Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate
So, why did you spend big $$ on speakers, only to under power them? Most of the cheaper speakers have a high sensitivity rating (90db+)... Yours have a sensitivity of 85, I think... I'm not sure what exactly that means as far as loudness increase, but I know it'd sound better if you sold even the 2 rear 5 1/4" speakers, and replaced them with a more sensitive speaker...
~Nate
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Well, you have to pay close attention to exactly HOW the manufacturer is specifying this number because some play games with it, but generally it means that the speaker outputs an 85db sound pressure level, at 1W input power, at 1 meter from the speaker. The higher this number is, generally, the more "efficient" the speaker is, and the less power it requires to drive it to optimum level.
Nate is correct in saying that many people under power their speakers...and he is correct in saying that it negatively affects their sound quality. Here is why, and a good general rule of thumb to go by:
Lets say that you have a 16 watt per channel RMS head unit and your
usual listening level is about 1/3 volume. Over simplifying the math here a bit, that means you are running at about 5W average output level. It is a fact that strong musical passages or bass pulses can easily draw up to 10x that amount of power to reproduce cleanly, so in this case that would equate to around 50 watts. This should be the
minimum amount of power per channel that your system has available ot it. The difference between the 5 watt listening level and the 50 watt peak level is called dynamic headroom. If your system does not have enough dynamic headroom designed into it, those pulses and passages will go into a condition known as clipping and will distort, which is not good for either the amp or the speakers.
BTW, this clipping starts to happen LONG before your ears will actually detect it....but it is grinding away at your amp and speakers, cutting down their lifespan, the whole time.