Omg, Kicker audio couldn't not give me an answer like this. This was exactly what I was asking for. Clear, concise and understable knowledge. Thank you! Now I can be stress free with my amplifier selection.
Paul could not be more right about this one. I finally saved enough to buy me my first high current amp for my birthday, sheerly based on what I can afford brand new, I got the Emotiva BasX A300 (300wpc @ 4ohm). Main reason was I read my 1986 Altec 501's call for 300 watts in a sales brochure I came across. Not only is 12 O clock on the dial the most my ears can handle now, but even at low levels I get such better dynamics! Smaller speakers ive owned 20+ years made sound I never knew they were capable of making on this thing!
Healthy listening level is around 60-70 dB, 80 would be loud, 90 is damaging human hearing. In most listening, 1 W is more than enough with anything but with the least efficient speakers in most homes/private listening rooms. PearlAcoustics had a good demo video of "how loud is 1 W". So the question is rather "how good is your first W" rather than throwing 1199 more lousy W after it. Very happy with my 25 W pure Class A PassLabs XA-25.
Hearing damage depends on duration and frequency range, as much as SPL. This is why OSHA uses dosimeters, not level meters, to establish the safety of a working environment.
As a bass player, Paul's explanation is what I've followed for decades. For my home audio system and my bass amp rig, I have yet to blow a speaker with amps that have more power than the loudspeakers are rated for. More power seems to supply more headroom without taxing the amp and without clipping.
For those that are more technically minded Paul could of added that a square-wave has exactly twice as much power as a sine-wave if they both have the same p-p voltage. The harmonics of a square-wave add to produce exactly as much power as the fundamental. The square-wave is basically a switched DC voltage so its power is V peak squared/R load.
Problems for the consumer: 1. Amplifiers/receivers are rarely equipped with clipping indicators. 2. Amplifier/receiver power ratings are often nearly meaningless. 3. Speaker power ratings are based on a large set of assumptions made by the manufacturer, but they never tell us what those assumptions are. 4. Whether or not damage may occur, often depends on the spectral power distribution of the music being played. Consumers have no way to monitor this, other than with their ears.
When it comes to race car drivers there is an old saying, "it's easier to pull the reins back then it is to push them forward". I dont buy way to big because you can burn up some speakers by pushing hard like when listening to a lower recorded CD. You may never get to clipping and end up pushing 250 watts through a 100 watt speaker if not careful. I bi-amped my Infinity RS IIIa's (leaving the passive crossovers in). 200 watt speakers I now have 250 watts going to top and bottom each. Nice to pull the amps back to where they will never see clipping and still have plenty of power to bring out everything the RS IIIa's have to offer. Not to mention being able to control the woofers and the top differently, it's a whole new world.
People always say the speaker ratings don't matter, especially the peak, but my feelings have always been that the peak is a very easy way to decide on an amplifier. I try and equal or surpass the peak number of the speaker with the amp wattage and you will always be covered as long as you play within the capabilities of the speaker. Obviously, I am generalizing, and many other factors should be accounted for. To me peak wattage is the starting point.
Thanks Paul! That was really helpful! So, let's say we have a 6Ω speaker, that can efficiently (94dB) handle 100w RMS (continuous) - what qualities should one look for in an amplifier?
It's a little like fitting a small engine in a very heavy car. Even if you drive slowly, you are going to stress the small engine and consume lots of fuel. The same is true about big speakers and a small amp. Even if you don't push it to its limits, the amp will always be out of breath and prone to producing some distortion. When coupling a very powerful power amplifier with speakers that don't have a high power rating, the important thing is not to exceed the speaker's maximum volume output. In this way, the speakers will simply draw the amount of power they need.
I completely agree, just to add... it is a good practice for the amplifier to be twice as powerful (w) as the sound box, but that difference of 3dB should be limited, Threshold is very important so that the amplifier does not clip, if DC voltage appears on output, defacto it destroys the speakers... In practice you can burn a 1kW (1000w) speaker with a 10w bad amplifier
Back in the hay days of JBL, they would put a leaflet in the box of speaker components explaining exactly the same. They even used the 20W amp as example. Having said that, if for instance you have a Fostex 5W full range speaker, 100 old fashioned Watts is just too dangerous.
Well another great video. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me! I always thought and i think it's a common misconception, that the stronger amp it's more likely to damage the speaker by putting to much power into it, while in reality it's the week amp that can damage the speaker. Also, while counter intuitive it seems that the speaker can also damage the amp. Let's say a 25 Watt weak amp is playing at it's 80% capability to achieve some loudness desired loudness, and then a big base drops in which requires a lot of extra power peek to move woofers a lot. I think this might damage the amp as well.
No, that would be safe for the amplifier. If it's a momentary loud bass passage, it should be safe for the speaker as well. Clipping of bass does not dump that much extra energy into the tweeter. Tweeters are far more susceptible to damage when clipping of mid-frequency signals (e.g., lead guitar or voice) occurs.
Mate thanks heaps!... For getting straight to the point and answering my question "should your amp have more watts than speaker". Apparently no-one else on UA-cam could! 😂
Indeed. You have to learn to love these quirks :) I am subscribed to another channel where an older gentleman shares really valuable knowledge and ideas but I simply lost track of how many times he does things like this, it's probably at least once in every clip. He does later catch some of them while editing and he includes the correct statements as text but some still go through undetected. I noticed that anything to do with numbers or things that come in a certain order (e.g. days of the week) are his Nemesis. But I kind of love it, it's very... human after all. Here I bet everyone understood exactly what Paul wanted to communicate so why split the hairs for this?
Hi Sir, also I'm thanking you for your knowledge. I'm planing to buy Dynaudio Emit 10 6ohm bookshelf speakers declared 150w. Amp will be new Rotel A11 mk II 50w at 8ohms and 62w at 4ohms. I will be listening this in 16 square meters room from distance 2.5m. Is this enough power to feed my speakers to sound properly at low and high volumes? If I listen loud its around 80 to 90db
I don't always agree with Paul, but what he says here is absolutely true. I once sold a pair of really good studio monitors to a friend. They could easily handle a 300W amp. I sold them for very cheap, because he's not a rich guy and a good friend. But then he also needed an amplifier to drive them, so I threw in an old 40W amp that I didn't use anymore. One week later he told me "it sounds great, I'll send you the money!". Two weeks later he told me "the speakers blew up". He didn't send me the money that he owed, but I didn't chase him for it either. Because I shouldn't have sold him that combination of speakers+amp.
