Question about RS850 Loudspeaker Signature Series

[resevil83]

My friend bought a pair of these rocket rs850 loudspeakers from av123.com and he was wondering how many watts they were? He said he looked on the speakers, in the manuals and on the site and could not find the watt rating. He has a Denon 1508 receiver and was wondering if he could power the speakers off them. He also bought the SVS PC39 subwoofer a while back. He said that he might be able to power the speakers from the sub, but I told him to hold off on that until he figured out the wattage of the speakers.

 

[pzaur]

My friend bought a pair of these rocket rs850 loudspeakers from av123.com and he was wondering how many watts they were? He said he looked on the speakers, in the manuals and on the site and could not find the watt rating. He has a Denon 1508 receiver and was wondering if he could power the speakers off them. He also bought the SVS PC39 subwoofer a while back. He said that he might be able to power the speakers from the sub, but I told him to hold off on that until he figured out the wattage of the speakers.

You don't really need to look at the wattage rating. I feel it's pretty useless. The RS850 speakers are rated as 8 ohm speakers and should be able to be driven by almost any receiver out there. The Denon will do just fine.

Receivers do not actually function at the shown watt listing. Some one else can do a better job of explaining that.

-pat

 

[Davemcc]

Yes, the Denon will be fine. Your amplifier is the device creating the watts and the quality of the amplified signal is where you should place your concern. The watt ratings on speakers are virtually useless, for a number of reasons. The first is that a clipped or distorted signal is the most likely cause of blowing your speakers. As long as you turn your system volume down when you hear the speakers sound like they are in distress, you should be fine.

The wattage rating on speakers is primarily, at the low end, to have an amp powerful enough that it doesn't clip and, at the high end, to limit the power delivered to the speaker below the point at which the manufacturer thinks the speaker will be overpowered (this can also be done with common sense and a volume knob).

 

[AVRat]

And NO, the sub can't power the speakers.

 

[resevil83]

ok, here we go then... Can his receiver adequately power those speakers, and then two bookshelf speakers for surround sound and a center channel? I think the sub is self powered. But yes he wants that plugged in also. I thought it was possible to overdraw a receiver, and that's why I thought it was necessary for him to either buy a power amp or a bigger receiver.

I am most familiar with car audio, so I guess in this case it differs. In Car audio you usually base the system off of RMS power and go from there. It doesn't work like this in home theater?

I know he listens to his music very loud, so won't that overwork his reciver if it isn't powerful enough for the speakers. These things are huge! What gauge wire would you recommend for the speakers?

 

[ivseenbetter]

Speaker wire guage will depend on how long the run is between the receiver and the speakers.

 

[pzaur]

I am most familiar with car audio, so I guess in this case it differs. In Car audio you usually base the system off of RMS power and go from there. It doesn't work like this in home theater?

I know he listens to his music very loud, so won't that overwork his reciver if it isn't powerful enough for the speakers. These things are huge! What gauge wire would you recommend for the speakers?

AV Receivers are more concerned with matching the correct Ohm rating on speakers. A 4 ohm speaker requires a much beefier supply than an 8 ohm speaker. The efficiency rating is also important. The higher the number, the easier to drive. Horn loaded speakers tend to have higher efficiency ratings (and also be very 'bright' to my ears.) The rockets are respectably efficient at a 91.5 dB rating.

I use low voltage wire for my speaker connections. Nothing fancy is needed. If the wire is run through walls/ceilings they should be rated for wall or ceiling use.

-pat

 

[fredk]

To figure out power requirements gather the following:
- distance you sit from your speakers
- desired volume in db
- speaker sensitivity (given in db at 1 watt at 1 meter)
- how much headroom you might need for spl peaks (in db: 12 is a good number)
*** note you will get another 5-6db in headroom from room gain. The calculator is meant for open spaces.

Go here and plug in your numbers

Me, I sit about 8' (2.5 meters) from my speakers listen at 85db averages at the loudest. Not accounting for headroom, on average, I use around 2w to reach that rather loud level. Now, plug in another 18db in headroom (12 in the calculator) because I like to listen to classical, which has a large dynamic range, from time to time and I am sucking up up to a whopping 25W of power.

