Help a newbie understand


So the pandemic had me listening to a lot more music and as a consequence, I sold my 30-year-old but still functioning Snell c2 mk4 speakers and Adcom GFA 555 200 watts per channel amp which together sounded great ( to my uneducated and now failing hearing ) playing my digital library of CDs.I wanted to try something different.
I replaced them with Canton reference 9k monitor speakers ( which can handle 200 plus watts and a Technic su g700 integrated amp. max. 70 watts a channel. These also sound great in many different ways. By the way I bought both on Audiogon.

What I miss in the new system is its ability to play loud( I'm old and going hard of hearing) this has led me to play the amp at levels between -10 and 0 per the amps "wide range scale peak power meters"  and at those levels, the needle occasionally spikes into the region slightly above 0  for fractions of a second to a second or two but not ever reaching +6( the next demarcation on the meter) per the integrated amp's meters.

My fear is frying my speaker's voice coil etc. by clipping when I play at the above level so I have two questions. First, is the headroom sufficient to prevent frying my speakers given the listening level and the volume's slight venture into going over 0 on the meter and second how do I read this "wide range scale peak power meter"?
The peak power meter's main demarcations are as follows-50/0001,-40/001,-30/01,-20/.1,-10/10, 0/100,+6/200.and under those numbers is the symbol db/%. 
So I went online but could find nothing that I could understand relative to how to read this type of meter. For example, if the relationship is dB/% what does  -50 represent and the % 0001?, what about 0/100,+6/200?The top numbers make no sense to me -50? -50 what no watts who's on first.
Thank you in advance for your time and expertise.
scott22

Showing 1 response by elliottbnewcombjr

I must inform you, you choose speakers that need a LOT of power, they are LOW Sensitivity.

sensitivity = 1 watt in; mic 1 meter away; how loud _____ db???

Your Cantons, given 1 watt, only produce 87db of sound 1 meter away.

I, and many others recommend high efficiency speakers, at least 90db 1w/1m ... (sensitivity +3db above the Cantons)

+3db is the amount of additional sound level needed to just perceive a bit more loudness.

It takes twice as much power to make just +3db sound level.

then twice more to reach 93; twice that to reach 96db, twice that again to reach 99db.
...................................

I would sell those Cantons, and buy speakers 90db sensitivity, or more, 91, 92, to get more volume out of your existing amp. I prefer that to getting more amp to push the in-efficient Cantons to loud levels.

Horn tweeters, horn mids, conventional cone woofer are the most efficient; or horn tweeter, cone mid/lows are efficient, always check specs, sensitivity or efficiency rating.

btw, Canton website specs do not mention efficiency, deplorable, I had to go elsewhere to find the answer.