Paul - My Sansui 5050 (rated at 30 WPC, RMS), drives my Klipsch Heresy III's (99 db/1 watt, rated for 100 watts continous power). I have absolutely no clipping or distortion- if I turn the volume dial higher than level 3 (for most CD recordings), i'll be extremely close to either blowing out my eardrums, or my bedroom windows!
Love your channel Paul.! But I must disagree 😜because once in a while, if your system is tuned exactly like you could dream of, I can't help it..... Must have impac. And that's loud enough to kill any normal speaker with some 6.5 ~8" drivers before I reach the level. I prefer minimum 15" sub woofers for left and right channels if your playing heavy low end content. And get a massive power amps headroom, to reach the drivers full potential without clipping. Merry Christmas. Stay healthy ❤️🎄✌️
Whenever an amplifier is involved in sound reinforcement, the use of a mixer with accurate level meters is a must, in order to ensure the required input level of the amplifier is met and kept there. Provided that the input sensitivity voltage is not overdriven the amplifier doesn't have a reason to clip, as long as its power supply is stable and able to deliver the continuous required voltage and current into the specific speaker load. Amplifiers work on fixed gain or fixed input sensitivities to raise a given input voltage to a specified output voltage. So, put your math to good use and keep the voltages and amperages in check.
Hi, meaning clipped signal can damage the tweeter... Playing Guitar, distortion is a clipping of the amp. In the normal Guitar Cabs there are no tweeter, so good. But the with amp modeling the signal goes direct to the PA including modelled clipping. It would be mean, it will be damage the PA's tweeter? Same, some bass cabinets has a tweeter, so when playing bass distorted to it, will casing the same damage? Or because the main frequency range (w/o harmonics) are not in the range of the tweeter, it will not damage it?
Paul is right but there are some rare cases where you have to be careful with having too much power. For example, your 1000 Watt power amplifier can cause too much excursion on your 100 Watt woofers when mistakes happen. I destroyed some 10" woofers (Coral brand) ages ago due to the voice coils hitting bottom with some bangs as my system had entered some acoustic feedback mode with the turntable cartridge picking up the floor vibrations from the bass from my speakers . I was out of the room when I suddenly heard the very loud bass feedback effect of voice coils banging at the bottom hitting the magnet. The damage was permanent after less than a minute of this condition. My setup was in a room with a wooden floor and at a certain volume it could start oscillating at a certain low frequency. You can also get some serious low frequency power (50 or 60Hz) out of an analog cable missing the ground connection e.g. due to an RCA plug not completely pushed in.
A minute is a very long time for a severe condition like that. Reminds me of the time my little sister roasted a hi-fi speaker. My father liked to use the speaker with the TV, so he added an external speaker cable to the TV, then added connectors so the speaker could be plugged into it. The problem is that he made a very unwise choice of connectors - he used standard AC mains plugs and sockets! One afternoon, my sister wanted to use the hi-fi speaker with the TV, and mistakenly plugged the speaker into the wall outlet, instead of the TV's cable. The house vibrated at 60Hz for about 8-10 seconds, and left my poor sister in a state of shock. I'm glad I wasn't in the room.
@@marianneoelund2940 Are you kidding me? I have a true story like that. At 9 years old, I was already into electronics quite deeply and made my own speaker setup connected to some cassette deck with speaker output. I decided to use AC mains plugs and splitters for convenience (several wooden box speakers in parallel, mono only). One day I was in school, my aunt visited my mum and my mum wanted to demo my audio setup to her. She didn't know anything about my setup and plugged the speakers into mains directly. In a split second my speakers went into smoke with a bang. When I came home from school she apologized and to compensate for it, I got their Bang & Olufsen Beomaster 901 system with original speakers. It was much better than what just went up in smoke. After I graduated in engineering I got my first job at Bang & Olufsen.
hello I have 2 Davis Matisse speakers (93db sensitivity) that I've had for about 15 years. I just replaced my 2x65w Marantz PM-53 (which was failing) with a 2x45w Marantz PM6007. I have been hearing clipping on my mids, which have me a bit perplexed. Could I be underpowering my speakers? or could it be time to repair them?
This was surprising. I thought it is the other way around. But isn't it truth also that too much power can damage the speaker as well? I mean I have my Marantz 1550 2x52 wats and I have my Piooneer Prologue 8 speakers ( 100wats RMS) Well I cannot afford to go above 1/2 of the power of the amp because I feel that the speakers are distorting and starting to take damage. Ican easely burn he speakers if I turn the volume
Most speakers are conservatively rated. Say 100 watts RMS on pink noise for 8 hours. With music, which is dynamic with moments of silence, speakers can handle several times that for short periods of time. The problem is the buildup of heat and melting the adhesives that hold it all together. Along with bottoming out woofers at low frequencies...
You cannot have too much power, you have a volume control that prevents damaging your speakers. Unless you are foolish enough to grossly overdrive your speakers.
I'm using a 40watt app for my highs and 60-watt for my bass on some 85 watts speakers . They sound great, maybe because of the Myryad apps in monitor audio speakers.. I don't really need a higher watt amp because on very loud music volume, they still sound great.
Doesn't all of this depend on speakers sensitivity and impedance. You don't need a massive amplifier if you are 90db sensitivity and up. 25 watt would be plenty, specially on a good design amp and good pre that would go with it. Like First Watt for example.
I have used a 13 W RMS receiver with speakers rated for 60 watts and never had a problem BECAUSE I know when to stop turning the volume up. That said ... yes, more power Can be advantageous.
I have a speaker with max power rated at 85watts (82db sensitivity), and have it paired to a 425watt amp. Will I blow my speakers? At point is it too much power?
Hello sir! I have a question. My situation is this. I have a digital piano and my right speaker is damaged, its rating is 6watts and 6ohms on yamaha website, however it is really loud for a 6watts. So what I did was buy a same size speaker rated at 40 watts max and 20 watts nominal power and 8ohms impedance. It’s hard to find a speaker with 6watts and 6ohms so I just buy even its not the same rating. Now, I just found out that the AC power adapter of my digital piano has 45 watts input power. Is it okay for me to replace the built in speaker with 40 watts speaker? Thank you
I'm just wondering my MC250 McIntosh amp is 50 watts a channel I'm running it through a set of D7 4ohm cerwin vega speakers would they clip I always heard that class a was clean all the way through can you please explain the cinematic of that my name is kürt from Nottingham md I enjoy watching PS audio and the tone of your voice is so relaxing in explaining maybe its my audio buff ears..lol.
