Is 45 watts per channel (2 channels) enough to drive a set of half decent speakers? (Real stereo speakers, not computer

[Noriaki]

Is 45 watts per channel (2 channels) enough to drive a set of half decent speakers? (Real stereo speakers, not computer)

So here's the deal.

I have an RCA shelf system, it's 90 watts...so I think it's 45x2

(It actually has surround speaker ports (though it lacks inputs for that signal...), but I don't use them...so would it go 45x2 to the mains? Or would it be 22.5x4 even if the surrounds are off? There is actually a control for Surround On/Off)

Anyhow, so here it is, I have this 90 watt shelf system, but the speakers kinda blow goats.

My uncle has these two speakers from his old stereo system. The speakers are 10-15 years old, but they are still in good shape, and he says they were pretty good speakers when he bought them.

They appear to have a 1-1.5" driver, a 4" and a 6.5" in each. So I want to hook these two up to the 90 watt amp in my shelf system instead of the ones that came with it.

Is there any danger in that? And will the 90watt amp be enough to drive them properly?

Keep in mind, I'm not going to buy anything new for this, either I keep the speakers than came with it, or I use my uncles, and I'm not buying a new amp.

 

[Muadib]

We would need more info on the speakers. You can't go by the size of the speakers alone. Do you know name of the speakers, or did they come in a rack set?

 

[JACKHAMMER]

Should work (depending on ohmage). It won't be that loud, be will be plenty.

 

[BDawg]

As long as the current is okay, you should be fine. Just don't turn them up too loud. I got by for a long time with a 75 watt Yamaha and Klipsches. But, the Klipsches are notorious for high efficiency.

The most common cause of blown speakers is underpowering them, not over powering them.

 

[777joee]

I think it would be ok as I had a 40 watt per channel Kenwood reciever pwoering my Klipsch Herresey's for 20 years. They sure sound Bette with my new 100 watt per channel Yamaha reciever.


Just my $.02

 

[glen]

45 is a lot
You will be fine

 

[DuffmanOhYeah]

You will be fine. Now you won't be able to bring down the house, but who cares? Id much rather have a cleanly amped signal at low power than a crappy signal that is pumped up to high hwell. I much prefer quality over quantity here.

 

[Muadib]

I still would like more info. Sure, 45 watts should be fine, but are you sure it's 45? Quite a few of those shelf systems list the total wattage, and they rarely have just one amp. Is your rca similar to this this one? Checkout the specs and look the way they breakup the wattage. Since you have 90 watts total, I'd guess you would get around 25 to 30 watts for your 2 main speakers. They don't mention the ohm ratings for the speakers, but they may in your owners manual. I would also find out the ratings on your uncle's speakers and make sure they don't exceed what you amp can handle. Better safe than sorry.

 

[Mungla]

Make sure that the speakers and the amp are capable of handling the same resistance (ohms).

Next, check to see if you can find out how much power those speakers can handle. You don't want to blow them, even if the amp is only putting out 45 watts (RMS If I'm not mistaken??).

I have a set of BOSE 301 Series II bookshelf speakers (8" driver and 2- 3" tweaters) that can only handle something like 120 watts RMS. But, the only resonable amp that I could find (non-CAR amp) was the Pioneer PA-800X. At 4-ohms, It'll output 800 watts RMS; at 8-ohms, It'll output 400 watts RMS. As you can imagine, I have to watch the volume level pretty closely; especially the actual dB controls on the unit itself.

 

[Capn]

You need to know the impedance of the speakers from the system, and the ones you want to use.

 

[Viperoni]

<< As long as the current is okay, you should be fine. Just don't turn them up too loud. I got by for a long time with a 75 watt Yamaha and Klipsches. But, the Klipsches are notorious for high efficiency.

The most common cause of blown speakers is underpowering them, not over powering them. >>




*sigh*

The one and only thing that blows speakers IS overpowering.
woofers: apply too much power and they blow
mids and tweets: apply too much power and they blow

You say clipping kills the speaker? Not directly, no.
When you drive the amp INTO clipping, it still keeps on producing more power, just distorted. It's the extra power, not the clipping itself that kills drivers. Any speaker, assuming it's rated truthfully will handle that rating whether you feed it normal sound (sine waves), clipped (square waves) or even (nonaudio) triangle waves.



Noriaki, as far as your shelf system goes, you have no need to worry about it putting out 45watts.....maybe ~20 per channel tops.
Shelf systems are notorious for inflated through the roof power ratings.

My point: hook them up, and be happy knowing that your getting your sound and your speakers should be fine

 

[SSP]

Its gona blow goats. Shelf systems (like someone mentioned) don't put out the watts they advertise. I had an old one that claim it does 50 Watts (a set) and the sound was horrible. I replaced the driver with a similar size Motorola driver and the quality/loudness was a lot better.

Anyway, I don't use those POS's.

EDIT - Thats JMO. I'm spoiled with my 300's.

 

[Noriaki]

<< Is your rca similar to this this one? >>

The middle part *looks* the same, but the speakers don't.

That is an RS2522, mine is an RS2502. I'll see what I can find spec wise on it...I don't have the booklet anymore..

Edit: Found the page for it here...odd, the box (I still have the box) says 90Watts on it...but according to that it's 60.
Oh well, so it's 60Watts, 30Watts/Channel RMS, but that's at 10% THD hahahaha what a joke.
Yeah I'm going to use it at 10% THD. Okay, so it's probably more like 20Watts RMS at a reasonable THD.

Still unsure how the wattage is split up though.


I forgot all about Resistance...damn...I have NO idea what the specs on these speakers are, and it doesn't have any information on the back panel.

