Can small amps power big speakers?
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- čas přidán 22. 07. 2018
- Can you take an amplifier rated for low wattages, like 30 watts, and use it effectively to power a speaker with a maximum input rating of 100 watts? Have a question you want to ask Paul? www.psaudio.com/ask-paul/
I am getting close to publishing my memoir! It's called 99% True and it is chock full of adventures, debauchery, struggles, heartwarming stories, triumphs and failures, great belly laughs, and a peek inside the high-end audio industry you've never known before.
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Your so kind. Long time musician. Long time not knowing the simple lesson you just gave. I used to plug a the headphone jack of my pocket radio onto speakers just to see which was loudest and clearest. There was a enough of a difference in my 12" speakers to notice.
Really useful explanation. You just helped me a lot with this video. I have a 20w amp and I am looking for a speaker of 150w. And that will work because it's sensitivity is 99,4.
Excellent points, Paul. My quite large Tekton Double Impact speakers can be driven to absolutely insane rock concert levels with a small 50 WPC NAD C 326BEE integrated. Speaker efficiency is critical to using a low powered amp, and in this case, size DOES generally matter with respect to efficiency of a loudspeaker.
The Klipsch Cornwall IV (101 db sensitivity) can be driven by the Decware Zen Triode (2 wpc) to peak levels of 99.5 db. Allow 20 db of headroom for classical music, and that translates to 79.5 db average level.
Thank you so much for your explanation..in all your videos.
Nice video, thanks for this video Paul
The size of the room is also very important. There should be an equation relating room size and minimum amp power.
One thing to mention, if you have a 90 db per 1 watt, per meter:
90db at 1 watt
93db at 2 watts
96db at 4 watts
99db at 8 watts
102db at 16 watts
105db at 32 watts
108db at 64 watts.
ect ect.
This is if the speaker is one meter away from you. So every doubling the distance, you lose 6db.
So if you have 108db at 1 meter it will be 102db at 2 meters, 96db at 4 meters. ect ect.
That's why concerts can be heard quite far away.
If at a concert speakers produce 130db per meter for example, you can hear the concert 1000 meters away at 70db ( this is ofcourse with no obstacles in the path that can absorb sound) .
Also if you put 2 speakers next to each other instead of 1, that is a 6 db gain (kind of).
So a concert speaker my produce 120 db per meter, but they have 20-50 speakers. So you have to add 6 db to each additional speaker, before measuring the distance.
every 3dB - sound doubles and yes you can drive 100w speaker with 30w amp - it will just play 30w volume not its 100w full potential
@@1sonyzz what if it's an 3w amp with 100w speaker?
@1sonyzz not quite. There's acoustic energy, and perceived volume. Acoustic energy is doubled every 3db, and you'll notice there's a corresponding doubling of wattage required for every 3db gain. However perceived volume doubles every 10db.
Generally when people think of "sound doubles" they're thinking how loudly they'll perceive it so that's a 10db gain, which requires more than 8x the power of the previous volume every time you want to be twice as loud as before. You quickly need very large amps!
@Omkar Giri the wattage difference doesn't matter, you just look at the sensitivity and that tells you how much volume you can have with your 3 watts. If it's 90 @ 1w/m you can get up to 94.5db at 3 watts and then you're at max volume on the amp. More watts on the amp let's you go higher up the db ladder. Get into watts above the speaker's rating and then you overheat the voice coil and damage the speaker.
So what will be louder?
2 speakers with 92 db given 300 watts rms or 4 of these speakers given each 115 watts rms
Interested in your products..do you have any videos explaining and showing the difference between and applications
Hello, great channel, I'm glad I've found it, just subscribed, one question, will you do a Devialet Phantom video?
Very clear answer 😃 today my problem is solved i was having problem that if i could connect a high watts speaker to low watts amplifier
im on a 2x35 akai 1988 model paired with 2 180watt ,91db bass reflex speakers .
loud and clear bass , mids , treble .
awesome sound
Your sensitivity on a loud speaker is very important. I wish they would talk about that more than how many watts a speaker is
very useful , thank you Paul , but how can one know the sensitivity of the speaker ? it's never mentioned in the specs...
Well explained, Paul. I’ve had 8 watts as a 300B amp through my 95dB sensitivity speakers, and it can get loud!
