Power ratings for Centre and satellite speakers, need advice please

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Techcrazy

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#104413 18-Jun-2012 13:04

I am putting together my setup with Denon AVR-1912 and PSB T6 speakers so far and thinking of adding centre speaker and satellite as i go but not sure what sort of power each of these speakers should be able to handle. Amp says 125watts x 7 @6ohms and 90x 7 @8 ohms.. can i use a speaker capable of handling 100watts to use as centre? also do satellite speakers must have minimum 100 or 125 watts? as i was wanting to keep those small to fit in space given that T6 have immense presence :)

thanks

Oblivian

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#642515 18-Jun-2012 13:28

I'm sure someone will correct me otherwise, but yes and yes.

Its more likely to kill a speaker/system if you have a 1000w speaker, and only power it with 15w (like a direct drive head unit) than using a 100w speaker and sending it 125w. Both cases can end in clipping, but its more common with lower powering large speakers. The wave gets to a maximum point until the signal turns to straight voltage through the coil. This is called clipping. Good thing to look into.

If you have a 125Wrms output, its best to match them as close as possible, but not too far below.

Jaxson

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#642516 18-Jun-2012 13:28

Just because a receiver/amplifier is rated at a power output level, doesn't mean you're going to be pushing that amount out constantly. Each speaker has different ratings/responses at different frequency ranges too, so really it is pretty involved but also not worth worrying about too much all at the same time.

Techcrazy

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#642561 18-Jun-2012 14:36

Yes this is one of the reason for asking question as its not on peak power all the time but still at some points it will and also these are discrete powered with all channels receiving same power. I guess then I will have to stay close to the rated power but when i look at rated power it says 125 watts at 6 ohms but most speaker ratings i see are at 8 ohms and in that case 90w x 7 channel rating should be considered right? Pardon my ignorance but I hope to be educated well on this by the time i finish with this. thanks for help.

Oblivian

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#642567 18-Jun-2012 14:52

Lower the impedence, the easier it is to send current/signal down it. Which is why the output rating is higher at lower impedence.

You may find speakers that are rated 8 will run at 6, and likewise rated 6 will run at 4. 8 tends to be the norm however. The individual speakers will note this in detailed specs.

A side effect of this is it also requires more power to do so. Which is why you often hear a CLUNK (in the case of clunck-yos) when the additional amplifier interfaces power up when switching to a DTS/AC3 source.

Not so bad in HT setups as its 1 output per speaker, but when it comes to car audio that's why you have amps able to go down to 2/1ohm, When you load up the input of the amp with more than 1 speaker coil, you change the impedence.

Dunnersfella

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#642773 18-Jun-2012 20:08

Jaxson: Just because a receiver/amplifier is rated at a power output level, doesn't mean you're going to be pushing that amount out constantly.

Spot on!
The 6ohm rating the OP has listed is at 1kHz too.
Basically, you can run a smaller centre without damaging it (set your centre speaker to 'small' and not large in the amp menu), but the question is, will it sound good?

Will its response and voicing characteristics match the stereo pair up front? Or, in other words, will the sound stage be seamless / cohesive? I know some people who run excellent front speakers, and completely forgo centre speakers. Sure, a phantom centre isn't for everyone, especially as not all DVD's / BluRay
s are authored equally - but I'm more than happy with my 2.0 setup for movie watching.