Leemo Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 For those technically minded or electrically minded what is the difference between these wattages. For example I have a 500 Watt amp, what speaker would suit it? Could I have a 300Watt speaker with a max power (or music program) of 600Watt? Please help, many thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiamPodmore Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 Yes, you can, your amp will put out 300-350w at 8 ohm, you will just have to listen for when the the speaker starts to distort and then you know that you have to turn the amp volume down. Liam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noisyjon Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 (edited) READ ALL ABOUT IT!!! [url="http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/info:amps:impedance_and_wattage"]http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/info:amps:impedance_and_wattage[/url] Edited June 4, 2011 by jonthebass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Starr Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 (edited) Its not very helpful is it, the way speakers are rated. The trouble is that there are two limits to a speaker the first is how many electrical watts it takes to break the speaker and the second is how far the cone can move before it leaves the magnet behind. The ratings you see are all related to electric watts. The 'RMS' rating is simply a measire of how much heat it can dissipate. Put 300W through a mumber of speakers and if none of them fry after several hours then they are 300W speakers. This is easy to measure and check so RMS is what we see. The problem is we put music not test signals through our speakers. When you pluck a string the note starts loud and decays then there will be a gap and then you play more notes, some loud some quiet. You may be playing with your 500W amp flat out on the loud bits but your average power will be only 20W or so depending upon what you are playing. Your 300W speaker will handle this for years. Manufacturers can easily claim silly 600W program and 1200W max because of this but it is still a 300W speaker. A 5W speaker could handle 1000W for a fraction of a second! You play bass however and the lower the note the further the cone has to travel to reproduce it. there's examples out there of speakers that only have a couple of mm movement before the coil starts to move out of the magnet. For bottom E this means that they can only handle a few watts. Under these conditions your 300W speaker might be only a 30W speaker, Finally there is the question of longevity. Constant movement of any material will lead to its eventual breakdown and the harder you drive a spaeker the faster this happens. Your speaker may well be safe with an overpowered amp but it won't last as long, though it may be years before you find out. There isn't really an easy answer to all this. By and large I use amps and speakers that 'match' I currently run a 600W amp into a 550W speaker and i don't expect a failure. Then again I'm only running it at a fraction of its power and the rest of the band all complain about the volume being too high. the advice that you should just be aware of any distortion and turn down is just perfect. People agonise about this a little too much. Edited June 4, 2011 by Phil Starr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xgsjx Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 Phil talks good sense here. Another thing to take into account is Xmax (not to be mixed up with Xmas) which relates to this bit... [quote]You play bass however and the lower the note the further the cone has to travel to reproduce it. there's examples out there of speakers that only have a couple of mm movement before the coil starts to move out of the magnet. For bottom E this means that they can only handle a few watts. Under these conditions your 300W speaker might be only a 30W speaker[/quote] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leemo Posted June 9, 2011 Author Share Posted June 9, 2011 [quote name='Phil Starr' post='1256656' date='Jun 4 2011, 05:13 PM']Its not very helpful is it, the way speakers are rated. The trouble is that there are two limits to a speaker the first is how many electrical watts it takes to break the speaker and the second is how far the cone can move before it leaves the magnet behind. The ratings you see are all related to electric watts. The 'RMS' rating is simply a measire of how much heat it can dissipate. Put 300W through a mumber of speakers and if none of them fry after several hours then they are 300W speakers. This is easy to measure and check so RMS is what we see. The problem is we put music not test signals through our speakers. When you pluck a string the note starts loud and decays then there will be a gap and then you play more notes, some loud some quiet. You may be playing with your 500W amp flat out on the loud bits but your average power will be only 20W or so depending upon what you are playing. Your 300W speaker will handle this for years. Manufacturers can easily claim silly 600W program and 1200W max because of this but it is still a 300W speaker. A 5W speaker could handle 1000W for a fraction of a second! You play bass however and the lower the note the further the cone has to travel to reproduce it. there's examples out there of speakers that only have a couple of mm movement before the coil starts to move out of the magnet. For bottom E this means that they can only handle a few watts. Under these conditions your 300W speaker might be only a 30W speaker, Finally there is the question of longevity. Constant movement of any material will lead to its eventual breakdown and the harder you drive a spaeker the faster this happens. Your speaker may well be safe with an overpowered amp but it won't last as long, though it may be years before you find out. There isn't really an easy answer to all this. By and large I use amps and speakers that 'match' I currently run a 600W amp into a 550W speaker and i don't expect a failure. Then again I'm only running it at a fraction of its power and the rest of the band all complain about the volume being too high. the advice that you should just be aware of any distortion and turn down is just perfect. People agonise about this a little too much.[/quote] Many thanks for the advice, Leemo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.