Recommended Receiver Power

[tomito]

Hello, what it's the recommended receiver power to drive a pair of Infinity Kappa 600 speakers? I'll use it in stereo mode for a while but later I will add a center chanel and surrounds for 5.1 surround sound.

Thank you.
Tom

 

[tomito]

Hard question?

It is the question too hard? or it's a dumb question? sorry... I have no experience on hi end audio.
Any receiver could drive these speakers? What about a Onkyo TX-SR606?

Tom

 

[ack_bak]

How big is your room? How loud do you listen to music?

These speakers are rated at 90db sensitivity and are 6ohm. The Onkyo 605 you mentioned should have no problem driving this speaker unless you are trying to blow the windows out

 

[fredk]

Its not a dumb question at all. Here is a good page that talks about power requirements. It is aimed at a proffessional audience, but the advice applies equally to consumer audio.

Here is a link to a power calculator. You plug in your distance from the speaker, sensitivity and desired headroom and it will tell you what power you need for a given volume.

Edit: This calculator is designed for outdoor venues, you will get an additional 5-6db of headroom in an enclosed room. So if you want 12db of headroom (a reasonable number) you only need to put in 6 to see your true power requirements with 12db of headroom.

The thing to remember about power is that the need for power increases exponentially as volume goes up (10 times the power needed for twice the volume). Once you go past a certain point, you can run out of power very quickly.

 

[ack_bak]

Here is some more info for an 87db sensitive speaker (I have this as this is what I was researching for my speakers):

For an 87db sensitive speaker:
1 watt = 87db
4 watt = 93db
10 watt = 97db
20 watt = 100db
40 watt = 103db
100 watt = 107db
200 watt = 110db

So for your speakers (which are 90db sensitive)
1 watt = 90db
etc, etc, etc

Here is another calculator that will help as well:
http://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

The Onkyo 605 is rated for 110 W + 110 W (6 ohms, 1 kHz, 0.1%,
2 channels driven, FTC)

I doubt you will truly get 110 W per channel but you should have more than enough headroom with a 90db sensitive receiver. When you consider that normal conversations take place in the 60db range, and your speakers and receiver would be playing 90db level using just one watt of power you can see that you should be fine. And you have to factor in that you simply do not want to listen to too many noises over 90db for an extended period of time or you could risk permanent hearing loss:
http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html

 

[tomito]

getting on it

Thank you very much for all the help guys, like I already toldo you i'm just new on this HT scene, very good links so I can learn a little bit more.

Thanks again
Tom