Your amplifier has an input sensitivity of 0.5 V RMS. 0.5 V = -3 dBU= -6 dBV. As long as your input signal has a value of no more than 0.5 V RMS AC, your amplifier will be able to deliver its full rated power, without clipping. Cerwin Vega D7 speakers have a sensitivity of 98 dB at 1 meter with 1 Watt, meaning they are very sensitive and don't require more than 16 watt to deliver 110 dB SPL at one meter, which is quite loud, depending on your room size and the distance between you and the speakers. Even if you stay at 2 meters way they are able to give you a high SPL, if you like it that loud.
Hi my amplifier 120 w RMS each channels my speaker 50W RMS but problem is can not increase the gain good level my speakers strain too much because of bass notes I reduce the gain sound quality not so good use crossover to cut bass frequency I missing string bass and audio density how can solve?
I’ve been in car audio for about 20 years. People look at me like a horse looking at a new gate when I give them this advice. When you hit that square wave the speaker is not moving, therefore it isn’t cooling and will often overheat the voice coil.
Clipping is worse than creating a square clip, it makes a saw tooth drop off. An amplifier has a bank of capacitors that enables it to provide smooth DC supply - smoothing capacitors - they remove any final ripple in the output stage from any rectification of the AC supply power. They also provide a burst of power that is good for driving the power beyond the technical limit of the power supply, hence the differences between the different power ratings of DIN etc. Clipping occurs where the capacitors can no longer "over-supply" the DC and the source power supply cannot re-charge the output capacitors fast enough to keep up, with the result you get a capacitor discharge curve on the output sound : the normal rising convex curve truncates and becomes a sharp concave curve drop off until the power supply catches up withe the power curve and stops the discharge curve. The result is a saw-tooth signal where the peaks a truncated as a sawtooth edges that drop back down to the underlying power supply power. This distortion is very disturbing to listen too, but also causes massive changes in acceleration in the speaker cones and, depending on the damping factor of the amplifier, results in the speaker impedance to wildly fluctuate as it is driven in a way it mechanically cannot respond. This will tear the cones apart. In the case of over-driving a speaker is that the speaker distorts as it exceeds it free travel range which produces distortion but generally does not damage the cones before you turn the volume down.
I'd be curious to see the oscilloscope plot of the square clipped wave making its way through the speaker crossover network. I wonder if the square wave, being the "sum" of many frequencies, from the lowest to the highest, would make it through to all individual speakers in a 2-, 3- 4-way loudspeaker. Just a thought
Does “the quality of the watts” matter? In other words, does a good power supply influence the amount of clipping? So I have an Arcam SA10 connected to my Wharfedale EVO 4.2. The Arcam delivers 2 x 50 watts and needs to drive the 120 watts of the Wharfedales. The combination sounds wonderful to me and I never listen above 40% of the volume. Do I need to worry?
Nah you'd have to be doing something extremely stupid to blow your speakers, i use a 200w rotel with some little wharfedale 9.1s it runs fine. On the other hand I used a 50w denon with wharfedale 9.5 floorstanders and thrashed them for years, never had issues. Small amps with extremely inefficient speakers 84/86db or less are the most likely to blow from underpower, the devil's in the details the floor standers are 6ohm 150w max but 88db efficient. The bookshelves are 6ohm 125w max but 86db so less efficient and need more power for the same volume.
@@DueM thanks for your detailed explanation. I also read in the specifications there is a range from 20 up to 120 watts applicable. This also means 50 watt is not really a problem. Makes me wonder though what sound will come from these beauties when driven by 120 watts pure power. Something to save money for in the future!
@@quintijn1995 power isn't everything, your arcam is a solid amp. The biggest benefit i found with more power is low level linearity, the wharfedales i use love playing loud but the bass would evaporate at low volume levels. With higher power the sound is complete across the whole volume scale, the speakers you own are good enough to show improvements as well but i wouldn't be in a massive hurry to upgrade sources or amplification.
Ballance is the nature of the universe, and should be on every preamp. Every room is different with different objects in it. Matching power is important for reducing distortion. Though the distortion can be reduced by a genius speaker design also. Class AB anp designs produce less distortion than class A at low power levels, according to Texas Instruments circuit design information.
I’m sorry Paul but kids back in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s would push their stereo speakers or parents stereo speakers until the voice coil would burn or catch on fire. Then when the parents wanted to know why their couple of month old speakers was not covered under warranty i would turn their speaker around and show them the burnt voice coil and explain to them that distortion and over powering the speaker is what caused the speaker to fail and the manufacturer would not give a warranty because it was not a factory defect.
Check the signal level at each gain stage of the audio path. you might be clipping before the power amplifier. Burning voice coils comes from the electrical energy being prevented from turning into movement (sound). That is when the electric energy gets dumped into heat. If the voice coils keep moving then there is no excess energy to turn into heat. [Outside of the efficiency loss of the voice coil itself which a well designed driver should be able to handle.] The periods of DC that occur when the signal is clipped don't keep the voice coil moving and so the only energy outlet for that power is heat. Yes, over excursion could be a problem but is unlikely outside of an exceptionally strong transient which probably will get clipped somewhere along the signal path anyway.
@@marianneoelund2940 Yes. The current draw is greater in a coil that is not moving in a magnetic field than one that is. The amperage load changes as the resistive value of the coil changes from not moving in the magnetic field. Clipping is not required, however the current draw of a clipped signal into a voice coil can spike at a much lower voltage than it would with a continuously variable waveform. I have measured and heard the difference when I have corrected mismatched component's gain problems. e.g. A +4 dBV analog output fed a -10 dBV digital processor and then continued to the power amplifier. A pad in front of the processor and less gain attenuation at the amplifier ended up with a louder output without the excess heat that as building up in the speaker cabinet and the speaker's thermal fuse.
@@schooltechnology If you are claiming that clipping a sinusoidal signal down to a trapezoid, without any change in gain over the non-clipped portion of the waveform, will result in an increase in power dissipation in the speaker, then you are not correct. There is no current "spike" of sufficient magnitude to exceed the current draw that would occur in the non-clipped case, which has a higher peak amplitude. I verified this with actual scope measurements of speaker current, comparing a sine wave to a trapezoidal wave equivalent to clipping the sine wave at 70% of peak, at 20Hz, 50Hz and 100Hz. The average I^2 value was actually lower on the clipped signal.
Really? I never heard that. However my SVS sub has built in circuitry to detect possible woofer overload and attenuate the signal before it could damage the driver.
