Will using a receiver with a higher power rating than my
speakers cause a problem? I remember worrying about the speakers in my first
system as I had a 130 watt rated receiver with 100 watt speakers. There are
several reasons I didn’t need to worry, and several more reasons why I should.
While very low end speakers are unlikely to show any benefit
based on a higher powered, quality amp, better speakers can see a very big
difference. At lower volumes the detail of the music or movie soundtrack become
clearer, the bass is more powerful and the highs are light and enjoyable.
At reference volume the bass retains its form, is clear and
distinct, never muddy. The highs never become shrill or strained, which is a
sign of a struggling amplifier. More power gives you more headroom, which means
the amplifier is breezing along through everything you throw at it.
The second reason I needn’t have worried is because I was
under the misguided belief that power ratings were accurate, my 130 watt
receiver was never capable of going beyond 70 or so watts. To learn more about
amplifier power ratings click
here.
Now to the reason I should have worried. Even inexpensive
speakers can handle clean power well beyond their ratings. The enemy of any
speaker however is power clipping, the act of a struggling amp or a poor power source
that begins to cut areas of the frequency range out, send distorted audio, or begin doing both in a on, off series
of high power blasts. This will tear a speaker apart faster than using a sledgehammer.
If you are hearing distortion of any kind TURN IT DOWN!
Using an amp rated well above the speakers rating requires
some will power however, you don’t want to turn it up above the reference
level, there is never a reason to turn anything up past this point, it is the
exact volume the sound is engineered for, anything louder morphs the
vision of the artist.
Amplifiers ramp up power by doubling the output at every
notch. Turning the volume knob from 30 to 29 doubles the watts and creates 3 decibels
more volume. This means that you are well below the amps power rating all the
way to zero. In most amplifiers and receivers, zero marks the rated output of
the unit. In a 100 watt receiver that means you jump from 50 watts at 1, then
go to 100 watts at zero.
This of course assumes the manufacture is providing accurate
power ratings, which is highly unlikely. Give your speakers what they crave,
clean power and enjoy the clear, distortion free sound as the artist intended.