Loud doesn’t mean anything
I want to say it was called a “punch 25”, it was a small amplifier I could hold in the palm of my hand. I seen it pushing 4 12in subwoofers. Beating the shit out of them. Tho it was hot as hell, no clipping. Couldn’t believe it, looked for another amp, nada. It was a beast, I think it cost $400, used. They didn’t make them anymore, that was in the 90’s.
if you read the specs on speakers the wattage can be told in how many watts it can take rms or peak, or the recommended amplifier wattage.
but you dont need to think about that at all if you want, 30 watts can let you play as loud as you want on almost any speaker, usually they sound good enough compared to a big amp. if your system are at high end quality then you can afford a power amp.
if you are not buying expensive gear then 30 watt can sound as good as you ever hear on most speakers.
i upgraded from 30 watt nad d3020 amp to power amp 100 watt with 8 times the damping factor, it was barely an upgrade and my speakers can handle 120watt nominal and 200watt music.
Hello sir, i need a suggestion, how about an 5.1 amplifier which has 85 watt per channel with 5.1 set of 2 tower speaker capacity is 180 watt per speaker& 1 center speaker 120 watt & 2 surround speakers 85 each. Is this a overload to the amplifier or will it be ok for a decent output.
Hi Paul, in no small part because of your videos, I do pay much closer attention to sensitivity now. But you made no mention of power ratings and sensitivity in conjunction with impedance. For example, you may be comparing two different speakers that can both handle up to 300 Watts and both have a sensitivity of 89dB, but one speaker posts those ratings at 8 ohms while the other posts those same ratings but at 4 or 6 ohms. In this scenario, is it correct to conclude that the speaker with the lower impedance is actually LESS sensitive/efficient?
Sir i have 90w capacity 4ohms 4 speakers which amp I have to use now
I used to have some great speakers which had a pretty low sensitivity of 86db hooked up to a Marantz 2230 amplifier (30 watts per channel). In a small room, it sounded good and the volume was quite acceptable, but in the end, it was a real tease. As soon as I wanted the sound to really open up, the Marantz started to sound compressed, the bass started to distort and the mids were too peaky. In the end, I kept the speakers (just love them) and hooked them up to 2 amplifiers (240 watts/side in 4 ohm). Feels like a totally different systems. It breaths sounds completely effortless no matter the volume and the room.
Still, use the marantz in another system with 94db efficiency speakers. Plenty of power and wonderful sound for a small speaker system.
I put a larger speaker in my 2.1 amplifier and it's work,I put them out and after some sort time the transistor of one channel it's stop playing and I try to solder in the outpout and then burnt (beacose I terned on for some idiot reason in the same time)but why stoped.What do you think about that ?!
Thenk you for the edukasyonal videos!!!!
Can i use 5000w sub on 1800w apm? Will amp burned?
How i can know my subwoofer crossover point (2xfs) Double FS?!
Can I use capacitor or resistors to loudspeaker?
I always assumed that as long as im not pullin more than what the amp can handle then i should be alright.
100 watt woofer with 30 watt amp just dont cross your clipping points passing 30 watts and you should be good.
Ive got an old 15 inch woofer rated for 150 watts that i power using a 40 watt amp. It sounds really decent even though its 30 years old.
Hi, I was wondering could I run a pair of 84db speakers with a 50 watt amp?
My hi fi system has 60w speakers and I have an extra pair of 100w from previous hi fi system. Both 60w and 100w are at 6 ohms. My question is will my current hi fi system be capable of driving the 100w whitout harming the internal electronics of the system?
Sir your knowledge is gold thank you🤗🙏🌹 Godbless!!!
Great video, thanks!
what amps of power amp can i use to power a 1000 amp subwoofer??
Swapped the speaker in a Yamaha 10w guitar amp (7 actual watts of power) for a 15w rated speaker. Thing's on full volume all the time and ain't even sweating
nice explanation Sir
Some speakers are rated at 2.83V (2.83V is 1W at 8 ohm) regardless if they are 8 ohm or not.
Hello Sir
I Have 120 Watts Amplifier.
Can I Use Total 170 Watts Speakers To The Board? Any Problem For Amplifier? And I Decided To Using With Cooling Fan? Any Problem?
