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Am I gonna clip my speakers?

post #1 of 16
3/1/04 at 2:51pm
Thread Starter 
I'm trying to figure out if I'm in danger of clipping my speakers and/or amp. I'm currently using:

Athena Audition B1 bookshelf speakers (mains) - 125W, 90dB sensitivity
Athena Audition C1 center speaker - 150W, 90dB
RCA craptastic satellite speakers - 70W, who cares
Yamaha HTR-5540 receiver - 75Wx5 RMS, 95W peak power
No subwoofer; the B1s are set to Large and are handling bass.

I'm worrried about the fact that the receiver might be underpowered for these speakers, especially since it is having to push LF signal through to the mains instead of letting a powered sub do it. I've resisted the sub in the past because I live in a little apartment, but on reflection I don't see why I couldn't simply keep the sub volume turned down to friendly levels. Anyway, I normally turn my receiver volume only up about one-third of max, maybe a little more. I just wonder about my risk of melting voice coils or frying the amp.
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post #2 of 16
3/1/04 at 3:32pm
Are you worried about overpowering ("I just wonder about my risk of melting voice coils or frying the amp.") or underpowering ("I'm worrried about the fact that the receiver might be underpowered for these speakers")? In either case I don't see a problem.
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post #3 of 16
3/1/04 at 7:13pm
Jefe: Back in the days you could also fry voice coils by underpowering - as taxed amps tended to produce ultrasonics that killed quite a few tweeters on party occasions.

GanChan: No worries - modern receivers have protective circuits. Iirc, your Yamaha should even be of the kind that has somewhat paranoid protictive circuits. When taxed with too much current, it will just shut down for a while. If you are very nervous about this, switch the speaker impedance selector to the lower setting. This will lower the maximum output voltage limit on the speaker outsputs.

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini
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post #4 of 16
3/1/04 at 7:46pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the replies. I believe my Yamaha does have an automatic shutoff function, but I was never quite sure what it was for. Interesting. Does that also mean that I can stop worrying about burdening my receiver and speakers with the LF signal, or would it still be wiser to hand that duty over to a sub and let the receiver concentrate on feeding the other 5 channels? I'm actually getting quite enough bass without going sub -- for me, it is more of a power management issue.
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post #5 of 16
3/1/04 at 7:55pm
Just dont play it too loud.
Really 35W is plenty per channel.
75W is more than enough.
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post #6 of 16
3/1/04 at 8:31pm
Quote:
Originally posted by lini
Jefe: Back in the days you could also fry voice coils by underpowering - as taxed amps tended to produce ultrasonics that killed quite a few tweeters on party occasions.
Interesting. You learn something new every day.
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post #7 of 16
3/1/04 at 9:34pm
You can usually hear your amp starting to distort, before you damage anything. As a general rule, it's okay to crank the volume up, but when things start to sound strained, harsh, thin or distorted, back it down till the fidelity is there again.
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post #8 of 16
3/1/04 at 10:04pm
90dB sensitivity is quite sensitive. 125W is its powerhandling. That means you should be more worried about having more than 125W amps than under 125W amps.

If having your volume control about 1/3 the way up is loud enough for you I don't forsee any problems at all.
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post #9 of 16
3/1/04 at 10:17pm
.
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post #10 of 16
3/1/04 at 10:19pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Howie
125W is its powerhandling. That means you should be more worried about having more than 125W amps than under 125W amps.
I have to disagree howie. Lots of good, clean power say from a 200watt amp is fine as long as you don't go over 125watts. And the 125 is probably continuous not peaks. An overtaxed 50watt amp that clips is worse than a 200watt amp that does not.
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post #11 of 16
3/2/04 at 12:43am
I agree wiff eyeteefs. More power is better. Its good to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. The extra power comes in handy during demanding passages.
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post #12 of 16
3/2/04 at 12:54am
Yes, it's generally better to have reserve power than too little power. I would callibrate your system using software like Avia and a Radio Shack meter. Depending on your listening habits, you should be able to play the system to satisfyingly loud levels, but listen for when your system starts to distort. Really, though, if you live in an apartment, it is almost mandatory to keep the volume at reasonable rates anyway.

As to the sub, yes it would relieve the load on the Yamaha's amp, especially as it would allow the setting of your speakers to small.
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post #13 of 16
3/2/04 at 12:59am
clean power is good. i'm with lini though, i've fried speakers from underpowered amp clipping before.
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post #14 of 16
3/2/04 at 2:38am
All of the above mentioned manufacture stated ratings are pretty meaningless in providing any useful direction for you. Just do what everyone else does. Get the best amp you can afford and use your ears. You can hear when you are over doing it. You have decided to go with a certain model Yamaha. Yamaha makes decent amplifiers and you should have no problems with clipping if you use your ears. What COULD complicate things is if you try driving more speakers off of the same channel. That doesn't sound like something that you are doing, so no worries.
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post #15 of 16
3/2/04 at 8:46pm
Quote:
I have to disagree howie. Lots of good, clean power say from a 200watt amp is fine as long as you don't go over 125watts. And the 125 is probably continuous not peaks. An overtaxed 50watt amp that clips is worse than a 200watt amp that does not.
Yes yes. I was only pointing to the fact that the term or specification "powerhandling" means that it can safely handle 125W rather than it needing 125W. Hey I currently have 600W monoblocks. I'm switching to less power though.
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