how much current is enough?


I know that to gain 3db of additional headroom from your speakers you need to double the power from your amp...given that, its easy enough to calculate how many watts will be suficient to reach your speakers rated max volume level before compression...or to see if your amp will play loud enough for your particular listening habits...
and i know know that watt/sq.rt of resistance = current ...so i can calculate how many amps my amplifier will put out into various loads, but i dont know how many amps are enough for a given speaker...or if the difference between say 10 amps and 12 amps is a lot?

with regards to a specific difficult to drive speaker the Totem Mani 2 how much current is enough??

its specs are
4 ohm nominal...it drops down to 2 ohms, all resistive
81 db sensitivity at 1w/1m

and it uses an isobaric configuration which i gather makes it require more current than normal..but again i dont know why or how to calculate it...

so from a mathematical point of view how do i figure this out...

and in terms of the ability of am amp to put out lots of current what specs are the most important to look at?

thanks
mbacinello

Showing 3 responses by mbacinello

another simmilar question...so if the mani-2's (which i dont as yet own...but am considering) are 81 db sensitive...that means that
they will play 81 db with 1 watt, 84 with 2, 87 with 4 etc... that means that to get to the 110db...which there spec sheet says is there maximum volume level they would need 1024 watts of power...two things...is the sensitivity measured at 8ohms? such that a four ohm nominal speaker draws twice as much power from the amp?, in which case those numbers should all be double and it would draw 2048 watts at 4 ohms to play 110 db?? and secondly....thats way more watts than the speakers can handle, does that mean that they could never actually play as loud as there specs suggest??

thanks for indulging this speculation...not that i'd ever listen at these levels id just like to get a handle on the math governing the speaker amp connection...
There website does state they are 85 db /w/m, however when stereophile reviewed them they found them to be 80.7 db/w/m...
they use the term sensitivity...the mani-2 original..reviewed in 1995 measured 80.7db(b)/2.83v/m the mani-2 signature is 84.5db(b)/2.83v/m