Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Is 250watt VP160 less powerful than 400watt VP150?

I just ordered a VP-160. But, my question is, I like how the M80's can handle high volume levels. Can the VP-160 handle pretty high volume levels also?

Second, I like the fact that the VP-150 was rated for 400watts but the VP-160 is only rated for 250watts. Should this be a concern? Does this mean the VP-150 is actually louder?? How could that be?

Wattage ratings mean extraordinarily little. They have nothing to do with how "powerful" a speaker is.

Wattage is how much power something uses. If you had two 100 watt light bulbs they would both consume the same amount of power. If one lightbulb could use that power more efficiently it would be brighter. The VP160 having a lower rating means it is using its power more efficiently. Most likely due to its larger cabinet.

The VP150 is a 6 ohm speaker, whereas the VP160 is an 8 ohm speaker. If you do the math, the WPC is similar. I'm driving my 160 with a 200 wpc amp, and it's plenty loud enough.

The rating of the speaker is somewhat inconsequential.. If you have clean power you can play speakers safely at a very high volume if you so choose.... The VP-160 has larger drivers.. I would suspect that the 160 can play much louder than a 150... I know that there is NO comparison between the 150 i use to have and the 180 that i now have.. Both the 150 and the 180 have the "same 400W rating". However, would you think that the 150 could play ANY where near as loud as the 180? BTW, the amp that i am using on my center channel is rated for 250W @8 ohms, and 500W@ 4 ohms.. so my 150 could have all of the power it ever wanted.. The same is true with the 180... I can tell you there is NO comparison...

I think the power rating is an indicatation of the speaker's point of failure. 400W into a speaker is enough to destroy the hearing of anyone in the room without ear protection. At 400 watts into the VP150, I think you can expect the fuse had already failed.

Very helpful responses everyone!

Now, it occurs to me as well that if the VP-160 draws less power than both the VP-150 and VP-180 (4 ohm / 6 ohm vs. 8 ohm) and since the sensitivity is also good, that it will be less taxing on the amplifier, leaving more headroom for the rest of the system and for clean frequency response. Am I right on this?

But, now what about only 1 tweeter. Doesn't this mean it might not sound as good at loud volumes given it lacks the 2 tweeters of some of the other Axiom speakers?

Not exactly..
I would say that the 160 will draw more power than the 150, but less than the 180. This is based on the number and type of drivers. The 150 has a lower impedance rating, but has smaller drivers, the impedance rating is determined by how the drivers are wired, the more there are in parallel the lower the impedance will be.. However, the more/larger drivers there are the more power the speaker will want, regardless of the wiring configuration.



Less taxing on your system..
The 160 will draw less power than your M80's, so relative to your 80's it will be less taxing on your amp. The concern that you should have is driving channels of your amp into the clipping region/exceeding the capabilities of the power supply of your amp. You have a 5 channel amp, each channel operates independently of the others. However, they all draw power from the same power supply. You are more likely to drive the channels that are powering your M80's into clipping than the channel that is powering the VP-160. Are you driving any of your channels into clipping? if you aren't then don't sweat it... If you are, then you have 2 options...

A) turn the volume down
B) buy more power (I bought more power)




Nope,
Axioms is one of the few companies that i am aware of that uses multiple tweeters.. It does not take much energy to recreate high frequencies. I have M60's and a VP-180, they all sound the same.


Hope this helps.

Makes sense. Yeah, I don't think my Emotiva XPA-5 will be clipping anytime soon.