Match of amp power and speaker power handling


I am still pretty new to the high end audio world so my question is probably pretty basic. I am very confused about how much power I should look for in an amp (I'm talking separates, not a receiver) to best/appropriately drive my speakers. I have B&W 604's Series 3 that are rated (conservatively according to B&W and the dealer I purchased them from) at "25-200 Watts into 8 ohm on unclipped programme". My initial impression was to purchase an amp that is rated at no more than 200 watts. I have since read from numerous sources that one should actually have a higher power rated amp than the "maximum" rated power rating of the speakers in order to provide enough "headroom" power to accomidate the very short duration spikes in power requirements that music demands. I have read once should have an amp that delivers at least 150% the "maximum" power rating of the speakers and that most speakers are damaged from running an underpowered amp into clipping rather than to much power. I understand this concept but how do I know what is too much power putting my speakers at risk. Thanks for any infor anyone can provide.
bsooners

Showing 1 response by woodburger

Yes, a clipped amp has more chance of doing damage than an overdriven speaker by too much wattage. That's because the waveform of the clipping tends to burn out tweeters.

But odds are you won't play anything loud enough to cause that.

To answer your question simply - a 100 or 200 watt amp should be fine. And, so you know, to your speakers, a 200 watt amp isn't that much more powerful than a 100 watt amp.

Bob Wood
http://www.GreatHomeTheater.com/audio.html