And if I wanted to go deaf in a hurry and cranked it up to 95db average spl, I would be using 60-65W.

Or, tell your friend the Dennon is fine.

 

[fredk]

AV Receivers are more concerned with matching the correct Ohm rating on speakers.

The receiver isn't concerned with anything. It just delivers the power/current demanded by the speaker. A 4 Ohm speaker can potentially draw more power, but it doesn't have to. My M80s are 4 Ohm nominal but, being efficient, as you can see from the example above, don't need a lot of power to play loud.

FWIW, Dennon consistantly builds receivers with beefy power supplies.

 

[AVRat]

Personally, I wouldn't drive them with anything less than something like the Denon 38/43 series receivers. More power will definitely be better.

 

[resevil83]

haha. Ok so I'm going to go hook up his two rear small speakers and his two huge svs monsters. Everything will be good. I guess I have to re-read all your posts because it is almost foreign to me. I'm still just confused about the whole powering the speaker issue. The denon receiver is 75 watts at 8 ohms? So it won't get very loud right? He wants to hook up his other two speakers and the sub also. My brother said we should be careful because we will blow the receiver or speakers.

 

[Soundman]

Yes, the Denon will be fine. Your amplifier is the device creating the watts and the quality of the amplified signal is where you should place your concern. The watt ratings on speakers are virtually useless, for a number of reasons. The first is that a clipped or distorted signal is the most likely cause of blowing your speakers. As long as you turn your system volume down when you hear the speakers sound like they are in distress, you should be fine.

The wattage rating on speakers is primarily, at the low end, to have an amp powerful enough that it doesn't clip and, at the high end, to limit the power delivered to the speaker below the point at which the manufacturer thinks the speaker will be overpowered (this can also be done with common sense and a volume knob).

To the OP,
THIS IS ALL YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW. This is why your friend could not find the power rating for these speakers in the manual. AV123 doesn't list the power rating because as mentioned before, they are worthless. Is your concern that you may overpower these speakers? If so, then stop worrying about it. That Denon receiver has no chance of doing that. In fact, the Rocket speakers, although they can be powered just fine with most receivers, really open up when fed some good amplification. I have a friend who is powering his with 500 watt monoblocks...yes, that's 500wpc! So don't worry about blowing these things. It ain't going to happen with that Denon. You can feed the Rockets all the power you want and they beg for more, very well built speakers. That being said, I'm running my 850's off a 125wpc amplifier with pretty good results. They do just fine. Forget about using the sub for amplification. That's just crazy talk. A subs amp is designed to power the sub- that's it!

 

[JAMS]

start where??

If his friend even gets the denon hooked up then programed for the correct inputs he is lucky from the savy friend trying to help!
Yea,he needs to do a bunch of reading before he can understand how the whiz box works!
Watts no worrys,inputs,x/overs/ spkr phase,source settings,well a bunch of hands on help seems best thing!
The sub is hooked to the denon now days,not wired to the high level amps spkr post!
Just go step by careful step reading along and hair pulling is minimal at best i hope so anyway!
GOOD LUCK!!

 

[fredk]

Denon manuals are quite confusing, but the instructions for hooking up the speakers are strait forward.

If your friend has two powered subs (subs with amplifiers in them), you will need a splitter to split the single sub pre-out into two channels. Alternatively, you may also be able to hook one sub to the pre-out and the second sub into a line out from the first sub.

Those Rockets are quite efficient, so unless he is in a very big room and sitting far back from the speakers, his receiver will have plenty of power.

As an example, I have similarly efficient speakers and sit 8-9' from them. Listening fairly loud (80-90db) most of the time the speakers draw in the range of 10w. If there are HUGE volume peaks I may actually draw up to 50w.

Good luck with the hookup.

 

[JAMS]

Some good drivers in there

Hey,fred how loud have you tested those,ive heard incredible watt numbers that seem way high too me!
I tested my beta 50s on a 110watt a ch and I could not take it all the way,i think i got a irregular heartbeat ,i was getting killed!!
But a 500wpc seems a bit much dont you think,what a nightmare,the EMS wouldnt know what too treat,start with shock paddles!

5.5" drivers can only do so much right !
But how much???