies. Would I turn up my system to full volume? no I'm not an idiot (plus my ears would bleed), but the more power you have, the more CLEAN power you have on tap when you hit passages that require it.
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Post by manu on Sept 21, 2010 23:10:40 GMT -5
thanks brothers
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Post by weird23 on Sept 22, 2010 10:25:49 GMT -5
I think the XPR-7 would be overkill for the speakers that you have, unless you plan to upgrade in the near future stick with the XPA series.
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Post by michaeljhuman on Oct 6, 2010 14:14:37 GMT -5
Here's some clarification on this topic of power and speaker ratings.
Distortion does not hurt speakers at all. Feed a speaker a pure square wave and it will be happy IF it can handle it.
Too little power does not hurt speakers at all. Or they would melt down when you turned off the music to them. They will happily sit there with 0 watts of input all day long.
So what hurts speakers? Too MUCH power. Either you exceed their thermal limits, or mechanical limits. Either one can damage speakers.
Ok, so if you have speakers rated for 150 watts power handling, how big of an amp can you use? Pretty big. Assuming the AVERAGE power is low enough. The speaker's driver assembly can only handle so much power. Stay below that on AVERAGE, and you should be fine.
So why do people say too little power hurts speakers? This is a bit of an over simplification. If you have insufficient amplifier power, and drive your amp into clipping it can damage your speakers. Because it's distorted? No. Because clipping means the AVERAGE power level is higher than normal. This is simple math. The amp is spending more time at a higher level, and thus it's average voltage has increased with results in more current which results in more heat.
You could take a one watt amp, and drive it to 100% distortion, and your speaker with 100 watts of power handling will be totally happy. You could take a 1000 watt amp, with .001% distortion, and a speaker with 10 watt power handling and cook it.
It's the combination of conditions with an amp powerful enough to damage your speakers running at a high average level, often due to clipping, which is bad.
So some "experts" will suggest having more power than your speaker is rated for to avoid the possibility of clipping which could lead to speaker damage and could certainly sound bad.
At some point you COULD have too much power. But having a speaker rated for 200 watts with a 400 watt amp should be fine under most cases. Because average power will probably be pretty low, say under 10 watts. The remaining 390 watts will be used under short term peak conditions.
The usual way to blow speakers, in my personal experience is to play very loud music into them for an extended period of time, with the volume turned up about as far as it without gross distortion. Then go upstairs and drink beer with the guests leaving it alone...it just might fail (not that I know this from personal experience.)
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Post by broncsrule21 on Oct 7, 2010 2:34:19 GMT -5
If his deal is HT. The XPA series is plenty for the speakers he owns( I own Polks also). The XPR would only be benificial if he upgrades to some power hungry speakes or just wants a bigger, badder amp that is all in one case.
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