Looking for receiver to match unequal wattages - Jamos

reallyscrued

Platinum Member
Jul 28, 2004
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This is my first thread in AV, I'm getting tired of my Logitech's in my sig and want to get something better for my 13x10 bedroom.

For the longest time, I've coveted the HD 500's by Klipsch. My friend has a set in his basement to complement his main HTPC setup, they sounded fine to me and looked damn slick too, but through further reading I've come to understand that matching dinky 3 inch woofers on small satellites to crossover at a decent point with an 8 or 10 inch sub is rather irresponsible if you don't want a huge gap in the midrange. Now that I think about it, everything we listened to had a huge 'disco-smile' feeling about it.

I'm now focusing on these:

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/bundles/544351896/jamo-s-426hcs-3

Seems like a lot of people on the AVS Forums recommend them if going HTiB. The floorstanders have 5 inch woofers which is a plus.


My question is: How will I find a receiver to match the Floorstanders taking 140 watts each and the surrounds taking 100 watts each? Every receiver I see mentions ratings like

'75 watts x 5' or '100 watts per channel'


I'm looking for a receiver to connect to my onboard ALC889A coaxially.

Would any of these:

http://www.accessories4less.com/mak...iver/Home-Audio/Home-Theater-Receivers/1.html

fit the bill and also be decent for the Jamos?
 
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Durvelle27

Diamond Member
Jun 3, 2012
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So you're saying it doesn't matter that the receiver powers each channel equally even if the speakers are made to draw more power in the fronts rather than the surrounds?

the two i linked will be great for you ?

Edit: the receiver specs will tell you how much power it puts out at a certain ohm ?
 

reallyscrued

Platinum Member
Jul 28, 2004
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the two i linked will be great for you ?

Edit: the receiver specs will tell you how much power it puts out at a certain ohm ?

I understand those are fine receivers, but I think you misunderstand my question.

I'm concerned that the fronts are rated for more power (The specs say the fronts take 140 watts, the surrounds are 100 watts) so my question is will the system sound like its supposed to when receivers provide it equal wattage (75x4)?
 

kornphlake

Golden Member
Dec 30, 2003
1,567
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As long as you don't give the speakers more wattage than they are rated for you're fine. Think of it like a desk lamp that is rated for a 50w bulb, if you put a 100w bulb in the lamp it might be so hot the lamp shade melts, but there's no problem putting a 25w bulb in the lamp. The speakers don't suck power out of the receiver, they are passive devices that use whatever power is given to them, the rating on speakers is the maximum power the speaker can handle based on a thermal capacity of the speaker as long as you're below that it doesn't really matter how much power your receiver puts out.

A receiver rated for 7x100 watts will work fine, for that matter a receiver rated for 7x 150 watts probably wouldn't cause any problems either since you're never going to output a pure sine wave at that wattage that could damage the speakers.
 
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gar655

Senior member
Mar 4, 2008
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Speakers don't actually draw power. They are supplied power by the AVR. The speaker wattage ratings are meant as a guide to how much power they can take before possible damage occurs to the speaker.

This assumes a good power supply. You can destroy speakers with 10watts of pure distortion and clipping.

As you've been informed any modern AVR will be fine.
 

ethebubbeth

Golden Member
May 2, 2003
1,740
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As has been stated,

The power is from the AVR to the speakers. Provided you aren't overpowering tyour lowest rated speakers, you should be fine.

If there are differences in efficiency between the speakers, you will take care of the volume differences when you set the channel volume levels during calibration.

It might become and issue if you were mixing resistance between speakers (8ohm versus 4ohm) but that does not sound like it is the case.