2 Speakers = 120Watts
2 Speakers = 50Watts
Good day sir paul,I have 2 speakers 'n 1 subwoofer,each box content 150 watts,the all 3 boxes content 450 watts, How many watts or match ampli for this speakers,thank 'n more power to you sir
Paul, would love a discussion on headroom
I have 2 100w 4ohm speakers and im gonna throw on a microterror wich is 25w does this even sound right? I honestly wouldnt know
@Paul McGowan, and what about driving speakers that are specified at 55W RMS / 100W Peak with an amplifier that is specified as 70W RMS?
I'm using two Magnat Monitor Supreme 100 bookshelf speakers with an Akai AM-A505 amplifier and Akai EA-A305 equalizer. Apart from it getting really loud really quickly, could the amplifier damage the speakers even at low volume settings? Pushing the volume beyond 3 out of 11 (yes it goes up to eleven) is already painfully loud in my small room.
It'll only damage the speakers if you run it into clipping. Or if the amp fails in a bad way lol
i had a 7 watt per channel amp that is normally used to run small pc speakers and hooked it up to some 50 watt continuous speakers and you could get sound but it was rather muted and it seemed to be almost unable to move the woofer. so yes technically it was able to power the speakers and make sound but at such sub-par performance that it affected sound quality so not recommended
does that means 100w means spk can go upto 100w full power from 0to 100. but if more what is put to 100w then
all about impedance, you might conect them in series in order to protect the amplifier from overcurent
CAN I USE A 100 AMP ON 600W SPEAKER ?
I'm assuming 30 Watts per channel RMS what you won't be pushing in normal listening conditions, you can't really listen more than 10 watts RMS anyway what would be silly, so how that is stretching the amplifier I don't know you probably won't be listening anymore than 7 or 8 watts at the most comfortable listening would be 4 to 6w so you don't need an amplifier pushing out 200 watts x2 RMS that is. And is he talking 100 watt peak on the speakers or constant?
You can destroy any 100 watt vented speaker (BR , Horn or TL) with a lot less by driving it at a frequency well below its resonance frequency . Speakers are electricaly limited in mid and highs , but can be severly mechanicallly limited in bass.
My system is with marantz hd amp1 ( 35 Watts per channel @ 8 ohms & 70 Watts @ 4 ohms), which drives kef ls50 speakers ( req power 25-100 Watts per channel, sensitivity 85 dB) , my listening room size is 900 sqft... but I couldn’t go beyond half mark of volume level of my amp... but sometimes when I play old school rock it sounds little narrow or dynamic range doesn’t sound wide enough but loudness is fine. So my question is this happening for the low powered amp, or for the monitor type speakers ???
Yes.
Hello, I have a question, I have ceiling speakers installed and when I plug them into a amp they start cracking, popping and cutting when volume is too high, what does this mean, do I need better speakers or a better amp ?
Thankyou in advance?
Sounds like you are either clipping the amp or over driving the speakers. Did you ever figure it out?
please expound on high powered amps for headroom. how much is too much? if my processor has a volume control per channel...does that provide 'safety' for the speaker while still allowing for dynamics?
In America and America only, there is never too much and to answer second question yes.
TL;DR Yes, but efficiency is what's important, so watch the whole video.
Though I agree that you probably won't overdrive an amplifier with a high efficiency speaker, there's still the issue of clipping. You mentioned it briefly.
When an amplifier eventually runs out of breath, it will start producing high frequency sounds that you can't hear, but that will blow your tweeter to bits.
With an overpowered amplifier, the speaker will start destorting at a much lower frequency and you can just turn it down (like what happens in your car, regularly :D).
So generally I prefer an amplifier that's a bit overpowered for smaller speakers, even though in my main rig I really don't have that now, but I never play loudly.
What's your thoughts on this?
@@GladeSwope with tubes. Tubes don't clip, they distort.
Interesting.... différent point of view
What happend if we attach subwoofer to small amplifier
No difference, the sub won't claim 5-100 watts tho and you won't be using a 30 watt amp.
I think some are confused with guitar amps because of companies like Orange making 3w mini amps that are able to power speaker cabinets.
Hi great vid. I was wondering if you could answer a quick question. I am planning on buying a 15 watt amp. I
Wanted to experiment a little with it to see if i can make it sound like a vox ac15. The vox is out of my price range at the moment but i wanted to see if I either made a larger cabinet for the 15 watt amp I’m planning on purchasing or if I can plug the 15 watt amp into a speaker cabinet that is a large cabinet. The 15 watt amp comes with a 12 inch speaker, just like the vox ac15, but the vox ac15 sounds so much fuller and richer to me. Which is why I wanted to experiment with trying to make it sound as much like the vox amp as I could: the difference I see between the two is the cabinet size. I realize the circuitry is going to be different and all but I was thinking the cabinet or speaker enclosure plays a role in how the speaker sounds.
