Those speaker aren't gonna want much, though. They are crazy efficient and you'll likely never never exceed even a handful of watts.
Curious if thats a back handed comment on the Klipsch????
The amplifier is only going to supply the power that the speakers ask for. If the speakers only need (for the sake of discussion) 8 watts at any given time... all amplifiers capable of producing 8 watts in their specified operating range are equal.
You will never come anywhere near needing the power that either options you are looking at will provide. Headroom will never be an issue with those speakers. You could drive them easily with a 15 watt amplifier without issue.
No, it is not a backhanded compliment.
Those Klipsch speakers are rated to put out 101 dB @ 1 meter @ 2.83 volts (1 watt, if they are 8 ohms). That is very loud, and if you play them that loud for long, you will damage your hearing. Of course, you will probably sit more than a meter away from them, but still, they will produce a lot of sound with very little power. It is
common for speakers to require 10 times as much power (or more) to produce that amount of sound.
No. If two amplifiers are identical, except that one is capable of putting out more power than the other, they will sound exactly the same as long as they are not asked to put out any more power than the lower powered amplifier. Extra power only matters if it is actually used.
He did not say they were inferior speakers. He said that it would be a waste of money buying expensive power amps to drive them. Given their sensitivity, unless one is trying to fill an auditorium with sound (or a room the size of an auditorium), or one is trying to go deaf very quickly, there is no need for much power for them, even if they will handle 250 watts. So it would be a waste of money buying a separate power amp to drive them, when one is going to be buying a receiver anyway. Probably, there is no surround receiver made by any reputable company that cannot drive those to levels that would be dangerous for one's hearing.
I once heard some Klipschorns driven by a cheap boombox, because thieves broke into the owner's house and stole his electronics, but evidently the speakers were too big to conveniently take. So, the owner was temporarily using a cheap boombox to drive them, until he bought new components. It worked surprisingly well (well, not so surprising when one considers that it only takes 1 watt to produce a stunning 105dB with them). The RF-7 II is not quite as sensitive, so that cheap boombox might not be able to adequately drive them. However, any receiver with any pretensions to decent performance will be more than adequate.
Seriously, I get all the sensitivity stuff... I'm not trying to be difficult, but don't answer for him.. he mentioned nothing of sensitivity, and only that separates would be a waste of money.. I was just curious as to why HE thought that... Perhaps the thought the speaker wouldn't be worth it- for reasons other than sensitivity...
Did you read any of my posts? I fully understand all of what you're trying to say..... I was curious as to what HE was saying...
1st, I would like to point out that speaker manufacturers are notorious for inflated sensitivity ratings (and lots of other specs for that matter). Klipsch reviews often show they are guilty of this fudging of numbers. I have read quite a few fact pages over the years with independent measurements showing anywhere from -3 to -6 difference from what Klipsch claims.
A lot of manufacturers will take the peak sensitivity rating from a given frequency point and list that as how the speaker performs. Others are more honest/practical and will take the average over the frequency spectrum. Don’t be fooled, there are many ways to increase sensitivity with the detriment of sound quality.
Some manufacturers do this because they realize that an absolute ton of people purchase on measurements/stats without hearing the product or even finding a knowledgeable person to help them who will take their best interest to heart. Look at the recent HSU debacle on their sub review on this site. HSU is apparently furious and working like mad dogs to disprove and discredit Audioholics while frantically trying to find other reviews that show AH is wrong and that HSU is right. Why? Because they sell on specs. It’s in their best interest to have the most impressive specs and the lowest price.
That’s why online only companies and their marketing shtick (along with accompanying fanboys/inside plants) sometimes really get my blood hot.
There is a major conflict of interest between the company manufacturing the products and also producing that performance stat information. RARELY and with very few models, are online manufacturers allowing their products to be reviewed. They often, as we’ve seen in the AH subwoofer thread, try to control the results. AH didn’t cave, but I would bet so so many others absolutely DO.
It’s actually worse than Bose marketing, IMO. At least you can listen to Bose for free in a store rather than be forced to “buy & try”. Which, BTW, reminds me of As-seen-on-TV infomercials. If someone is ever selling you on their return policy…. they want your money in hand and are betting on the consumer accepting the product as good enough and not wanting to do the work to send it back.
Here are your problems with purchasing solely on spec….
1. The spec driven consumer who is doing the purchasing believes the numbers 1st, and not their ears. People hear what they are told to hear. This is why audio demos are recommended to go like this: Predict (Tell someone specifically what to listen for), Show (Play preselected demo), Confirm (Did you hear that?). This is a consumer suffering from psycho acoustics just as much as the consumer who feels that the more he spends the better it sounds. Both can be easily mislead by numbers before ever actually hearing anything.
2. Lots of things “sound good” to our ears, regardless of spec. If you played 10 different subwoofer tracks I bet very few consumers could tell you which one went down to 20hz and which was only 25, for example. And, again, depending on the demo…. errrr, SPEC….. How long can the sub actually hold that note without breakup? Same thing with speakers and sensitivity. Yeah, it might hit 98 at one point, but be down to 91 at others. What is real? What matters?
3. People bash Bose for not publishing specs, and rightfully so… but Bose is available to at least listen to…. for free… at a store. Online companies often times produce BS specs that 99.9% of consumers will NEVER know if they are correct or not. On top of that, you then have to “Buy & Try” in your home.
4. There are so many more things I could list about buying on spec, vs. buying on brand, vs. buying on OEM, vs. buying on price, vs. buying on…..
But I digress….
As far as powering those speakers with anything is concerned, well, that's a bit of a misnomer. I would not advise that. All "watts" are not created equal. Here are 3 different pieces of electronics I would not use to power those. All with low watts....
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=310-2046
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-380
http://nuvotechnologies.com/simplese.htm
I also wouldn't use any sort of entry level off-brand receiver. I've tried that in several experiments on larger speakers and it does not end well!
