Will my amp be safe?

[sansiiro]

Hello!

I am a bit noob at the subject of hi-fi, but I am worried about
keeping my amp and my speakers in good health.

I have old Pioneer SX-305RDS amp, which produces 60 watts per channel
(20-20KHz, both channels driven, 8 ohm).
And dynamic power output is 100/80 W (4/8 ohm).

Since I recently bought two speakers, I am worried weather they
will be underpowered and weather this will ruin my amp and thereafter
through sound distortions ruin the speakers themselves.

The speakers are Heco Victa Prime 702
Power-handling capacity 170/300W, 4-8 ohm,
efficiency 91 DB, and recommended amplifier output 30 - 300 W.

I have read many times, that it would be great for amp to
be more powerful than it would be necessary, but since
these speakers strike me as power-hungry, I am worried.



I would like to ask:


1) Would it be safe to turn the volume all the way up?

2) And if it is not, will the amp take the first bullet?

3) How is it possible for speakers to have 170-300 W power specification
but then to have amp power recommended only since 30 W? What If I had only
30 W amp, can they honestly mark this as "recommended and safe"?


Thank You!

 

[kanewolf]

Speakers aren't "power hungry" because they are rated for 170W. That is a maximum, like a speed limit. You don't hurt your car by driving under the speed limit. The 91dB efficiency is a better indication of "power hungry" because that says how much sound the speakers can generate from a known input. Having speakers rated at higher wattage than the amp is not a bad thing, it protects the speakers. If your Pioneer has good airflow for cooling, you should be able to run the volume loud.

Your #3 question is a limit question again. With a 30W amp, your won't get as loud a sound as you would with a larger amp, but for average rooms, that may generate a 90dB sound which is plenty for most people. You CAN'T hurt the speakers with a smaller amp.

 

[jsmithepa]

OP, honestly u worry too much, amp-speakers not as delicate as u make them sound.

Nothing can hurt the amp, it has protection, it will shut itself down if u present it a difficult load speaker it cannot handle.

What can hurt the speakers is, if you drive them with an underpowered amp, and your knob is near its max, it can drive the signal into CLIPPING (Google exactly what that means) and that's not good for speakers. Using them for a large gathering? large space?

 

[sansiiro]

Speakers aren't "power hungry" because they are rated for 170W. That is a maximum, like a speed limit. You don't hurt your car by driving under the speed limit. The 91dB efficiency is a better indication of "power hungry" because that says how much sound the speakers can generate from a known input. Having speakers rated at higher wattage than the amp is not a bad thing, it protects the speakers. If your Pioneer has good airflow for cooling, you should be able to run the volume loud.

Your #3 question is a limit question again. With a 30W amp, your won't get as loud a sound as you would with a larger amp, but for average rooms, that may generate a 90dB sound which is plenty for most people. You CAN'T hurt the speakers with a smaller amp.

Thank you so much for your time, it is of great help to me.
However, not to question your experience, but why do you say that 170 is the
maximum, when the specification clearly say "170/300 W"?.
The way I see it, 300W is the maximum, and futhermore, at the shop I bought them
I was told, that 170 is the minimum. Of course, that could be bs, that happens a lot in many stores.
(why I bought these speakers with that information was because I did not know my amp well enaugh)

That of course is true, that 90db is enaugh for my living room. The problem however is, that when I
leave for few days, youngsters in the house call up bunch of other youngsters, get drunk and
have a disco - they like a specific position for the volume knob - yeah, you guessed it, at the very end.
This is how I lost my last speakers (35W) and why I needed new ones and why I ask all these questions.

I try to be positive according to your answer, but can you be sure, that this setting will not result
with the sound clipping and destroying speakers, when playing on the maximum volume?

 

[sansiiro]

OP, honestly u worry too much, amp-speakers not as delicate as u make them sound.

Nothing can hurt the amp, it has protection, it will shut itself down if u present it a difficult load speaker it cannot handle.

What can hurt the speakers is, if you drive them with an underpowered amp, and your knob is near its max, it can drive the signal into CLIPPING (Google exactly what that means) and that's not good for speakers. Using them for a large gathering? large space?

Thank you so much. However - I still worry!

It is great to hear that the amp will shut itself down.

