What speaker wattage?
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 3,134
Likes: 11
From: At the St. Louis Playboy club.
What speaker wattage?
Ive 50 watts per channel.
What difference will it make if I buy 50 watt speakers or a 120 watt speakers & for the heck of it 300 watt speakers?
Thanks
What difference will it make if I buy 50 watt speakers or a 120 watt speakers & for the heck of it 300 watt speakers?
Thanks
Team Owner
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 21,136
Likes: 212
From: Long Island New York
A basic rule of thumb, you want an amp with more wattage than the speaker requires. You say you have 50w amp. Is that peak power or RMS power? A peak power amp usually supplies about 22w RMS. RMS is the important figure. Thats not much at all.
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 3,134
Likes: 11
From: At the St. Louis Playboy club.
Its 200 watts peak. 50x4.
Is a 300 watt speaker not going to function properly, or would it last longer ? Is a 50 watt speaker going to blow or not reach peak performance?
What are the pros & cons of big watt speakers vs. small watt speakers
in a 50 watt per channel system.
Thanks again.
Is a 300 watt speaker not going to function properly, or would it last longer ? Is a 50 watt speaker going to blow or not reach peak performance?
What are the pros & cons of big watt speakers vs. small watt speakers
in a 50 watt per channel system.
Thanks again.
Safety Car
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,783
Likes: 15
From: Northern California
Speakers are designed to play efficiently at a specific wattage.
A 50 watt rms speaker will play best given 50 watts rms or higher. The same 50 watt rms will power a 300 watt speaker but, that 300 watt speaker will not sound as good or clean (especially at higher listening levels) as if it had 300 watts rms powering it.
A 50 watt rms speaker will play best given 50 watts rms or higher. The same 50 watt rms will power a 300 watt speaker but, that 300 watt speaker will not sound as good or clean (especially at higher listening levels) as if it had 300 watts rms powering it.
Last edited by GKK; Nov 13, 2010 at 02:15 AM.
Team Owner
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 51,504
Likes: 6
From: Sacramento CA
You have to look at the speaker's sensitivity. The higher the number the better the speaker can do with less power. But you shouldn't look at the sensitivity, because it's probably BS anyway.
Corvette Stories
The Best of Corvette for Corvette Enthusiasts
150 hp to 1,250 hp: Every Corvette Generation Compared by the Specs That Matter
Joe Kucinski
8 Coolest Corvette Pace Cars (and Replicas) of All Time
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Corvette Engines RANKED by Peak Torque (70+ Years of Muscle!)
Joe Kucinski
Corvette ZR1X Will Be Pacing the Indy 500, And Could Probably Race, Too!
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Corvettes Coming to Mecum Indy 2026!
Brett Foote
Top 10 C9 Corvette MUST-HAVES to Fix These C8 Generation Flaws!
Michael S. Palmer
10 Revolutionary 'Corvette Firsts' Most People Don't Know
Joe Kucinski
5 Reasons to Upgrade to an LS6-Powered Corvette; 5 Reasons to Stay LT2
Michael S. Palmer
2027 Corvette vs The World: Every C8 vs Its Closest Competitor
Joe Kucinski
Intermediate
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 43
Likes: 0
From: Santa Clara California
If you play a speaker very loudly with a low power amp you are going to damage it. That's because when an amp runs out of power it "clips". Instead of sending nicely rounded signals to the speaker, it clips the tops off when it reaches it's power limit ... making square signals. The speaker can't replicate square signals and gets damaged.
Having too much power is rarely a problem, because your head will explode before the speaker will!
Having too much power is rarely a problem, because your head will explode before the speaker will!
