Another wattage question?

Question

My current amp/receiver that I got now can pump 105 watts at 8 ohms, which match my speakers... but my sorround polk speakers's recommended amplification is 20-100 watts/channel.

Two questions: what is that 20 mean? And finally will a 5 watt difference really blow up the sorround speakers or is it still pretty safe to use a 105 watt receiver?

Answer 1

No it wont
105 is the maximum output. You wont be sending that much your ear drums may go bad.

20 may be the minimum power that speaker needs to drive. That is little bit high.

Answer 2

gp4rts is correct.

Here is one more tip. Let's say your amp is rated at exactly 100 Watts for simplicity. Your speakers should be safe in all cases, right? Not really!

If you crank the volume up too much, then amplifier clipping can occur. The clipping transients contain a lot of high frequency energy and they are routed through the speaker cross-over to the tweeters. Tweeters cannot handle very much power and are likely to burn out in this case.

It is not hard to burn out the tweeters of your Polk speakers with even a 50 Watt amp.

So the rule here is this. If you are playing your speakers so loud that they sound harsh, then quickly turn the volume down some.

Answer 3

As noted by others, it is the recommended amplifier range.
20 watts to 100 watts.

The extra 5 watts will not damage anything.

Playing the system so loud is distorts will eventally damage things.

There is a greater risk of doing damage to your speakers with too little power than too much power. When singals are sent to the speaker, the speaker has to move a certain distance to reproduct the signal. If you are short on power, the speaker will not be able to make the complete movement, and the coil will heat up and eventually burn out. Don't get me wrong. You can still damage your speaker with too much power. If you have too much power, just don't play the speakers to a point where they distort.

Answer 4

The recommendation means that at less than 20 watts, you may not get enough volume out of the surround speakers at low frequencies. Over 100 watts will tend to overdrive the speakers, but 5 watts is trivial--the specs aren't that accurate and there is alway a safety factor in maximum ratings. It is extremely unlikely that you will get anywhere near to 100 watts power into the surround speakers at any reasonable listening lever. You have nothing to worry about.