Wattage

[62InHomeTheater]

I am trying to get a ballpark figure on how many watts I am pushing to my surrounds and my back surrounds and 4 ceiling Atmos speakers.
My front stage is being powered by a Emotiva A-500. The others that I mentioned are running on my Denon AVR-X4300H. Which is rated at 165 watts 2 channels driven. Can you tell me approximately what my Denon is pushing? Or do I need to use the other two open channels on the Emotiva?

 

[j_garcia]

Without knowing what any of the speakers are, nobody can tell you anything. For average listening, I would say your surrounds are all using 5-10W on average and no more than 100 peak unless they are some oddball low impedance speakers.

 

[PENG]

Without knowing what any of the speakers are, nobody can tell you anything. For average listening, I would say your surrounds are all using 5-10W on average and no more than 100 peak unless they are some oddball low impedance speakers.

Agreed, could be much lower for 8 ohm loads and short distance (less than 2 meters) especially if crossovers are wisely set to 90 Hz or higher.

 

[lovinthehd]

Might play around with this spl calculator to get an idea of power being used for your speakers/setup/listening levels....http://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

 

[j_garcia]

OP replied via PM:

SR9040 - 8 Ohms 92db sensitivity
SR9080 - Same rating, lower -6dB but both are listed as 80Hz x-over
Pro 1000 - 8 Ohm, 91dB sensitivity

So my answer is the same. They will draw very little in average use and no more than 100W peak for a second or two, so driving them as is off the receiver should be fine. Since you have the extra channels, I'd probably just go ahead and move the 9080s over to the amp. There won't be much difference to the speakers, but it will be less work for the receiver.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I would say you may not even get 100W peaks. Surrounds usually don't have powerful sounds coming from them, especially in the subwoofer range. I would say the same for the ceiling speakers. 10 Watts from them would be loud in their band.

I have yet to see even close to 100W in my center speaker. 10 W is very loud.

 

[Drunkpenguin]

H

I would say you may not even get 100W peaks. Surrounds usually don't have powerful sounds coming from them, especially in the subwoofer range. I would say the same for the ceiling speakers. 10 Watts from them would be loud in their band.

I have yet to see even close to 100W in my center speaker. 10 W is very loud.

How do u measure the watts in real time?

 

[mtrycrafts]

H

How do u measure the watts in real time?

Well, my center amp has a pretty good power meter.
The rears do not, of course but then, they are much closer to the listening seat than the fronts and the ceiling speakers will be also closer so you need less power to level match and hear it. And, you need way less power in most of its bandwidth. A tower would be the same, the tweeter get the least, then the mids. My sub amp also has power meters and it certainly hits close to the limit at times, 200 Watts or more, especially on the 1812 on Telarc disc.

In a large space like outdoors or large concert halls, spl drops by 6 dB every time you double the distance from the source. So, if your seat is 2 or 3X the distance to the rear/side surrounds or ceiling, you need probably half the power to be equally loud as the front. That is 3 dB as most home listening rooms do not qualify as outdoor space so the physics is different. 3 dB less is about right.