Speaker & Amp Advice

[Spookspy 0]

Hi All

 

Firstly, Happy New Year and Hope you have had a Great Christmas.

 

I need some advice about my speakers I am getting a little confused and was hoping for a bit of clarity:

 

 

 

On the back of my speakers is the info:

 

Impedance 8 Ohmns

Power 150w

Power Max 250w

Power Peak 500w

 

Which ones should I be using when matching up to an Amp ?

I have heard that you should use an amp slightly more powerful than your speakers but which of these 3 different wattage's should i go with ?

 

I know about Ohm's i am just getting confused withe 3 different wattage's on one product.

Any advice appreciated.

 

Thanks again

Regards

John

 

 

[McCardle 1]

As a rule of thumb (and in the absence of a true RMS rating being shown), I would always use the lowest figure given as a continuous rating, in other words, the amount of wattage which the speaker will happily run at continuously for hours on end with no damage occuring, that is what we are interested in.

 

Maximum and Peak ratings, in my personal opinion are meaningless and have no place in professional applications, like ours which use a wide range of music signals and frequencies. After all, how long were those Max and Peak ratings applied for?, hours, minutes or even a few seconds!, we have no way of knowing and manufacturers are very good at exaggerating their figures, because it looks good and sells speakers!.

 

RMS Ratings are the only figures you need to be taking notice of in this industry, but since the speaker doesn't actually give that figure as such, I would be using 150W as the starting point!. You are also correct, in that its good to have an amplifier which is rated at slightly more than the speaker, but not excessively so. In this case, if it was me, I would be aiming for an amplifier with an RMS output of between the 150w and 250w figures, and an amplifier which has a 200w RMS @ 8 ohms per channel rating would be a ideal, and easy to find.

 

Some may say this is being a little cautious, but personally the last thing I would want to be risking would be a blown speaker or tweeter half way through a gig!, so I think its better to stay on the side of caution, and if 200w / channel isn't adequate, then its better to get a higher power system, than to try and cram an extra few watts from a 200W speaker as quality rapidly begins to suffer as the speaker gets closer to / pushed beyond its design limits

 

Its also worth remembering that the biggest cause of blown speakers, isn't always overload, its clipping, which describes the point where the amplifier tries to deliver more power than its designed to deliver cleanly, this sends distortion and other nasties down the line to the speaker, and will damage it quite quickly, so avoid driving an amplifier to the point where its 'peak' or 'clip' lights are flashing constantly, or fully on!.

Edited January 5, 2015 by McCardle

[Spookspy 0]

Hi McCardle

 

Thank you so much for your advice and expert guidance :)

I have bought me a 1500 watt amp to use with my 500w speakers as described...I should be ok with that as long as i don't peak and clip the speaker overload.

 

your advice has made it clear and more understandable now thanks again

 

Cheers

John