Speakers and input power
charleatan -- Thu, 11/18/2010 - 10:56
Is the input power rating on a speaker, particularly standmounts, an indication of the quality of the drivers used?
It seems that some relatively cheap speakers have an input power rating of 150 watts and others, sometimes much more expensive, have a power rating of 100 watts or even less.
I know that you're more likely to harm your speakers driving them with an underpowered amplifier than one that exceeds the power rating of the speakers.
Is it ultimately something important to consider when selecting speakers?
I have tiny little M&Ks k-5 with 4" woofers for my home theater setup and considering upgrading them to slightly larger standmouts. The M&Ks are rated at 150 watts. I was looking at Monitor Audio Silver RX1 which have 6" woofers but are only rated to 80 watts. Does it mean that the M&Ks have higher quality drivers?
Thanks,
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It means absolutely nothing! The power rating is has nothing to do with quality.
Find a quality dealer who can guide you through the process of selecting compnents that will sound and work well together
Elliot is correct; there is no relationship between power handling and driver quality. As an aside, a loudspeaker rated at 100W can be destroyed with 10W if those 10W are delivered by a 9W amplifer operated at continuous clipping. Conversely, the 100W speaker might be able to handle 150W if the power is undistorted.
There are two specs which a person should be concerned with:
A. The sensitivity sp-ec, i.e., how loud will it play on one, (2.83v) watt of amplifier power.
B. The impedance curve, i.e., how low the impedance drops.
As RH says, the power handling stat is misleading at best. I've only seen one driver blown because of too much amp power and ALL the rest have been blown by clipping.
As a Bass guitarist from the 60's I can also attest to speakers being distroyed from to much distortion/not enough power. At the time I used JBL D140 Bass speakers that were rated for 150W. ea. (two in each cabinet.) I used the Fender Dual Showman amp which was a 120W. tube amp. I would blow an average of one speaker a week. Once Amps were available that would put out more then enough clean power I have blown one speaker in the last 30 years. I now use 2000W. of clean power into a cabinet rated for 450W. I have pushed the amp to just flicker on the overdrive warning lamp with no harm to the speakers. I use the same rule of thumb with my home stereo and home theatre setups. I usually like an amp to have 4 times the RMS rating of the speaker. Then I know I have more peak power then the speaker can use, and everything stays nice and clean. BTW. JBL had a lifetime warrenty on those speakers, I had two spares with me at all times and sent the bad ones to be replaced. I would not have been able to afford to play Bass otherwise. I still prefer JBL drivers for pro use because of that experiance.