Everything that Paul said is very true. But, as already highlighted in the comments, if you have the volume turned up way too high, regardless of the speaker/amp wattage, something is going to get damaged whether it's a tweeter or your eardrums. I think the key here is maybe to keep the volume down to a moderate level at most. I get that some people like really loud music but in some ways, I feel that that's not the proper way to listen to music. There has to be some level of self control. You can buy the world's most safest car with every advance safety tech feature and construction build but if you crash it into a wall at 100mph, it's highly likely that you won't survive it. You can only mitigate the laws of physics to a point but something has to give. Point is, enjoy your music at safe and logical listening levels.
I whole heartedly agree with everything Paul is saying here. Except And I have done this, lets take a very good loudspeaker that can handle 200w. And connect to it a 300B tube amp that's only capable of a few watts. If your very careful of how much energy your delivering to that speaker, keep it at only a watt or two, the sound could be glorious.
Seems to me there is a misunderstanding amongst novices due to the way this recommendations like this are delivered. There is no issue with matching higher rated speakers with a lesser rated amp. Just make sure the amp has enough power for your needs so you don't have to push it to clipping. Speakers can be rated many times the amps power, if the amp. Is powerful enough for your needs and you don't have to overpush it. Then no worries.
The power recommendation of HiFi speakers are generally exaggerated. When they say 250W recommended, most of the time you get to the listening levels at 50-80W.
Paul contradicts himself at 1:20. Here's the truth in a nutshell. For home use we rarely listen at more than 3 or 4 RMS watts total because that is a really loud volume. But you NEED extra amp power for the very occasional loud transient to avoid clipping. So the answer to the question is "either will work well in a home listening environment."
I know your a pro, but id like to point out 100 watts sent to a 12 ohm speaker isn't going to be playing loud, now you take that same 100 watts of power and drive a 2 ohm speaker it will be Hella loud. This is extremes nominal impedance will be between 4 to 8 ohms on the speakers. Now here is why impedance makes a difference. The lower a speakers impedance the louder it will play, but the trade off its not as clean, that low impedance adds to distortion As in the higher impedance plays cleaner but isn't as loud. Now the shift in this also dictates how the amp has to be built and how warm or hot it gets on a lower impedance speaker. So the happy compromise is a 6 ohm speaker system. But yes you cant have too much power Otherwise you can drive your amp into clipping. And with the extra power you'll have less noise floor and more headroom. So when the music plays youll have a better signal to noise ratio. And get cleaner sound output even durring transits that peak some but won't clip the amp. 45 years ago I ran a pair of B&W DM4s on a yahama cr620 rated at 20 watts rms I belive the speakers were rated at 60 watts rms @ 4ohms. I must have blowen the midbass drivers on them 4 or 5 times becuse I didnt know what clipping was Untill the store showed me that reciver was able to put out 400 watts when it clipped. A major part of this was the loudness volume or switch. They work great at low volumes but loud they distroy speakers. Most av system have removed them as they are not nessary. I worked in high-end car audio, trust me 100 watts isn't anything. I worked on systems that played 157.4 db spl. Thats so much sound presure and its moving so much air your hair blows like the winds hitting it. That van had 35k watts or more it was very loud so loud it knocked the wind out of your lungs. A jet engine is about 140db spl Most cities will give you a noise ticket if the sound presure is over 65db at the property line. Static noise mesure at about 40db with nothing on.and in a quite room. You dont need loud to have good sound. Anything above 70db can cause hearing dammage. To a child its even lower. A child's ears are 10 times more sensitive then an adults hearing. Don't play loud music with children in the room. You only need just about normal voice levels.
You got it backwards, lower ohm is less efficient higher more. You need more current to drive low impedance speakers, a 16ohm speaker will be far louder than a 4ohm at the same power.
@@DueM You're both wrong; you have current and power conflated. Power delivered to the speaker, and its efficiency, determines sound level. Nothing to do with impedance, provided the amplifier is designed to operate with the impedance of the speaker in use. Most amplifiers today will produce more sound with lower-impedance speakers because they can push more power through them, not because the lower impedance makes the speakers more efficient. Note: The above is based on the true definition of "efficiency" which is power out divided by power in. Do not be misled by false definitions of efficiency implied by test scenarios where speakers of different impedances are driven with the same voltage.
_"Forgive me father Paul for I have sinned. I have paired an underpowered amplifier with some large expensive speakers"_ :) (No, I haven't, but I was just amused by the thought of a possible confession :) )
Omg, Kicker audio couldn't not give me an answer like this. This was exactly what I was asking for. Clear, concise and understable knowledge. Thank you! Now I can be stress free with my amplifier selection.
With great power comes great responsibility.
And great reproduction.
With great power, it is always recommended to keep the drunk away from the volume control, or great sadness may happen.
He explained every topic so elaborately that any person who have little knowledge about electronics still can easily understood.
Paul could not be more right about this one.
I finally saved enough to buy me my first high current amp for my birthday, sheerly based on what I can afford brand new, I got the Emotiva BasX A300 (300wpc @ 4ohm). Main reason was I read my 1986 Altec 501's call for 300 watts in a sales brochure I came across. Not only is 12 O clock on the dial the most my ears can handle now, but even at low levels I get such better dynamics! Smaller speakers ive owned 20+ years made sound I never knew they were capable of making on this thing!
Happy birthday to you! Emotiva is excellent gear. Just remember to be nice to your ears.
That’s really cool. I was wondering this exact thing. Thank you.
Healthy listening level is around 60-70 dB, 80 would be loud, 90 is damaging human hearing. In most listening, 1 W is more than enough with anything but with the least efficient speakers in most homes/private listening rooms. PearlAcoustics had a good demo video of "how loud is 1 W". So the question is rather "how good is your first W" rather than throwing 1199 more lousy W after it. Very happy with my 25 W pure Class A PassLabs XA-25.
Hearing damage depends on duration and frequency range, as much as SPL. This is why OSHA uses dosimeters, not level meters, to establish the safety of a working environment.
As a bass player, Paul's explanation is what I've followed for decades. For my home audio system and my bass amp rig, I have yet to blow a speaker with amps that have more power than the loudspeakers are rated for. More power seems to supply more headroom without taxing the amp and without clipping.
For those that are more technically minded Paul could of added that a square-wave has exactly twice as much power as a sine-wave if they both have the same p-p voltage. The harmonics of a square-wave add to produce exactly as much power as the fundamental. The square-wave is basically a switched DC voltage so its power is V peak squared/R load.
Thanks Paul. That was really interesting.
Problems for the consumer:
1. Amplifiers/receivers are rarely equipped with clipping indicators.
2. Amplifier/receiver power ratings are often nearly meaningless.
3. Speaker power ratings are based on a large set of assumptions made by the manufacturer, but they never tell us what those assumptions are.
