Wattage "similarity", significant or insignificant?

[Ric]

hi, as a neophyte, im not really that sure on a lot of things, especially right now that im moving to a big step in upgrading my system. call this stupid or no, but i just dont want to put my money into waste after a year or so.....

im currently going to the separates 1068/1075/1080, with the 1080 having 200W to drive the mains and the 1075 at 120W to drive the center and surround.

i have listened to speakers already and have dropped down to 2 systems, both of which is good to my ear, all perfectly match as a system.

my question is, which is a better match to my said rotel setup above?
SET-UP:
a) the speaker system is rated equally at 200W, M/C/S
b) the speaker system is rated at 250W for the front and 150W on the center and surround.

tnx again! :

[Kevin P]

How the speakers sound to you and how well matched they are as a system is more important IMHO than their power handling. So choose based on your preferences.

Too little power (amp clipping) is more damaging to speakers than too much clean power. But with your Rotels you'll have plenty of power. When choosing amps and matching to speakers for power, it's better to base it on the recommended power rating than the maximum.

[purplepeople]

If you are running your amps in your house at over 150W RMS (continuously), then you are probably deaf and you should get the speakers with the bigger rating because the will likely live longer by a factor of a month or two.

But if you are like most people and use up maybe 16W RMS for typical speakers indoors, then get the speakers that sound better. You are more likely to damage your speakers from signal clip than from overdrive.


The typical calculation goes like this:

Speaker rated at 88db/1W @ 1m (3ft)

Gives 91db/2W or 101db/16W or 110dB/128W.

If you are sitting at 4m (12ft) from the speaker that is a drop of 12dB over the listening distance.

= 98dB/128W @ 4m

which is enough to cause permanent hearing loss.

IOW, I never worry too much about the power ratings and go for the sound quality every time.

Hope this helps.

ensen.