Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Question on HT upgrades

500W really? You had/have 500W amps? How loud were you listening? Just because a speaker claims a power rating of 500watts or 700watts doesn't mean they use or need any where near that kind of power; most people run at 1-10 watts for a normal 70-80 db level at the listening position with extreme peaks hitting 50-100W for most in home listening experiences.

Jake,you can calculate how much power is needed to play 115 dB SPL with a speaker's rated sensitivity of 86 dB SPL/anechoic, at 5.5 Ohms (increase that from 86 to around 89 in-room).

i know for a fact that the amp would put out around 725 Watts/ch on fast peaks, and around 400 Watts/ch on steady signals, into 5.5 Ohms. The p.s. voltage: 64Vrms
the amp can run fine with 2.2 Ohm speakers, and it can put out as much as 20 amps.

Playback volume was at reference level.

You guys are awesome and making me giddy like a school boy going to an all-girls school!

Sooo...my receiver can push the Axiom speakers, but an amp would help with more power to smooth out distortion. That being true, in my humble case, where I do not crank my speakers loud (hell, even at -23db on my Yamaha, it's plenty loud...maybe I have sensitive ears, not yet violated by the wonders of sound?), the receiver would be fine unless I notice clipping and distortion, right?

And JohnK, leaving the receiver at 8 ohms won't harm the speakers or receiver? Even if the specs on the speakers state 4ohm?

Sorry, but this seems too good to be true! I could have these speakers by Feb!

Thanks again for the helpful tidbits and banter...it helps me understand more about home theater than the usual watts and power.

Nah, you don't need an amp if you're not pushing it.

Don't forget to add in the distance you are listening in the formula like the online amp calculators do, but either way J.B, you listen far too loudly for me. I listen at about 70-85 and peaks hit around 100.

With a 40" TV, im around 6-8' away...and that's why I don't have to push them? As well as the speakers sounding muddy?

Sed, a higher power amp than what you have now in your receiver wouldn't "smooth out distortion" if you weren't playing your present equipment loud enough to produce audible amplifier distortion, which you apparently aren't doing.

Leaving the receiver at the 8 ohm default setting couldn't damage the speakers and would be extremely unlikely to damage the receiver. Since more clean power is available at the 8 ohm setting(as mentioned above), the speakers are less likely to be damaged by inadequate power reserves leading to clipping. If very loud levels were played for an extended time(which you don't do)the receiver might overheat, but its internal protective circuit would shut it down, and normal operation would return after it cools down(having given a hint to turn it down a bit).

you say i listen far too loudly; the levels i listen to is the same as in good cinemas.
maybe one reason you can't do it (too loud) is that your room is not treated? or maybe the neighbors.

i had forgotten to talk, in my previous post, about distance from speakers to MLP; in a small room, i think it should be about 3-4 dB less for each doubling of distance. large rooms lose more,until in open spaces it's 6 dB's.

I don't think that Jason (jakewash) was criticizing you, just saying that it was too loud for him.

You are correct though that many (most/all???) of the time when a room has a bunch of treatments in it, the sound that hits someones ears can seem to actually be *less* than an untreated room, thus the ability to play "louder" in a treated room without being painful.

Then, factor in that you might like to listen to things louder too, and that might make up for the difference in the preferred volume. Again, I don't know about Jason's setup, but I didn't see it as being critical.

i did not think he was criticizing me, only that he probably has different tastes or his room wasn't treated.