Anyway, I hope this makes sense and thank you for your time.
I would think the cabinet size would have more to do with how low the driver can go and not so much that rich sound you're looking for. Also, I'll bet they use soft clipping to get their rich sound, which would be in the amplifier stage.
I have the same doubt..... Thanks
Thanks!
Thank you
The speaker may get damaged If the amp clips or distorts at higher volume. For sensible volumes it's ok
This statement is so generic that it's meaningless.
@@marcofk there's no big mystery about driving speakers. If you never approach max volume, then it doesn't matter about the power.
If you listen loud enough to get clipping, get a more powerful amp
If the speakers distort, time to upgrade or use a sub if it's bass overloading the drivers
Thank You
But how does that affect the sound? Will it be too quiet?
Obviously?
How do you rate a 30 watt tube amplifier vs a 30 watt solid state amp? Ive heard a 30 watt tube amp can often perform on the same level as a 100 watt solid state. Isn't 30 watts just 30 watts?
much better response in tubes. Tubeamps perform better. Thats because they were built to last, not to break so you have to buy a new one
The wattage rating is how much heat a speaker's voice coil can handle in terms of watts. Where all of this got confusing is when the car audio market started to develop beyond a single speaker in a metal dash that only played AM radio. The watt rating of a speaker in this case was pretty meaningless, but like advertised horsepower, it sold speakers. The same is true with poor quality car amplifiers. A cheap amp might be rated at 25 watts, but may only put out 10 watts that's clean enough to listen to for any length of time because of the distortion level. Normally a cheap amp rate at 25 watts is rated at 10% THD or Total Harmonic Distortion which is into clipping and sounds like shit, but at ten Watts's it may only put out .9 THD. Distortion becomes audible at 1%. So you want to keep you amp's volume below that to have good clean sound.
What' about putting a 200 Watt Hi-Fi speaker in a 10 Watt guit AMP ???
Of course YES. The only problem is if we use an amplifier at max. Simply remove the 3dB and the distortion and heating of the amplifier will return to normal.
I have a 800w amp and a 2400w sub is it severely underpowered?
No bro!
I use a small bass amp that plugs to bass outside 100 speaker works great but in this cae it is a special bass amp
Technics 30 watt reciever will drive 200watt speakers just downt go over 11:00 on the volume , well any speaker
I have Technics SA-202 30 watt vintage receiver. I want to pair them to the KLH Cambridge. Can’t wait
Could I use 12 ", 100W speaker with a 10W small amp?.. Thanks¡
Probably no! You need atleast 15W power!
@@farzanashahid7072 Thanks¡
@@farzanashahid7072 can i use 20w joyo bantamp head with 4x12 marshall cab?
Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced my ability to comprehend the unfathomable amount of misinformation flowing like Mt. Vesuvius. I build, test, And QC Car audio equipment. I was unable to pull 1 fact. Most Car stereos run approximately 18W per channel. The RCA output is a Line Level at approximately 0.5V-1V 1W-1.2W
I guess the other important fact to point out, is that the decibel scale is logarithmic. As in 10 watts is not ten times as loud as one watt.
gotham61 isnt it double every 10 unit steps?
It's double the sound pressure every 3dB
The Rolling Troll
2x the wattage = 3dB louder
10x the wattage = 10dB louder
+10dB = twice as loud
Assume 90dB sensitivity speakers:
1w = 90dB
2w = 93dB
4w = 96dB
8w = 99dB
16w = 102dB
32w = 105dB
64w = 108dB
128w = 111dB
1w = 90dB
10w = 100dB
100w = 110dB
1000w = 120dB
10000w = 130dB
Marcus
+10db = 2x louder
Are you sure about it?
How did you get to +10dB = twice as loud?
Every 3dB is double the sound pressure, or loudness, or volume if you will.
So 6dB is twice as loud, 9dB is thrice as loud, etcetera.
This is also why a concert at 100dB sounds very pleasant but 103dB is already on the loud side. It's a major difference.
