803 Nautilus powered by 70W amp, enough?

[Raul Benavides]

I have a 70 watt per channel harmon kardon avr 525 paired with 2 floorstander B and W 803 nautilus who have a 50-250 watt requirement. The question:

how much danger do I have of ruining these power hungry speakers with this relately small amp over a long time period? I'm not powering an obscenely huge room, and I like decent volume levels for my music (jazz to classical to rock to metal) but I don't play at party levels. If I go to say, -10 on the volume scale (db wise) will I endanger my speakers (I try to stay no more than loudest -13 to -16 for some SACD's)

I ask because I will either spring for a classe amp at 200W now, or just keep my HK for the next 3 or so years powering my B and W's. Am I in danger of slowly damageing the ingrity of my speakers with a slightly underpowered amp over the course of 3 years? I can a safely wait?

[Joey_V]

Not sure about danger in blowing the speakers but I can tell you that the 525 will be lifeless when powering your speakers. It will not be enough nor will it be satisfying. You bought some super speakers and you better power it right.

I say this because I remember powering the 703 with an HK430 and it sounded pathetic to me... I even asked myself, why are these 703s selling for $3000?

I then had the dealer hook up the Rotel 1050 (the smallest Rotel) and instantly, the stage had depth and the imaging was better focused. Instant improvement and instant appreciation for the 703. As I progressed through Rotel's line, the improvements kept on coming.

If this is any indication, the Classe amp you are looking at should be a killer addition to your already solid speaker set.

[Karma]

HI Raul,
I completely agree with Joey. 200W per channel minimum should be your goal. Classe is good but there are other amps to consider. I use Krell.

There are two dangers with an underpowered system. If you run the volume higher than the point where the amp can provide undistorted sound, the energy in the high frequency distortion products can damage the tweeter and possibly the mid range drivers. You may never hear the problem because the distortion harmonics can be very high in frequency. Next, the amp will be working hard and producing a lot of heat. This can cause the amp to fail due to overheating. Certain types of amp failures can cause the death of your speakers.

You have great speakers. They (and you) deserve a great amp.

Sparky

[dknightd]

I think you'd be better of getting a bigger amp now if
you can swing it. I'm not famiar with the demands of the 803's,
but, I assume they are even more demanding tham my 703's.
Your HK receiver will not drive them well. The problem is
when you do try turning them up the HK will clip. A clipping
amp makes horrible llooking squarish waveforms. The spurious
hgih frequencies assiciated with these clipped signals might
damage your tweeters. I'm surprised a hifi shop would let
you take 803's home knowing you were going to drive them
with an HK receiver. Your receiver is probably very adequate
for many speakers, but the bigger b&ws tend to have a very
low impendance in the upper bass, lower midrange - thisis hard on amps.
If you take it easy you should be OK. But even then you will
not be getting your moneies worth out of those speakers. . .