Speaker/Amplifier question

[SithSolo1]

Hypothetical situation(Assume all wattage numbers are RMS):

Say you have a speaker rated for 500watts. Now, say they don't make 500 watt amps, only 400 watt and 600 watt. Would it be better to go with the 400 or the 600? Why?

 

[Cattlegod]

600 and dial it in so you have it putting out 500.

that or get 5 600 watt amps and 6 500 watt subwoofers and push 3000 watts total out of the system.

 

[Fritzo]

600. Speakers and amps are always overrated, and it's better to have room to play with than cutting it close.

 

[Heisenberg]

I'd go with the 400W amp. You could theoretically damage your speakers if you turned up the 600W amp high enough.

 

[herm0016]

400 your speaker will work better a bit under its max rateing.

 

[SithSolo1]

Would the 400 wat amp clip?

 

[jamesbond007]

600W

1. By keeping the volume in a safe range, you shouldn't damage the speaker, even if it's receiving far more power than it can 'handle'. A quality driver will take the extra power just fine. I'm running 580W RMS into a JL W3v2 12" (rated 300W) and it's never given me a hiccup in almost 2 years. 🙂 My ears will complain far earlier than the sub!

2. With 200W more under the hood, you can think about driving a bigger speaker down the road or perhaps a pair of them. 🙂

 

[basslover1]

Originally posted by: SithSolo1
Hypothetical situation(Assume all wattage numbers are RMS):

Say you have a speaker rated for 500watts. Now, say they don't make 500 watt amps, only 400 watt and 600 watt. Would it be better to go with the 400 or the 600? Why?

I assume you're running a subwoofer here. First things first, what is the final impedence load of the speaker going to be?

If I had the choice I'd want the amp to produce full power into 4 ohms and get a speaker that works with that (i.e. SVC 4ohm or DVC 2ohm). From an electrical standpoint, an amp that does 600 watts @ 4ohms will ALWAYS be more efficient than an amp that does 600 watts @ 2ohms (or 1ohm for that matter).

Now to answer you're question. Seeing as an amp will almost never produce it's rated power (music is too dynamic for it to happen) those extra 200 watts will help you. As long as you know your stereo's limits the extra power will allow it to get louder and sound cleaner while doing so.

 

[Howard]

It doesn't matter. You wouldn't be listening at 400W worth of SPL anyway (even if the speakers were inefficient). It's not the same for subs, though.

 

[Excelsior]

As a general rule, amplifier headroom is almost always a GOOD thing.

But as Howard said, you would barely use half of that rated power anyway.

You could theoretically damage your speakers if you turned up the 600W amp high enough.

You would seriously damage your hearing before damaging the speakers.

 

[mrchan]

Both would work. I'd go with the cheaper option, you probably wont notice the difference.

 

[slpaulson]

I'd go for the higher quality unit. That is if the 400W unit is from a good company, and the 600W is from some crap company. If they are both good products I'd just get the cheaper one.

 

[evilsaint]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
I'd go with the 400W amp. You could theoretically damage your speakers if you turned up the 600W amp high enough.

But you'd stand a much better chance of blowing the speaker due to turning up the 400w amp too far. Excess power doesn't blow many speakers; clipping (the next step after bad distortion, basically) and the resultant heat-buildup due to the speakers inability to dissipate said heat do.

Not to mention the fact that most subwoofers (if this is what we're talking about), aside from the really low quality ones can generally, as a pseudo-rule, take %125-%175 of their rated RMS wattage and love every minute of it.

My first set of SVC MTX's were rated at 300WRMS apiece; they took over twice that and lasted for over 2 years. An Alpine 2-ohm Type-R DVC that I "borrowed" from Best Buy, thanks to it's lax return policy, took 1500WRMS (nominal, accounting for voltage drop/spikes) for three weeks, slamming all the time and not distorting whatsoever.

A few other previous posters were very correct in stating that most amps don't put out what they say they do, and that most speakers take a lot more wattage than they say they can. As always in life, YMMV, but these are two pretty good rules to follow.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: Excelsior

You would seriously damage your hearing before damaging the speakers.

With music, possibly.

600W into a bass bin will not damage hearing but it may cause a brown event under the right circumstances. :Q

Play a 20kHz tone and say sayonara tweeters in about a second. 😛 In live performances microphone feedback if not controlled can wreak havoc on compression horn voice coils. Of course the squeal is much lower than 20kHz and that frequency is extremely unfortable to performers and viewers alike.

Headroom is always good. 😀

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: MS Dawn

Originally posted by: Excelsior

You would seriously damage your hearing before damaging the speakers.

