Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Does my new H/K reciever have enough power?

My new Axiom speakers should be here tommorow, and man am I excited. My ? is Does my new Harman/Kardon AVR130 Have enough power to get good sound out of my new speakers.
55watts per channel in stereo mode and 45 watts per channel in surround mode. High instantaneous Cuurrent capability +-25 amps.
If this reciever cant push these speakers (m22s,qs8s,vp100), I will take it back while I still can.
Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Bray

Time for another quick refresher - any amp (receiver, etc) can push any speaker (within reason) - speakers don't "draw" a certain amount of power - they're forced by the amp as far as they can be before the amp starts clipping and damages the speakers. The sound pressure levels you will experience are a function of:
a) Amp power
b) Speaker sensitivity
c) Listening distance from speakers
d) Room effects

I plugged your numbers into the little Excel spreadsheet I've got here for just that purpose and it looks like running stereo through the M22s with your receiver, you can expect peaks of 99dB SPL @ 5M (15 ft) away or 105dB SPL @ 3M (9 ft), I'd shave a bit off that to keep within a safe tolerance, though.

Is your amp powerful enough? For regular listening levels, probably, H/K are notorious for undervaluing their measurements, but receivers and watts are relatively cheap (in the 65-90WPC range) - might be worth a second look, especially if you ever think you'll want to put the spurs to it.

Bren R.

It certainly does. I once had a hk 130 powering a pair of floorstanding jbl e80's and and s-centerII. No problem filling my room(13x18x9) at uncomfortable sound levels. Dont worry about the meager 45/55 watts per channel, you'll get plenty of good clean power as if you had 100 watts per channel. In fact I'm also getting my m22's tomorrow and I'll be powering them with an hk230. What are your listening habits? How loud or quiet do you listen? What is your ratio of music to movies? Room dimensions? Let me and others know how it sounds when you get them hooked up.

Brady, unless you're going to be listening at a great distance at a very high volume your 130 should be fine.

Bren, I noticed that the spread sheet result gave even a greater loss than the 6dB theoretical figure for a doubling of distance under anechoic conditions. In a live room shouldn't there be something more like a 2dB drop from 3 to 5 meters?

I dunno, after posting that, I'm more and more suspicious about the little Excel thing...

I should do it by hand but my math skills stink.

Bren R.

Did a quick Google and found this article. From the discussion in sec.10.4.2 and fig. 10.4.1 it appears that in the living room that was analyzed there would only be about a 3dB falloff from the 1 meter standard measuring distance to 3 meters and very little from 3 to 5 meters. Maybe not as much power is needed in typical rooms as is sometimes said, using the -6dB for doubling of distance measure.

WOW ,WOOHOO AND YIPPEE "they" have arrived. I did a quik hookup and plugged in Loggins and Messina On Stage disc 2 track 1 21 wonderful minutes of Vahevla. Wow !!!! I already said that didnt I.?
Thanks for all the straight forward replys.and the ones from that super duper excel spreadsheet.
Basicly I turned up, it sounded great. I'll keep the H/K for now.
I guess I'll be spending my Sat. running cables through walls.
Any good not to terribly expensive ideas on speaker cable?
Man I wished I had one of those excel spreadsheets.
Thanks again
Bray

Enjoy your speakers, Brady, and 14ga or 12ga in-wall cable like this or something similar from local places like Home Depot would be fine.