Do you have to fully power speakers?

[RoadKill666]

I was gonna get the SvS Prime Pinnacle towers and they take 300 Watts RMS. My plan was to get a Emotiva BaseX amp that pushes like 140 watts per channel for $600
but I'm unsure if its enough. I didn't want to pay $1300 for the Emotiva amp that pushes 275 watts.

So will it hurt/damage a speaker if it can take up to 300 and you give it half at 140? Or do I need to just bite the bullet and get the one that pushes 275?

 

[lovinthehd]

Well you are misunderstanding spec somewhat, but generally no, it won't matter. Max power input before blowing up is only so useful. A speaker draws the power it needs depending on your spl requested via the volume knob....you can send an amp beyond its rated output at a given THD percentage easily enough and with a hot input signal even easier to do. Speakers have limits, they can only take so much power and still behave well/sound good (and a speaker's wattage limit doesn't necessarily take this into consideration at all). Your listening levels along with the distance from your speakers and your listening levels are more important to make determinations with. Try playing around with this calculator for an idea (still variables in play) http://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

 

[RoadKill666]

Based off of that, the 140 watts would give me 102db spl at my distance of 11 feet which is really loud so I guess its ok for me to just power my front stage with a 3x140 amp. I still need a new receiver since mine is old and from 2015. I plan on getting a Denon X3700H.

 

[lovinthehd]

Based off of that, the 140 watts would give me 102db spl at my distance of 11 feet which is really loud so I guess its ok for me to just power my front stage with a 3x140 amp. I still need a new receiver since mine is old and from 2015. I plan on getting a Denon X3700H.

Since it takes a doubling of power to make a 3dB spl difference, only so much value in changing on power. What are the particular reasons for changing to a new avr for you? The more information and specific gear in use you provide up front helps....

 

[RoadKill666]

Oh I was upgrading it because it does not have ports to work with an amplifier and if i was gonna get newer better speakers I wanted to power them more. MY set up is very very old and its time to get all new stuff now.
Current set up as a Denon AVR-S940H and I have 2 infinity towers they don't make anymore and an Infinity Primus center that is the same. and an audio engine s8 sub.

the desired upgrade is SvS prime center, 2 svs prime pinnacle towers, and 2 pb 1000 pros. And the Denon X3700H was the cheapest Denon receiver that would work with an amplifier. There was a 3600that would work but its discontinued. I have a big living room but I also have a lot of glass decore so that's why I downgraded from dual pb 2000 pros to dual pb 1000 pros. the 1000 pros with 325 watts each is still a bump over my s8 with 250 watts.

 

[lovinthehd]

Ports to work with an amplifier meaning it doesn't have pre-outs? The Denon X3000 series and above have pre-outs, tho. Newer speakers don't necessarily need more power, that would depend more on their sensitivity than cost and generally larger speakers are more sensitive needing less amp power.

 

[RoadKill666]

Yeah. when I was looking up stuff the cheapest Denon that was still sold and had pre outs was the X3700h.
I do like to watch stuff at a loud volume and so I figured getting new stuff would work as my receiver is 6 years old and wasn't even high end to begin with. The SvS speakers are 88 dB. Plus I just got a Xbox Series X and wondered if it was going to be held back by my receiver since the receiver has no VRR, no ALLM, no dolby vision, no HDR capabilities at all, and no 4k/120, ect.

I do plan on upgrading my old tv to the LG C1 and so between that and the Xbox Series X it would be the receiver that would be holding everything back no? Maybe I should get the X3700h and hold off on adding the amplier till next year?

 

[lovinthehd]

Pretty sure the Denon can pass thru most of those video modes but since I don't even have 4k yet not the guy to ask. @Trebdp83 stays on top of that stuff much better. I'd still just use the avr to start then only add amps if you really think its necessary....often its not.

 

[Pandaman617]

HD has been around as long as I can remember and is a very reliable and factually based source of information. You wouldn’t believe how many guys spend a ton of money on a new power amp to discover it didn’t actually improve anything. In regards to your AVR it has zero HDMI 2.1 capabilities so you would have to upgrade. I had to upgrade from my Denon x4300h when I got the Series X and my C1 as it can do variable refresh rate which was part of HDMI 2.0b from what I understand but no way in hell is it passing 4K HDR/DV @ 120hz. That being said, in my opinion at this point in time there isn’t a whole lot of software out there that utilizes 120FPS @ 4K & HDR/DV for gaming. If you look at most of the games available to us Series X users it’s just a bump from the One X 4K/HDR/DV 30FPS cap in quality mode in most games to 60FPS which was already possible in HDMI 2.0. The 120hz refresh rate does look much smoother but if you weren’t able to find an AVR that has the 2.1 specs you need just going to an OLED (and a great quality one at that) is going to be a massive leap in quality for you if you’re coming from a VA panel based 4K TV. I still have the Vizio PQ-65F1 the C1 replaced as it was the flagship model when it came out a few years ago, I never had that bad of banding issues and it’s HDR and DV performance is excellent with its 2,000+ nits maximum output and great coverage of BT2020/DCI-P3. With that in mind the C1 and any OLED for that matter cannot at the moment get anywhere near 2,000 nits but the vibrancy of color, black and darks detail and the overall image quality makes you forget about all those specs TV companies love to market to you. Just my two cents