Will to much power toast speakers?

[jon08f20]

I'm looking to upgrade my reciever which is currently a 100w per channel 5.1. The speakers are surround sound speakers that came with it. If the reciever I'm bringing in is 110w per channel will that hurt the existing speakers or my new reciever. I know it's kind of a dumb question but haven't gotten a definitive answer. My system is pioneer and the people at pioneer said not to do this. The new reciever is also pioneer and both the reciever and the speakers are 8ohms.

 

[AVRat]

Won't hurt either whatsoever.

 

[Haoleb]

No, More power will not damage speakers. You could have a 10,000 watt amplifier, and yes you could easily blow your speakers up with that much power and cranking it past oblivion, Under normal circumstances you wouldnt have any problem at all.

Also, You might benefit more from better speakers vs a new reciever if what you've got now is a "home theater in a box"

 

[jon08f20]

Thanks for quick reply

Using old reciever for basement. New speakers are on the horizon.

 

[no. 5]

Too much power will damage (and even destroy) your speakers, but it's quite unlikely that your receiver will provide enough power to do so (as Haoleb pointed out), unless it's seriously clipping, or your playing a 15kHz tone at ridiculous levels.

 

[Haoleb]

Too much power will damage (and even destroy) your speakers, but it's quite unlikely that your receiver will provide enough power to do so (as Haoleb pointed out), unless it's seriously clipping, or your playing a 15kHz tone at ridiculous levels.

What I pointed out was that you could never really have TOO much power. In other words, Your not going to blow your speakers up because they are rated at 100watts and your amplifier is 500 wattts. .

What I failed to point out however which is what I think No. 5 is trying to say is that you can damage your speakers just as easy with an amplifier that has too little power. In this case the amplifier will run out of the needed power, And distort the signal. Without getting technical, Basically when this happens you have a good chance of damaging your speakers, Mainly the tweeters. And in some cases, the amplifier itself.

 

[mtrycrafts]

or your playing a 15kHz tone at ridiculous levels.

Actually, tweeters, most of the time are very low power capable, 20 watts perhaps.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I'm looking to upgrade my reciever which is currently a 100w per channel 5.1. The speakers are surround sound speakers that came with it. If the reciever I'm bringing in is 110w per channel will that hurt the existing speakers or my new reciever. I know it's kind of a dumb question but haven't gotten a definitive answer. My system is pioneer and the people at pioneer said not to do this. The new reciever is also pioneer and both the reciever and the speakers are 8ohms.

Yep, going from 100 watts to 110 watts is not an issue.

 

[no. 5]

What I pointed out was that you could never really have TOO much power. In other words, Your not going to blow your speakers up because they are rated at 100watts and your amplifier is 500 wattts. .

What I failed to point out however which is what I think No. 5 is trying to say is that you can damage your speakers just as easy with an amplifier that has too little power. In this case the amplifier will run out of the needed power, And distort the signal. Without getting technical, Basically when this happens you have a good chance of damaging your speakers, Mainly the tweeters. And in some cases, the amplifier itself.

Yep, I was talking about high distortion, but I was also being pedantic (especially considering the OP's question), in that no driver has an infinitely high power handling capability, and it therefor being technically possible for a very high power amplifier to destroy a speaker without clipping.

Actually, tweeters, most of the time are very low power capable, 20 watts perhaps.

That would still be uncomfortably loud for a 15kHz sine wave... for me anyway.

 

[mtrycrafts]

That would still be uncomfortably loud for a 15kHz sine wave... for me anyway.

Yes, it would be
But, on the other hand, at 15kHz, the ear is much less sensitive and the threshold of detection is up there to start with. Then, the sensitivity of that tweeter at 15kHz, plus 13 dB of power, minus the listening distance, maybe it will blow before bleeding happens