In a small room , yes, but in larger rooms you will be missing MUCH. 100 watts(REAL watts, not that bullshit wattage in new mass market units) is too much in a 10' by 10' room, but 30 watts is not enough to fill a large area (especially the bass). "High current" plays a huge factor also and that is why all higher end 30 watt amps have high current. All mass market receivers are "current limited" and have GROSSLY exaggerated power ratings. Those same low end companies also cheat on all specs, like THD (taken at 1 watt), while higher end units give THD at rated power (full output before clipping). I hear soooooo many people claiming they have a new (insert brand of mass market) receiver with 140-180 watts/per ch and on the back of those units it states the "TOTAL POWER CONSUMPTION" at 500 watts or less. Do the math, you can't possible have 7 channels at 140 watts, when the power supply can only deliver 500 watts total (the pre-amp needs about 30 watts and there will always be losses, so you need at least 20% for that).
If you can't afford $5000 for new higher end receiver, buy a used B&K (excellent for HT and pretty damn good for music) for $300-500 (peanuts if you know how to change out a few capacitors or a voltage regulators, because these are the only component I have seen fail in 20+ units I have repaired (a few in absolutely NEW cosmetic condition). I have Kef R900s with JC1 mono blocks to compare all my gear with and I don't think anyone can go wrong with used Parasound or B&K Components. Also, the B&K receivers are supper easy to convert to 5-7 channel (150 REAL watts/ ch and bench tested at 160 clean watts before clipping with 2 channels driven) power amps because they are modular design.
To me the game with speakers being rated in watts is misleading. Basically anything over about 25 watts is only valid for headroom. I admit that my system is old, using AR-3a speakers, but they were honest about the watts thing. The AR-3a is a rather inefficient speaker, meaning that it required more power to drive than the average speaker. I think the number was about 7%. Here is the manufacturers explicit specifications related to power handling. The speaker will handle 11 watts rms at any frequency for an indefinite period, 23 watts for at least 30 seconds, and overloads of 400 watts for 2 seconds with a proper fuse in the line. The recommended power was 25 watts or more. Of course these specs are for pure sine waves, which is rare except in some "electronic music". So obviously the higher powered amplifiers provide better fidelity for transient peak levels especially in classical music played by a symphony orchestra. Other that that the so called 100, 200 watt etc. "speakers" are just buzzwords to help sell the speakers.
My sub woofer is rated at 400-800 watts but my amp is only 200 watts
Sensitive subject..!!! 😂😂
Not e very efficient use of periods and exclamation marks :D.
So choking Paul makes him sound like yoda loool
Bro my 15W amplifier is booming my 90 watt mid bass speakers🔥(it's a dec)
Did you had it at max volume, if yes then for how long have you been playing it like that, because most people are saying it can clip if the volume it crank all the way up
@@teammember9622 I have played it at max volume for like 1 and a half hour! But still works perfectly fine! But the amplifier does get too hot!
@@teammember9622 And yes! It clipped 1 time! Then never happened again!
@@farzanashahid7072 Ok thanks, i though maybe at max volume around 5 minutes time the speaker maybe completely dead from clipping.
Of course they can they just probably wont be able to push the speakers to the limit
JBL recommends an amp 3 times the power rating of their speakers... and they make some of the most efficient high powered speakers.
Junk But Loud
3 watt tube amp drives Klipsch fortes loud enough to bring the cops.
Yeah, but they're just there to arrest you for making people's ears bleed.
I have a question. What's in the box that proudly says "MADE IN CHINA"?
The box marked 'Made in China' contains Juice Boxes. Employees get thirsty...
Ok
What about the ohms Einstein..Your video starts with a picture of a guitar and amp..wen someone teaches you about those maybe u can do another video with the correct information..
Great fun and I've heard this once with a 10W Tube amp driving a Klipschorn ( 105dB @ 2.83 / 1m ). It'll knock your socks off with only a couple watts: assets.klipsch.com/product-specsheets/Klipschorn-Spec-Sheet-v04.pdf
czcams.com/video/96WmqpNg1ak/video.html
Demo of Klipschorns being driven by 10w tube amps. The Klipschorns are rated at 100W steady, 300W Peaks. You don't want to be in the room with these things being driven at 300W.
There are no absolutes AND numbers are often fudged or disingenuous.
Buy a pair of Cerwin vega and find out!
You explained it like you were talking to first graders .
Dave Brown well, the question did actually call for that level of response.
Jesus, this guy takes forever to get to the point. He's like the worst college professor you ever had. Way to much meandering and minutia. Answer the question FIRST, then embellish.