Power of amplifier and speaker rating

All,

I may be auditioning and of course writing a review for a 550 WPC power amp in April. The idea is to see how much would bi amping impact on the SQ of M6i integrated amp and ProAc D18.

The question is, if you were given such power amp at 550 WPC, do you dare to test it with speakers with max rating of 150 WPC?

My current M6i is 200 WPC and no problem at all with the D18. But will I pushing it if test the D18 with 550 WPC?

Hi El...

Personally, I would not exceed the boundaries stated on the speaker. The speakers ( coils ) or components are built to the specified threshold.

Would suffice to hook up to 550WPC AMP, it may have its "volume control limitation" and exceeding that may fry your speakers..especially the coils.

That's my understanding.

cheers

El,

howdy.

From what i have heard, it is LOW powered amps that take out the speaker coils. The clipping of low powered amps, when they are driven too hard, causes heat build up that fries the coils.

The speakers you mentioned will probably go unbearably loud before they go bust. So chances are you will turn the volume down as you hear distortion long before the coils overheat and go kaput.

The make of the 550 Watt beastie would help.... some poorly made ones give out DC at high volumes, and this will cook your voice coils also.

Hope this helps you dude!

Bal

Shouldn't be a problem la. It's about headroom. At sane listening levels the power amp probably won't exceed even 150watts except at certain peaks depending on the signal and music.

My take is that if the speakers are rated at 200w then it means that's continuous power handling. Most oftentimes you're way below.

I've seen little LS3/5's leashed up to megawatt behemoth power amps and nothing was sent into orbit....

bal and jedisavant are correct.

there shld be no issues and the speaker will not be fried.

frankly it takes only a few watts - maybe 1-10 watts (depending on the sensitivity of speakers) - of power when playing music. it is the loud parts of the music that will need more than that.

a low-powered amp may clip during the loud passages and this can damage your speakers.

it is always safer to use a more powerful amp than a less powerful one.

i hv used a 1000 watt per channel amp in my system and my speakers are still in good shape.

"Power handling" of a speaker is a meaningless specification. You could hook up a 1000W amp to your speakers if you wanted to, and it would still be safe. As others have said, the danger comes if you hook up a low powered amp and then drive it into clipping - that will damage the voice coil of your speaker.

Thanks all for the feedback. I just needed some reassuarance to comfort myself before testing. Yes, actually I know that low wattage amps are more risky then the higher power amps. And for my listening level, I wont be sucking 550 watts into my speakers.

I might not bi amp yet, may be just use the monoblocks as the power amp.

One final word, the use of a monster amp will only affect a small amount. Its only about 2x the amount of your current amp and considering the quality of design and power (200w) these days - clipping will never be the issue. To double the sound output it needs 10x the power. But there are (music) peaks that can right up there. The reason why lower power amps are so damaging is because when the peaks are lopped off (on the oscilloscope it can be seen) the lopping off creates high frequency harmonics that are beyond the freq. capability of the tweeter and causes the tweeter to stand still but at a high power (remember the peaks) and so fry the tweeter. All speakers can stand a huge amount of power but only for a tiny amount of time as in music peaks.
What you will experience is probably a cleaner and more well damped (or drier) bass. Some will say less bass perhaps? But the difference in terms of tonality and drive will be much better (more power). Good luck then.