4. Whether or not damage may occur, often depends on the spectral power distribution of the music being played. Consumers have no way to monitor this, other than with their ears.
amplifier max watts output is never a problem, thats why we have volume control.
When it comes to race car drivers there is an old saying, "it's easier to pull the reins back then it is to push them forward". I dont buy way to big because you can burn up some speakers by pushing hard like when listening to a lower recorded CD. You may never get to clipping and end up pushing 250 watts through a 100 watt speaker if not careful. I bi-amped my Infinity RS IIIa's (leaving the passive crossovers in). 200 watt speakers I now have 250 watts going to top and bottom each. Nice to pull the amps back to where they will never see clipping and still have plenty of power to bring out everything the RS IIIa's have to offer. Not to mention being able to control the woofers and the top differently, it's a whole new world.
He's right
So calming .. one of my favourite channels on UA-cam
People always say the speaker ratings don't matter, especially the peak, but my feelings have always been that the peak is a very easy way to decide on an amplifier. I try and equal or surpass the peak number of the speaker with the amp wattage and you will always be covered as long as you play within the capabilities of the speaker. Obviously, I am generalizing, and many other factors should be accounted for. To me peak wattage is the starting point.
Thanks Paul! That was really helpful! So, let's say we have a 6Ω speaker, that can efficiently (94dB) handle 100w RMS (continuous) - what qualities should one look for in an amplifier?
It's a little like fitting a small engine in a very heavy car. Even if you drive slowly, you are going to stress the small engine and consume lots of fuel. The same is true about big speakers and a small amp. Even if you don't push it to its limits, the amp will always be out of breath and prone to producing some distortion.
When coupling a very powerful power amplifier with speakers that don't have a high power rating, the important thing is not to exceed the speaker's maximum volume output.
In this way, the speakers will simply draw the amount of power they need.
I completely agree, just to add... it is a good practice for the amplifier to be twice as powerful (w) as the sound box, but that difference of 3dB should be limited, Threshold is very important so that the amplifier does not clip, if DC voltage appears on output, defacto it destroys the speakers...
In practice you can burn a 1kW (1000w) speaker with a 10w bad amplifier
Back in the hay days of JBL, they would put a leaflet in the box of speaker components explaining exactly the same. They even used the 20W amp as example. Having said that, if for instance you have a Fostex 5W full range speaker, 100 old fashioned Watts is just too dangerous.
Well another great video. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me! I always thought and i think it's a common misconception, that the stronger amp it's more likely to damage the speaker by putting to much power into it, while in reality it's the week amp that can damage the speaker. Also, while counter intuitive it seems that the speaker can also damage the amp. Let's say a 25 Watt weak amp is playing at it's 80% capability to achieve some loudness desired loudness, and then a big base drops in which requires a lot of extra power peek to move woofers a lot. I think this might damage the amp as well.
No, that would be safe for the amplifier.
If it's a momentary loud bass passage, it should be safe for the speaker as well. Clipping of bass does not dump that much extra energy into the tweeter. Tweeters are far more susceptible to damage when clipping of mid-frequency signals (e.g., lead guitar or voice) occurs.
Mate thanks heaps!... For getting straight to the point and answering my question "should your amp have more watts than speaker". Apparently no-one else on UA-cam could! 😂
I’m confused. He said “the latter” but them in the explanation said the former is better.
Yup.
No he didn't
@@zachliechti5476 , yes...... _he did_
dio.... he misspoke. this happens freq. he's getting old. his tongue gets ahead of his brain occasionally.
Indeed. You have to learn to love these quirks :) I am subscribed to another channel where an older gentleman shares really valuable knowledge and ideas but I simply lost track of how many times he does things like this, it's probably at least once in every clip. He does later catch some of them while editing and he includes the correct statements as text but some still go through undetected. I noticed that anything to do with numbers or things that come in a certain order (e.g. days of the week) are his Nemesis. But I kind of love it, it's very... human after all. Here I bet everyone understood exactly what Paul wanted to communicate so why split the hairs for this?
Hi Sir, also I'm thanking you for your knowledge. I'm planing to buy Dynaudio Emit 10 6ohm bookshelf speakers declared 150w. Amp will be new Rotel A11 mk II 50w at 8ohms and 62w at 4ohms. I will be listening this in 16 square meters room from distance 2.5m. Is this enough power to feed my speakers to sound properly at low and high volumes? If I listen loud its around 80 to 90db
I don't always agree with Paul, but what he says here is absolutely true.
I once sold a pair of really good studio monitors to a friend. They could easily handle a 300W amp. I sold them for very cheap, because he's not a rich guy and a good friend. But then he also needed an amplifier to drive them, so I threw in an old 40W amp that I didn't use anymore.
One week later he told me "it sounds great, I'll send you the money!". Two weeks later he told me "the speakers blew up". He didn't send me the money that he owed, but I didn't chase him for it either. Because I shouldn't have sold him that combination of speakers+amp.
Thank you for leading the way in our hi-fi fam! 😊⚡🎛
Great explaining Paul thanks.
Paul - My Sansui 5050 (rated at 30 WPC, RMS), drives my Klipsch Heresy III's (99 db/1 watt, rated for 100 watts continous power). I have absolutely no clipping or distortion- if I turn the volume dial higher than level 3 (for most CD recordings), i'll be extremely close to either blowing out my eardrums, or my bedroom windows!
we are hifi family, yeeeees!
Spot on with this one. And
Welcome to Mr. McGowan's Neighborhood.
Love your channel Paul.! But I must disagree 😜because once in a while, if your system is tuned exactly like you could dream of, I can't help it..... Must have impac. And that's loud enough to kill any normal speaker with some 6.5
~8" drivers before I reach the level. I prefer minimum 15" sub woofers for left and right channels if your playing heavy low end content. And get a massive power amps headroom, to reach the drivers full potential without clipping. Merry Christmas. Stay healthy ❤️🎄✌️
An interesting topic , but restraint is a must ,,, power is nothing without control.
Whenever an amplifier is involved in sound reinforcement, the use of a mixer with accurate level meters is a must, in order to ensure the required input level of the amplifier is met and kept there. Provided that the input sensitivity voltage is not overdriven the amplifier doesn't have a reason to clip, as long as its power supply is stable and able to deliver the continuous required voltage and current into the specific speaker load.
Amplifiers work on fixed gain or fixed input sensitivities to raise a given input voltage to a specified output voltage. So, put your math to good use and keep the voltages and amperages in check.
Is there a percentage of how much you can over power a speaker without getting into trouble?
