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brandon_jia
3
Mar 7, 2014
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Question, so how would a 200 watt amp work with these? would it be overkill or just a ton of head room
jeremya
82
Mar 7, 2014
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brandon_jia200w would probably sound marvelous right up until the point the woofer flew itself to pieces or the voice coils melted ;-)
As I understand it there are two ways to (generally) to harm a speaker - over-powering it (less common) and under-powering it.
Under-powering causes clipping and distortion where the amp loses control of the driver - at any given moment, a lively bit of music demands that the driver material should switch direction, but the amp has run out of juice and can't provide the instantaneous power required to do so, so control is lost. The sound is now distorted. What's worse, when the amp finally recovers, the driver is in an unknown state (due to momentum and elasticity) so the amp may then tell it to do something "unnatural" ...which can lead to over-extension or incredible shearing forces. Do that 1,000 times a second while playing back music at a listenable volume and eventually something's gonna give...
Over-powering pushes too much electricity through too little conductive material (the voice coil). This over-abundance of power can push the driver into over-excursion territory or heats things up until connections melt and stuff begins to shake apart. In extreme cases, stuff ignites and you get loudspeaker flambé! It will probably sound fabulous right until it goes down, down, down in a burning ring of fire, though. ;-)
Some of this might be urban legend, but it's how it's been explained to me over the years by various sources...
Now, if you have a good pre-amp or that 200w is an integrated amp (so you can attenuate the output), then it shouldn't be a problem. Just know that you'll be hitting "peak" power about 50% of the volume dial and then 1/8th of the way there is about 25w (assuming a very linear volume pot). You could probably be very happy keeping the volume between 1 and 2 out of 10 on the dial...
However, the CEntrance team has made a case for ultra-low THD, and that's very important. Your 200w amp may not offer such low distortion, so while it might sound pretty groovy, it may not sound "the best" with these speakers.
As I understand it there are two ways to (generally) to harm a speaker - over-powering it (less common) and under-powering it.
Under-powering causes clipping and distortion where the amp loses control of the driver - at any given moment, a lively bit of music demands that the driver material should switch direction, but the amp has run out of juice and can't provide the instantaneous power required to do so, so control is lost. The sound is now distorted. What's worse, when the amp finally recovers, the driver is in an unknown state (due to momentum and elasticity) so the amp may then tell it to do something "unnatural" ...which can lead to over-extension or incredible shearing forces. Do that 1,000 times a second while playing back music at a listenable volume and eventually something's gonna give...
Over-powering pushes too much electricity through too little conductive material (the voice coil). This over-abundance of power can push the driver into over-excursion territory or heats things up until connections melt and stuff begins to shake apart. In extreme cases, stuff ignites and you get loudspeaker flambé! It will probably sound fabulous right until it goes down, down, down in a burning ring of fire, though. ;-)
Some of this might be urban legend, but it's how it's been explained to me over the years by various sources...
Now, if you have a good pre-amp or that 200w is an integrated amp (so you can attenuate the output), then it shouldn't be a problem. Just know that you'll be hitting "peak" power about 50% of the volume dial and then 1/8th of the way there is about 25w (assuming a very linear volume pot). You could probably be very happy keeping the volume between 1 and 2 out of 10 on the dial...
However, the CEntrance team has made a case for ultra-low THD, and that's very important. Your 200w amp may not offer such low distortion, so while it might sound pretty groovy, it may not sound "the best" with these speakers.
JDWarner
349
Mar 7, 2014
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jeremyaIndeed. Your ears generally limit over-power, particularly for nearfield monitors like these. If you were trying to use them to DJ with, then I could see legitimate overpower...
Every speaker component failure I've seen or heard verified account of boils down to three things:
1) Under-power (clipping) - mostly destroys tweeters 2) Defective amp, outputting significant DC voltage - mostly destroys tweeters 3) Physical defect (magnets coming unglued) - rare, but seen it happen. Unrelated to amp power.
Every speaker component failure I've seen or heard verified account of boils down to three things:
1) Under-power (clipping) - mostly destroys tweeters 2) Defective amp, outputting significant DC voltage - mostly destroys tweeters 3) Physical defect (magnets coming unglued) - rare, but seen it happen. Unrelated to amp power.
Anonymouse
216
Mar 7, 2014
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SonidoWatts are watts, and the same power will produce the same volume from the speakers regardless of amp type. However, clipping on tubes is a lot less audible than solid state, dues to the subjectively "pleasant" way they distort the signal. If you're cranking it to get the volume you want, it's entirely possible you could be pushing into mild clipping and just not notice. In reality, though, 10W is plenty for most normal listening levels except with really low sensitivity speakers.
Your speakers don't "require" higher wattage; any figure on the back is probably power handling, which is just what the manufacturer thinks they can handle without damage. Due to the log-linear way we perceive sound, doubling the power doesn't double the subjective loudness, nor conversely, halving the power halve the volume. Actually, doubling the power sounds only about 10% louder, and thus halving it only sounds about 1/11th quieter. So, a 100W amp would only sound about 10% louder than your 10W one, subjectively. If you're not even at the max volume position on that amp, you're probably actually only sending really low single digit wattage to those speakers.
Your speakers don't "require" higher wattage; any figure on the back is probably power handling, which is just what the manufacturer thinks they can handle without damage. Due to the log-linear way we perceive sound, doubling the power doesn't double the subjective loudness, nor conversely, halving the power halve the volume. Actually, doubling the power sounds only about 10% louder, and thus halving it only sounds about 1/11th quieter. So, a 100W amp would only sound about 10% louder than your 10W one, subjectively. If you're not even at the max volume position on that amp, you're probably actually only sending really low single digit wattage to those speakers.
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