Cambridge SoundWorks Newton Series™ M80 Bookshelf Speakers

Do they have the specs for the RMS wattage? That is the only number I care about for wattage. They seem like a good buy unless the wattage is like 50 watts. If that were the case I could a much better pair for the price.

Wattage???

That's the one number that usually doesn't mean anything and shouldn't be cared much for, though many people do think the more is better, which is not necessarily true (take example many manufacturers not even putting RMS values, instead the PMPO values to show off, seems like their system is better eh?)

It handles up to 150W, with 10W minimum recommended... it gets up to 86dB with 1W, which is plenty loud, though 10W would be good.

Root mean square power values do not apply to speakers really, its more of an amplifier number anyway, and it doesn't matter overall anyway, since the sensitivity of the speaker matters more. This really is just simple volume stuff, nothing about sound quality. The amplifier can have 200W RMS and sound like crap, or the amplifier can be one of those super expensive tube amplifiers that only pump out 3W that sound amazing...

There, another lesson learned

10 watts is too low for a speaker with an 86db sensitivity, unless you're in a small room. In a larger room you'll want 25 or 50 watts.

chych is right, though; power handling specs are usually not terribly important.

Hmmm...
I have not heard them. There is not much of anything in those specs. That won't keep me from rendering an opinion!

86db is surprisingly low efficiency for a 3-way. Although many high accuracy speakers exhibit low efficiency, the reverse is not necessarily true.

I still can't believe that manufacturers brag about MDF, which is basically very thick cardboard. It has great damping properties, and it is cheap and easy to work with, so it is industry default. Real wood veneer is good, I guess, but has nothing to do with the sound. Radiused corners are good, while pointy square corners are cheap to manufacture, are not durable, and add diffraction and re-emission.

No word on driver surround? Better drivers have rubber surrounds and cast baskets. Avoid foam surrounds at all cost!

Natural fiber tweeters is a very interesting statement. I am assuming a soft dome of some sort, which may be good.

Bottom line: I haven't a clue how they will sound from the description. The price is damned cheap for a 3 way. I have dealt with that company, and they have a very good return policy (although you have to follow up to make sure that they credit your account). The best way to tell is order them and try them. They are betting that you wll like them and keep them. If the shipping costs are reasonable, take their bet, since that is all that you are risking.


gerG

See this was my point. I know that wattage isn't everything. I just wanted to know what the RMS power handling is. And I do hate the fact that most everybody lists the max power rather than the RMS. I even had a guy at Soundtrack tell me that 200 watts max was pretty high for a 15" 3-way pair of speakers. Give me a break.

Truth is I would have to hear any pair of speakers first to judge them properly.

yes, definitely!

Hm maybe 150W is the maximum amount of power it should be fed? It could possibly take that much power consistently...

But Root-mean-square power is not really a handling value, it is a power output value... it is the square root of the average of the sum of the squares of the power being output over a certain period of time, which is a value of amplification. I'm not really sure how you can apply that math into power handling on a speaker... Anyone else want to chime in? Maybe they just push a bunch of power into the speaker and mark the value as the maximum of the speaker right before it blows up?

Anyways, I don't even think the maximum power even matters, as long as it can get loud enough... we don't really use that much power to drive speakers anyway...

Wouldn't the 150W here be the maximum PEAK allowance?

My Cyrus 751s are rated at 50W but can handle up to 125W in short bursts...

I don't really know though, I haven't been into speakers for a while but i'm hazarding a guess that i'm right so they're probably 75W drivers with a little bit of extra headroom for crescendos and the like

That is how they do it as far as I know. The maximum wattage is what the speaker will handle for about 10 second before the thing blows, and RMS would be it's contant power flow. At least that is how I have been explained by about three different manufactures.

My two Soundfeild's can handle 750 watts RMS and 1500 watts max. I like that, but they also push that wattage out effectively and that is what really matters. Besides they sound quite clear as well for that line of speakers.

RMS is the standard method of measuring AC, as it gives a voltage value equivilent to DC voltage (for ohms law and other calculations)

In AC the voltage is constantly fluctuating (duh ) and the peaks of the waves are sqrt 2 (1.414) times the RMS value...

So to convert between peek and RMS, either multiply by root 2 (1.414) (RMS-peak) or 1 over root two (0.707) (peak to RMS)

RMS is the standard, no voltage/wattage specs should not be given in any other method. Only those cheep computer speakers inflate their specs by giving a peak-to-peak power, since its always 1.4 times higher for ANY speaker

For audio, average and peak generally mean somthing different... The average level of the sound is very soft, but sudden peaks (drums, transients, etc) will suddenly increase the power by 10 dB (a lot!). Rememver, your hearing is logarithmic, so you need many times the power for a small increase in volume...So a speaker must be able to withstand huge peaks even though most of the signal is much softer. That is what they meen by average/continuous RMS and peak RMS. (note should be given in RMS units) The average is the most power the voice coils can put up with for long periods of time without burning up, while the peak value is given for short bursts at a time without damage (the peaks can be much higher because the voice coils can cool down after the short burst, but if it was played continuously at that level, it would eventually burn up)

Many people judge speakers only by power ratings, which are completely meaningless. Any speaker will reach its Xmax (maximum excursion, IE cones bottom out and create huge amounts of distortion and no further increase in volume) way before its maximum power rating....

Then there's sensitivity, My 95dB sensitivity (ok maybe a bit overratted) Axiom M22's will play at the exact same volume level as those cambridge speakers with 1/8th the power...

And finally, after everything i've said, none of it matters in terms of sound quality. Listening is really the only way of telling... That said, the $300 price range is extremely competitive with many "giant killer"s in that range. Speakers from Axiom, PSB, Paradigm, NHT, NoRH, Acoustic Energy, Diva, etc have recieved many postive reviews