Hi, meaning clipped signal can damage the tweeter... Playing Guitar, distortion is a clipping of the amp. In the normal Guitar Cabs there are no tweeter, so good. But the with amp modeling the signal goes direct to the PA including modelled clipping. It would be mean, it will be damage the PA's tweeter? Same, some bass cabinets has a tweeter, so when playing bass distorted to it, will casing the same damage? Or because the main frequency range (w/o harmonics) are not in the range of the tweeter, it will not damage it?
Paul is right but there are some rare cases where you have to be careful with having too much power. For example, your 1000 Watt power amplifier can cause too much excursion on your 100 Watt woofers when mistakes happen. I destroyed some 10" woofers (Coral brand) ages ago due to the voice coils hitting bottom with some bangs as my system had entered some acoustic feedback mode with the turntable cartridge picking up the floor vibrations from the bass from my speakers . I was out of the room when I suddenly heard the very loud bass feedback effect of voice coils banging at the bottom hitting the magnet. The damage was permanent after less than a minute of this condition. My setup was in a room with a wooden floor and at a certain volume it could start oscillating at a certain low frequency. You can also get some serious low frequency power (50 or 60Hz) out of an analog cable missing the ground connection e.g. due to an RCA plug not completely pushed in.
A minute is a very long time for a severe condition like that.
Reminds me of the time my little sister roasted a hi-fi speaker. My father liked to use the speaker with the TV, so he added an external speaker cable to the TV, then added connectors so the speaker could be plugged into it. The problem is that he made a very unwise choice of connectors - he used standard AC mains plugs and sockets!
One afternoon, my sister wanted to use the hi-fi speaker with the TV, and mistakenly plugged the speaker into the wall outlet, instead of the TV's cable. The house vibrated at 60Hz for about 8-10 seconds, and left my poor sister in a state of shock. I'm glad I wasn't in the room.
@@marianneoelund2940 Are you kidding me? I have a true story like that. At 9 years old, I was already into electronics quite deeply and made my own speaker setup connected to some cassette deck with speaker output. I decided to use AC mains plugs and splitters for convenience (several wooden box speakers in parallel, mono only). One day I was in school, my aunt visited my mum and my mum wanted to demo my audio setup to her. She didn't know anything about my setup and plugged the speakers into mains directly. In a split second my speakers went into smoke with a bang. When I came home from school she apologized and to compensate for it, I got their Bang & Olufsen Beomaster 901 system with original speakers. It was much better than what just went up in smoke. After I graduated in engineering I got my first job at Bang & Olufsen.
Thanks for everything
hello I have 2 Davis Matisse speakers (93db sensitivity) that I've had for about 15 years. I just replaced my 2x65w Marantz PM-53 (which was failing) with a 2x45w Marantz PM6007. I have been hearing clipping on my mids, which have me a bit perplexed. Could I be underpowering my speakers? or could it be time to repair them?
This was surprising. I thought it is the other way around.
But isn't it truth also that too much power can damage the speaker as well?
I mean I have my Marantz 1550 2x52 wats and I have my Piooneer Prologue 8 speakers ( 100wats RMS)
Well I cannot afford to go above 1/2 of the power of the amp because I feel that the speakers are distorting and starting to take damage. Ican easely burn he speakers if I turn the volume
Most speakers are conservatively rated. Say 100 watts RMS on pink noise for 8 hours. With music, which is dynamic with moments of silence, speakers can handle several times that for short periods of time. The problem is the buildup of heat and melting the adhesives that hold it all together. Along with bottoming out woofers at low frequencies...
You cannot have too much power, you have a volume control that prevents damaging your speakers. Unless you are foolish enough to grossly overdrive your speakers.
That’s why I always go with the Marshall Nigel Tufnell signature amps that go to 11. 😂
I have a pair of tower speakers rated 250 watts RMS 8 ohms . What amplifier should I use?
"The latter", I learned that the hard way.
I'm using a 40watt app for my highs and 60-watt for my bass on some 85 watts speakers .
They sound great, maybe because of the Myryad apps in monitor audio speakers..
I don't really need a higher watt amp because on very loud music volume, they still sound great.
Doesn't all of this depend on speakers sensitivity and impedance. You don't need a massive amplifier if you are 90db sensitivity and up. 25 watt would be plenty, specially on a good design amp and good pre that would go with it. Like First Watt for example.
I have used a 13 W RMS receiver with speakers rated for 60 watts and never had a problem
BECAUSE I know when to stop turning the volume up.
That said ... yes, more power Can be advantageous.
I have the Kef LS50 speakers, and a Marantz Model 50 amplifier which is 70 watts per channel.
I have a speaker with max power rated at 85watts (82db sensitivity), and have it paired to a 425watt amp. Will I blow my speakers? At point is it too much power?
Paul I have A5+ audioengine speakers what's the best amplifier for these speakers, with a dac and audioengine S8 subwoofer?
It's the *former* and not the *latter* as you stated.
So if my speakers are 80 RMS, it's ok to amp 100 RMS? and I don't have to think in the tweeters?
Hello sir! I have a question. My situation is this. I have a digital piano and my right speaker is damaged, its rating is 6watts and 6ohms on yamaha website, however it is really loud for a 6watts.
So what I did was buy a same size speaker rated at 40 watts max and 20 watts nominal power and 8ohms impedance. It’s hard to find a speaker with 6watts and 6ohms so I just buy even its not the same rating.
Now, I just found out that the AC power adapter of my digital piano has 45 watts input power. Is it okay for me to replace the built in speaker with 40 watts speaker? Thank you
Can i add transistors to my amplifier Roland rta it won't affect any problem?
I'm just wondering my MC250 McIntosh amp is 50 watts a channel I'm running it through a set of D7 4ohm cerwin vega speakers would they clip I always heard that class a was clean all the way through can you please explain the cinematic of that my name is kürt from Nottingham md I enjoy watching PS audio and the tone of your voice is so relaxing in explaining maybe its my audio buff ears..lol.
Your amplifier has an input sensitivity of 0.5 V RMS.
0.5 V = -3 dBU= -6 dBV.
As long as your input signal has a value of no more than 0.5 V RMS AC, your amplifier will be able to deliver its full rated power, without clipping.
Cerwin Vega D7 speakers have a sensitivity of 98 dB at 1 meter with 1 Watt, meaning they are very sensitive and don't require more than 16 watt to deliver 110 dB SPL at one meter, which is quite loud, depending on your room size and the distance between you and the speakers. Even if you stay at 2 meters way they are able to give you a high SPL, if you like it that loud.
Hi my amplifier 120 w RMS each channels my speaker 50W RMS but problem is can not increase the gain good level my speakers strain too much because of bass notes I reduce the gain sound quality not so good use crossover to cut bass frequency I missing string bass and audio density how can solve?
