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Risk using amp Wattage than speaker rating?

I'd like to upgrade the amp for my Vandersteen 3A Sigs, but am a bit confused on whether or not I need to stay within the band of wattage (100 - 200 into 8 ohms) that is *strongly* recommended in the manual. I've read several articles/blogs/forum posts stating that exceeding the recommend power range for a loudspeaker system should be of a little concern, as long as you don't "push them too hard". What exactly does that mean? How much risk of damaging my speakers would there be if I used a 300 W/ch (into 8 ohms) amp with my speakers? I have a fairly large room, if that makes a difference. I appreciate any advice, as you all seem to be very knowledgeable about audio and have a lot of experience. Thanks, Rob
rtrauthwein
hodu
316 posts
 
I can't remember the last time I had amps that actually fell within the recommended range --- below the upper limit, anyway -- for the speakers I was using, and I've never had a problem.
rtrauthwein OP
4 posts
 
@Rodman99999 - I'm a little confused by your response. Maybe I am misunderstanding, but you seem to be saying that you've seen a lot of damage to speakers being driven by amps rated higher than the speaker mfg's recommended wattage, but in the end you "always recommended a higher powered amp as safer, and cleaner sounding, for any given system". I guess you are saying a high power rating for an amp is good (even if above the mfg's recommended range), as long as you don't go overboard on the dB's? Is that correct?
mechans
3,048 posts
 
I can answer for Rodman, You got the point. Clean undistorted power at moderate levels will be fine.
The only concern is that you may want tp play quite loudly. I don't know your lifestyle, but as Elizabeth said as long as you are fairly sober and aren't a closet headbanger. If you want to blast music for a party or yourself then you might want to buy a spare set of Cerwin Vegas. I am not kidding they aren't crazy expensive and are capable of high SPLs.
rodman99999
6,131 posts
 
YES- You've both gotten the point, precisely. For those customers that came in with toasted tweeters; I gave a little clipping demo and sermon. I also had a little tweeter protection circuit(that I built), comprised of two zener diodes, hot-melt glued into a small round heatsink. When the voltage of the incoming signal(after the high-pass x-over section) exceeded the diode rating, that would go to ground, protecting the tweet. Audibly invisible at normal(below clipping) listening levels.
csontos
1,311 posts
 
Patentable!!!
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