But isn't this last scenario you described exactly what I should fear?
The way I see it the reason the amp gets "underpowered" is because it's wattage can not match
the wattage of speakers (in my case - 60 vs 170) - and the knob WILL be near to its max at some point, even
though I do not use them for large gathering or large space, but because someone else might thinks this is where the knob
should be. So now I am very worried for speakers. They definately wont shut down, or maybe you can tell me that this mismatch I have
will NOT cause the "underpowered" amp?

Thank you so much again!

 

[kanewolf]

Speakers aren't "power hungry" because they are rated for 170W. That is a maximum, like a speed limit. You don't hurt your car by driving under the speed limit. The 91dB efficiency is a better indication of "power hungry" because that says how much sound the speakers can generate from a known input. Having speakers rated at higher wattage than the amp is not a bad thing, it protects the speakers. If your Pioneer has good airflow for cooling, you should be able to run the volume loud.

Your #3 question is a limit question again. With a 30W amp, your won't get as loud a sound as you would with a larger amp, but for average rooms, that may generate a 90dB sound which is plenty for most people. You CAN'T hurt the speakers with a smaller amp.

Thank you so much for your time, it is of great help to me.
However, not to question your experience, but why do you say that 170 is the
maximum, when the specification clearly say "170/300 W"?.
The way I see it, 300W is the maximum, and futhermore, at the shop I bought them
I was told, that 170 is the minimum. Of course, that could be bs, that happens a lot in many stores.
(why I bought these speakers with that information was because I did not know my amp well enaugh)

That of course is true, that 90db is enaugh for my living room. The problem however is, that when I
leave for few days, youngsters in the house call up bunch of other youngsters, get drunk and
have a disco - they like a specific position for the volume knob - yeah, you guessed it, at the very end.
This is how I lost my last speakers (35W) and why I needed new ones and why I ask all these questions.

I try to be positive according to your answer, but can you be sure, that this setting will not result
with the sound clipping and destroying speakers, when playing on the maximum volume?

The "170/300" is continuous (RMS) wattage and instantaneous wattage. For a short period (a split second) the power could exceed 170W without damage but it could not be run that way for extended periods.

But none of those limits are relevant your amp doesn't have nearly that amount of power.

Your "disco" problem is something that is not a technical problem that can be dealt with here.

 

[sansiiro]

Thank you again!

I realise that my amp will not "overcharge" the speakers and that with good airflow my amp will not
overheat itself at loud volumes. I also agree, that you can not control anyones bad habits here.
But what about this concept of "underpowered amp" and "clipping" that jsmithepa also mentioned?

I am sure it will not occure easily with normal or even loud volume-levels, but what about this
extreme situation where the volume is maxed out for say half an hour or even less time?

I understand that this probably is a bad idea with ANY setting, but will this mismatch of mine (60/170) make it even worse?

 

[madmatt30]

Youre worrying too much,far better/safer to have an underpowered amp than an overpowered one .

If you were running a 170w per channel amp & 60w speakers there would be a far bigger chance of damage.

You need to tell these 'drunken youngsters' to be sensible with the volume , any audio equipment is open to abuse & damage if not used sensibly , even stuff costing thousands of dollars.

 

[sansiiro]

Youre worrying too much,far better/safer to have an underpowered amp than an overpowered one .
If you were running a 170w per channel amp & 60w speakers there would be a far bigger chance of damage.

Thank you so much madmatt30, but this hi-fi really is a mytery
- just today in my quest for knowledge I was told by another expert, that overpowering is always safer than underpowering.

"The biggest risk to any system is not having enough power rather than having too much power. When an amplifier runs out of power, it is called "clipping" which means there is effectively direct current running through the speaker voice coils, which turns them into heater coils and they either burn out or distort the voice coil former and renders the drivers defective. The onset of distortion should not be ignored as that is a good sign the system is in distress."

Also the Heco manual states, that overpowering rarely is the cause of speaker-damage.
But that using weaker amplifiers may cause measurable distortion (clipping?), which is extremely
dangerous for your speakers.

At the same time in their specifiactions the recommended amp wattage is 30-300.

I guess anything below 170 is when I dont want loud volumes and anything up to 300
could be handled by the speakers.
So my conclusion is, that since I am set for loud volumes, a need a new amp, because otherwise
my speakers will be ruined.

 

[jsmithepa]

I say if u routinely turn the volume knob up beyond 70%, u need more power.