I’ve been in car audio for about 20 years. People look at me like a horse looking at a new gate when I give them this advice. When you hit that square wave the speaker is not moving, therefore it isn’t cooling and will often overheat the voice coil.
“You’ll never play it that loud if you have any sense…”. The average freshman fraternity boy: “hold my beer and listen to this.”
Analogue audio signals travel in sine waves. Funny how digital signals are square in shape.
Clipping is worse than creating a square clip, it makes a saw tooth drop off.
An amplifier has a bank of capacitors that enables it to provide smooth DC supply - smoothing capacitors - they remove any final ripple in the output stage from any rectification of the AC supply power. They also provide a burst of power that is good for driving the power beyond the technical limit of the power supply, hence the differences between the different power ratings of DIN etc.
Clipping occurs where the capacitors can no longer "over-supply" the DC and the source power supply cannot re-charge the output capacitors fast enough to keep up, with the result you get a capacitor discharge curve on the output sound : the normal rising convex curve truncates and becomes a sharp concave curve drop off until the power supply catches up withe the power curve and stops the discharge curve. The result is a saw-tooth signal where the peaks a truncated as a sawtooth edges that drop back down to the underlying power supply power. This distortion is very disturbing to listen too, but also causes massive changes in acceleration in the speaker cones and, depending on the damping factor of the amplifier, results in the speaker impedance to wildly fluctuate as it is driven in a way it mechanically cannot respond. This will tear the cones apart.
In the case of over-driving a speaker is that the speaker distorts as it exceeds it free travel range which produces distortion but generally does not damage the cones before you turn the volume down.
I'd be curious to see the oscilloscope plot of the square clipped wave making its way through the speaker crossover network. I wonder if the square wave, being the "sum" of many frequencies, from the lowest to the highest, would make it through to all individual speakers in a 2-, 3- 4-way loudspeaker. Just a thought
Thanks!
Does “the quality of the watts” matter? In other words, does a good power supply influence the amount of clipping? So I have an Arcam SA10 connected to my Wharfedale EVO 4.2. The Arcam delivers 2 x 50 watts and needs to drive the 120 watts of the Wharfedales. The combination sounds wonderful to me and I never listen above 40% of the volume. Do I need to worry?
Nah you'd have to be doing something extremely stupid to blow your speakers, i use a 200w rotel with some little wharfedale 9.1s it runs fine. On the other hand I used a 50w denon with wharfedale 9.5 floorstanders and thrashed them for years, never had issues. Small amps with extremely inefficient speakers 84/86db or less are the most likely to blow from underpower, the devil's in the details the floor standers are 6ohm 150w max but 88db efficient. The bookshelves are 6ohm 125w max but 86db so less efficient and need more power for the same volume.
@@DueM thanks for your detailed explanation. I also read in the specifications there is a range from 20 up to 120 watts applicable. This also means 50 watt is not really a problem. Makes me wonder though what sound will come from these beauties when driven by 120 watts pure power. Something to save money for in the future!
@@quintijn1995 power isn't everything, your arcam is a solid amp. The biggest benefit i found with more power is low level linearity, the wharfedales i use love playing loud but the bass would evaporate at low volume levels. With higher power the sound is complete across the whole volume scale, the speakers you own are good enough to show improvements as well but i wouldn't be in a massive hurry to upgrade sources or amplification.
Ballance is the nature of the universe, and should be on every preamp. Every room is different with different objects in it. Matching power is important for reducing distortion. Though the distortion can be reduced by a genius speaker design also. Class AB anp designs produce less distortion than class A at low power levels, according to Texas Instruments circuit design information.
Is 140 w power amp enough for a 300w speaker😊
I'm a new subscriber here Paul. Thank you and God bless you all. 🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤😊😊😊
Thanks! Enjoy
I’m sorry Paul but kids back in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s would push their stereo speakers or parents stereo speakers until the voice coil would burn or catch on fire. Then when the parents wanted to know why their couple of month old speakers was not covered under warranty i would turn their speaker around and show them the burnt voice coil and explain to them that distortion and over powering the speaker is what caused the speaker to fail and the manufacturer would not give a warranty because it was not a factory defect.
When I was young, with no sense, I blew several pairs of speakers....LOL
Check the signal level at each gain stage of the audio path. you might be clipping before the power amplifier. Burning voice coils comes from the electrical energy being prevented from turning into movement (sound). That is when the electric energy gets dumped into heat. If the voice coils keep moving then there is no excess energy to turn into heat. [Outside of the efficiency loss of the voice coil itself which a well designed driver should be able to handle.] The periods of DC that occur when the signal is clipped don't keep the voice coil moving and so the only energy outlet for that power is heat. Yes, over excursion could be a problem but is unlikely outside of an exceptionally strong transient which probably will get clipped somewhere along the signal path anyway.
Utter nonsense. Voice coils overheat from excess current, period. Clipping is not a required condition for that to occur.
@@marianneoelund2940 Yes. The current draw is greater in a coil that is not moving in a magnetic field than one that is. The amperage load changes as the resistive value of the coil changes from not moving in the magnetic field. Clipping is not required, however the current draw of a clipped signal into a voice coil can spike at a much lower voltage than it would with a continuously variable waveform. I have measured and heard the difference when I have corrected mismatched component's gain problems. e.g. A +4 dBV analog output fed a -10 dBV digital processor and then continued to the power amplifier. A pad in front of the processor and less gain attenuation at the amplifier ended up with a louder output without the excess heat that as building up in the speaker cabinet and the speaker's thermal fuse.
@@schooltechnology
If you are claiming that clipping a sinusoidal signal down to a trapezoid, without any change in gain over the non-clipped portion of the waveform, will result in an increase in power dissipation in the speaker, then you are not correct.
There is no current "spike" of sufficient magnitude to exceed the current draw that would occur in the non-clipped case, which has a higher peak amplitude.
I verified this with actual scope measurements of speaker current, comparing a sine wave to a trapezoidal wave equivalent to clipping the sine wave at 70% of peak, at 20Hz, 50Hz and 100Hz. The average I^2 value was actually lower on the clipped signal.
Most amplifiers have speaker protection relays to prevent overloads and or DC current
Really? I never heard that. However my SVS sub has built in circuitry to detect possible woofer overload and attenuate the signal before it could damage the driver.
Everything that Paul said is very true. But, as already highlighted in the comments, if you have the volume turned up way too high, regardless of the speaker/amp wattage, something is going to get damaged whether it's a tweeter or your eardrums.