All Iknow about them is that they are pretty old, they say Polk Audio on the front, and they have a little piece of paper with Model #5 and Serial numbers on the back...

Sorry, I'm semi-newbie at audio stuff.

 

[Viperoni]

<<

<< Is your rca similar to this this one? >>

The middle part *looks* the same, but the speakers don't.

That is an RS2522, mine is an RS2502.

I forgot all about Resistance...damn...I have NO idea what the specs on these speakers are, and it doesn't have any information on the back panel.

All Iknow about them is that they are pretty old, they say Polk Audio on the front, and they have a little piece of paper with Model #5 and Serial numbers on the back... >>



I doubt you have much to worry about.
Many consumer level home speakers are 8ohms which your rack system should handle no problem.
Hook them up and stop worrying


BTW: if you're worried about having ENOUGH power, remember that most speakers are around 83db (even the worst doesn't get below aroudn this) to 97db efficient. That means 1 watt of power will get you that many decibels of sound output. even 83db is quite a bit, most people find a comfortable volume is aroudn 60-80db, so you woudln't even need 1 watt to drive them.
That's why you see the audiophile guys using little 2watt tube amps that sound like heaven, because you simply don't need much power.

 

[Noriaki]

Actually, the only thing I'm worried about is damaging the speakers cuz they aren't mine.

Ok, here's my problem.

I was playing a DVD (Ronin) the other day, and I turned the volume up to about 24/39 (Flat EQ, but Bass boosted), and when I went from 23 to 24, there was this horrible buzzing sound, kinda like a vibration.
But if I turned off bass boost it didn't show up until about volume 33 or so.

(Well obviously a vibration since that's all any sound is )

If I changed the EQ to Rock instead of Flat (Rock is a low and high emphasis, with mid down), then I get the buzz around 27, and Rock+Bass Boost I get it at like 19 or 20.


So I'm pretty sure it has *something* to do with the Bass output. But is it because the speakers are crap, or the amp?

 

[Viperoni]

Were the speaker cones (mainly the 6.5's, but also the 4inchers) moving much?
You may have been pushing the amp into clipping, which makes the sound very distorted and garbled.
Else it may be that the capacitors in the speakers crossovers have (literally) dried up and are letting too much power get to the drivers causing the noise.

 

[Noriaki]

<< Were the speaker cones (mainly the 6.5's, but also the 4inchers) moving much?
You may have been pushing the amp into clipping, which makes the sound very distorted and garbled.
Else it may be that the capacitors in the speakers crossovers have (literally) dried up and are letting too much power get to the drivers causing the noise. >>

Oh, this was on the speakers that came with the system. Sorry This problem is why I want to swap the speakers.

I have no speaker wire (the stuff on the speakers I'm using is permanently attached), so I can't try the Polks my uncle gave me yet hehehe

They have a 2" driver, and a 4.5"...and some funny little silver dome I think might have a tweater under it (i can't really see it very well and I don't want to poke it).

I don't know if the speakers were moving a lot...but I can fire up ronin again and find out...gimme 3 minutes.

 

[Zenmervolt]

<<The speakers are 10-15 years old, but they are still in good shape, and he says they were pretty good speakers when he bought them.>>

Just be careful not to blow the speakers. I still use what used to be my father's Sony turntable/reciever. He bought it in the late '70s for about $400, and the thing still sounds great. Here's the kicker though, it's a whole whopping 25 watts per channel. I'm convinced that wattage has a lot less to do with sound than the quality of the componants in the system.

Zenmervolt

 

[Noriaki]

I can feel some air moving in front of the 4.5" speakers when that buzzing is going on.


Maybe a humming would be a better word, it's pretty low pitched, but loud and annoying.

 

[Viperoni]

Hmmmmmm

Doesn't sound like a blown voice coil.....that woudl sound crackly and just plain distorted, the louder you crank it the more noise it'd make.

 

[Noriaki]

<< Hmmmmmm

Doesn't sound like a blown voice coil.....that woudl sound crackly and just plain distorted, the louder you crank it the more noise it'd make. >>



Well...it's not really "distorted" just a really deep loud humming.

And it starts at 20 pretty quiet, gets louder at 21 and again at 22...didn't try 23 becuase at 22 is was loud and annoying enough....

And it's only there in Ronin (and maybe other DVDs...) but not in Music...

So I think it just needs really deep bass before it will do it....

I dunno....maybe there's a problem elsewhere?

 

[Viperoni]

It's probably the amp showing it's weakness. It's made to put out tons of midbass (garbage) bass, not the kind of wallcrunching bass that Ronin and othermovieslikeit have

 

[Noriaki]

<< It's probably the amp showing it's weakness. It's made to put out tons of midbass (garbage) bass, not the kind of wallcrunching bass that Ronin and othermovieslikeit have >>

Does Ronin have pretty deep bass? I've never watched in on DVD before, it's a new addition to my collection.

I've only seen in on VHS using TV-speakers

 

[Viperoni]

<<

<< It's probably the amp showing it's weakness. It's made to put out tons of midbass (garbage) bass, not the kind of wallcrunching bass that Ronin and othermovieslikeit have >>

Does Ronin have pretty deep bass? I've never watched in on DVD before, it's a new addition to my collection.

I've only seen in on VHS using TV-speakers >>



I would assume it does, I've never seen it though.
Do you have U571....or MI2....enemy of the state...the world is not enough...pretty much well all action movies have low bass
Moreso than most music.

 

[Noriaki]

I have MI2....

Never played it on these speakers though.

Mebbe I'll give that a try.