Speaker ratings? How important are they?

[koufax65]

I am looking at some B&W 685's. they are listed in the specs as 30-100 watts recommended power rating. I have a Receiver that is rated at 140 wpc, 128 wpc five channels driven. Would these speakers really be at risk of damage? Just wondering. http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/Speakers/ ... eatre.html

 

[Rope]

Too much is better than too little. Use caution with the volume control, you'll be fine.

More importantly, in regard to ratings, would be the nominal impedance, in this case 8-Ohms, and the efficiency (88dB@2.83v at 1 meter).

Rope

 

[Botch]

What Rope said.

 

[PaulyT]

Yup, unless you're really continuously cranking to insane SPL levels, driving the speakers as hard as the amp can do it, I wouldn't worry at all.

 

[Flint]

Speaker ratings are guidelines to ensure the user doesn't underpower the speakers and be terribly disapplointed at the lack of acceptable output or the opposite, plug them into a huge ass PA amplifier and try to get live stadium output levels out of the speakers and blow them up or set them on fire. The idea is that the speaker will perform safely no matter how hard you drive a 100W amp (in this case). If you have a 200 watt amp you might need to be careful when playing especially loud to recognize any stress the speaker is experiencing and turn it down.

 

[koufax65]

Thanks for the info, pretty much what I thought. Didn't want to get anything that would be a problem. The "guy" at the store said those numbers were minimum watts to drive the speaker. Go figure huh?