I think the key here is maybe to keep the volume down to a moderate level at most. I get that some people like really loud music but in some ways, I feel that that's not the proper way to listen to music. There has to be some level of self control.
You can buy the world's most safest car with every advance safety tech feature and construction build but if you crash it into a wall at 100mph, it's highly likely that you won't survive it. You can only mitigate the laws of physics to a point but something has to give.
Point is, enjoy your music at safe and logical listening levels.
I'm tired of changing subwoofer speakers , I hope this one will last more.
Enough power that you can run it to its limit without clipping.
When an amplifier clips is it distorting at the same time
I thaght you were going to say, damage your amplifier but damaging the tweeters is not as bad.
An amplifier that cannot drive a speaker is like a snail trying its best climbing the Himalayas.
0:20 yup
I whole heartedly agree with everything Paul is saying here.
Except
And I have done this, lets take a very good loudspeaker that can handle 200w. And connect to it a 300B tube amp that's only capable of a few watts. If your very careful of how much energy your delivering to that speaker, keep it at only a watt or two, the sound could be glorious.
're
As far as sound quality is concerned, you never, ever, want your speakers to Klipsch
I have 2000 watt amplifier and 3000 watt pa speakers. I never crank it up.
Like the begging of the Back to the future movie....
PS Audio family. Legit.
Definitely a community here and thank you for being part of it.
When you said "The latter" at 1:12, that contradicts everything said afterwards. 😀Presumably you meant "The former".
Either can damage your speaker but underpowered and clipping is a more likely scenario.
That's almost what I figured. But, I wasn't sure.
Seems to me there is a misunderstanding amongst novices due to the way this recommendations like this are delivered.
There is no issue with matching higher rated speakers with a lesser rated amp. Just make sure the amp has enough power for your needs so you don't have to push it to clipping.
Speakers can be rated many times the amps power, if the amp. Is powerful enough for your needs and you don't have to overpush it. Then no worries.
AES vs RMS
Ten times the power to double perceived loudness; you can't have too much amplifier.
True, but confined to mid frequencies, in the lower end of the spectrum you only need as little as 4dB to to double the perceived loudness.
Unless it's a Polk Audio. Then them tweeters are going to melt no matter what. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Those. Plural you see 😉
@@FreddysHamster 🤣👍
Then why can an amp with an output of 30-500 Watts be recommended for a speaker with a power handling of 250 RMS/500 Max? Shouldnt it be much higher?
The power recommendation of HiFi speakers are generally exaggerated. When they say 250W recommended, most of the time you get to the listening levels at 50-80W.
Can see so many non snake oil cables..
Protect your ears and ya tweets!!
Paul contradicts himself at 1:20. Here's the truth in a nutshell. For home use we rarely listen at more than 3 or 4 RMS watts total because that is a really loud volume. But you NEED extra amp power for the very occasional loud transient to avoid clipping. So the answer to the question is "either will work well in a home listening environment."
More power works better by having a higher volume ceiling before clipping. More room for error when turning that volume knob after a few beers.
Any 12 year old can handle the numbers for speaker sensitivity, loudness, power.
Always some idiot friend want to test full power of amplifier
So you mean the former lol
This is nonsense according to Andrew Jones.
I know your a pro, but id like to point out 100 watts sent to a 12 ohm speaker isn't going to be playing loud, now you take that same 100 watts of power and drive a 2 ohm speaker it will be Hella loud.
This is extremes nominal impedance will be between 4 to 8 ohms on the speakers.
Now here is why impedance makes a difference. The lower a speakers impedance the louder it will play, but the trade off its not as clean, that low impedance adds to distortion
As in the higher impedance plays cleaner but isn't as loud. Now the shift in this also dictates how the amp has to be built and how warm or hot it gets on a lower impedance speaker.
So the happy compromise is a 6 ohm speaker system.
But yes you cant have too much power
Otherwise you can drive your amp into clipping. And with the extra power you'll have less noise floor and more headroom. So when the music plays youll have a better signal to noise ratio.
And get cleaner sound output even durring transits that peak some but won't clip the amp.
45 years ago I ran a pair of B&W DM4s on a yahama cr620 rated at 20 watts rms
I belive the speakers were rated at 60 watts rms @ 4ohms. I must have blowen the midbass drivers on them 4 or 5 times becuse I didnt know what clipping was
Untill the store showed me that reciver was able to put out 400 watts when it clipped. A major part of this was the loudness volume or switch.
They work great at low volumes but loud they distroy speakers. Most av system have removed them as they are not nessary.
I worked in high-end car audio, trust me 100 watts isn't anything. I worked on systems that played 157.4 db spl.
Thats so much sound presure and its moving so much air your hair blows like the winds hitting it.
That van had 35k watts or more it was very loud so loud it knocked the wind out of your lungs. A jet engine is about 140db spl
Most cities will give you a noise ticket if the sound presure is over 65db at the property line.
Static noise mesure at about 40db with nothing on.and in a quite room.
You dont need loud to have good sound.
Anything above 70db can cause hearing dammage. To a child its even lower.
A child's ears are 10 times more sensitive then an adults hearing.
Don't play loud music with children in the room. You only need just about normal voice levels.
You got it backwards, lower ohm is less efficient higher more. You need more current to drive low impedance speakers, a 16ohm speaker will be far louder than a 4ohm at the same power.
@@DueM
You're both wrong; you have current and power conflated. Power delivered to the speaker, and its efficiency, determines sound level. Nothing to do with impedance, provided the amplifier is designed to operate with the impedance of the speaker in use.
Most amplifiers today will produce more sound with lower-impedance speakers because they can push more power through them, not because the lower impedance makes the speakers more efficient.
Note: The above is based on the true definition of "efficiency" which is power out divided by power in. Do not be misled by false definitions of efficiency implied by test scenarios where speakers of different impedances are driven with the same voltage.
I reckon if he wasn't in this business Paul could have easily made it into something like radio, psychology or even as a priest! :)
_"Forgive me father Paul for I have sinned. I have paired an underpowered amplifier with some large expensive speakers"_ :) (No, I haven't, but I was just amused by the thought of a possible confession :) )
This is the opposite for guitar amps..
which seldom have tweeters in the cabs and the drivers that are there are designed to handle the overdrive. Rather than bothering to sound good.
@@glenncurry3041 yup. No one's going to plug there stereo into a 4x12 Celestion speakered cab for quality playback.
@@drdelewded No phono cart into mic inputs? :-)
First thing I thought also, especially Tube amps
Your speakers should be stronger then your amp, it will always good !
What is wrong with you? Its 2022. No one gets weekends off. Get with the times
Can i have your email address to aks for advice. Thanks!