With music, possibly.

600W into a bass bin will not damage hearing but it may cause a brown event under the right circumstances. :Q

Play a 20kHz tone and say sayonara tweeters in about a second. 😛 In live performances microphone feedback if not controlled can wreak havoc on compression horn voice coils. Of course the squeal is much lower than 20kHz and that frequency is extremely unfortable to performers and viewers alike.

Headroom is always good. 😀

What are you babbling on about. 😛

Most of that post was superfluous.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: MS Dawn

Originally posted by: Excelsior

You would seriously damage your hearing before damaging the speakers.

With music, possibly.

600W into a bass bin will not damage hearing but it may cause a brown event under the right circumstances. :Q

Play a 20kHz tone and say sayonara tweeters in about a second. 😛 In live performances microphone feedback if not controlled can wreak havoc on compression horn voice coils. Of course the squeal is much lower than 20kHz and that frequency is extremely unfortable to performers and viewers alike.

Headroom is always good. 😀

AFAIK, bass can damage hearing too. It's just harder to tell when the permanent damage is occuring.

 

[MasterAndCommander]

600W

 

[Scarpozzi]

Originally posted by: MS Dawn

Originally posted by: Excelsior

You would seriously damage your hearing before damaging the speakers.

With music, possibly.

600W into a bass bin will not damage hearing but it may cause a brown event under the right circumstances. :Q

Play a 20kHz tone and say sayonara tweeters in about a second. 😛 In live performances microphone feedback if not controlled can wreak havoc on compression horn voice coils. Of course the squeal is much lower than 20kHz and that frequency is extremely unfortable to performers and viewers alike.

Headroom is always good. 😀

When you say brown event is that sort of like that episode of South Park with the recorders?

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi

Originally posted by: MS Dawn

Originally posted by: Excelsior

You would seriously damage your hearing before damaging the speakers.

With music, possibly.

600W into a bass bin will not damage hearing but it may cause a brown event under the right circumstances. :Q

Play a 20kHz tone and say sayonara tweeters in about a second. 😛 In live performances microphone feedback if not controlled can wreak havoc on compression horn voice coils. Of course the squeal is much lower than 20kHz and that frequency is extremely unfortable to performers and viewers alike.

Headroom is always good. 😀

When you say brown event is that sort of like that episode of South Park with the recorders?

It is a myth, but yes, its the same thing as the brown event.

 

[Rubycon]

Brown even refers to someone losing control of their bowels.

Bass is much less likely to damage hearing than higher frequencies hence the A filtering used by OSHA. No home speaker (especially a computer speaker) is going to have the power to do that. Well a logitech sub probably would if you connected its voice coil to 120VAC outlet and held your ear near the cone. 😛

When a low frequency source is loud enough to cause nausea then it's probably capable of causing hearing damage. The crack sound from gunfire at the range is easily reduced to safe levels with basic ear plugs. The low frequencies from a rocket launch is only reduced to safe levels by distancing yourself from the source.

Anyway getting back to the OP - it's far BETTER to have more amp power (as long as it's honest RMS power at the rated speaker driver impedance and not peak music power) than too little.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: evilsaint
But you'd stand a much better chance of blowing the speaker due to turning up the 400w amp too far. Excess power doesn't blow many speakers; clipping (the next step after bad distortion, basically) and the resultant heat-buildup due to the speakers inability to dissipate said heat do. [snip]

Evilsaint speaks the truth. :thumbsup:

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: MS Dawn
Brown even refers to someone losing control of their bowels.

Bass is much less likely to damage hearing than higher frequencies hence the A filtering used by OSHA. No home speaker (especially a computer speaker) is going to have the power to do that. Well a logitech sub probably would if you connected its voice coil to 120VAC outlet and held your ear near the cone. 😛

When a low frequency source is loud enough to cause nausea then it's probably capable of causing hearing damage. The crack sound from gunfire at the range is easily reduced to safe levels with basic ear plugs. The low frequencies from a rocket launch is only reduced to safe levels by distancing yourself from the source.

The effect of infrasonic sound at high levels on the human ear is not well understood. Since we can't hear them, and instead feel them as vibrations, we don't know yet how they affect our hearing. Show me a study/research done if you know otherwise.

However, it is well known that people can feel nausea when infrasonic frequencies are present at a "normal" intensity. One does not need high intensity of infrasonic sound for this to happen.

And about the gun shot and the rocket launch. Those are not dangerous because of any low frequency sound they might have, but merely because of their intensity.

Just thought I'd clear that up.