I see a lot of amps pushing plenty of rms and the speakers are generally limited to 100rms or lower. Occaisionally, I will see one able to take 200 rms. My question would be, do those that can take higher power give a better quality sound? I am missing on why an amp would put out huge amounts of power when no speakers can hold them. Is it so you can run multi speakers on one channel?

Well, typically, the amps that are able to make lots of watts rms are monoblock amps.. These are only made to run subwoofers and are not used for regular speakers. Also, just because a speaker can take a higher wattage, does not mean that it will sound better. Some of the highest quality speakers made only take around 100 wrms. Hope this clears things up.

Well lets look at the amp I bought, a Zed Leviathen. It claims 190RMS per channel. It is putting out twice what most speakers can handle. What good is this other than it won't be pushed if the gains are set right. I guess I am missing part of the picture.

I also have polk momo speakers and would like to upgrade but don't know particular specs to look for and even that wouldn't necessarily tell me much. If I look at speakers costing $600 a pair, I really can't be assured how good they will sound. What area would I need to look at? To me the Polk are very high pitched.

Typically people will use more power than they're rated for the overhead. Due to the dynamics of music even though the amp is capable of much more power output than the speakers are rated they rarely ever see it and when they do it's for such a short amount of time that the heat is dissipated quickly and nothing gets hurt at all. As long as a person is sane and careful with the gain volume knobs everything is generally pretty peachy. The speakers usually get a little louder and sound much cleaner than with rated or less power, usually.

As for an upgrade in speakers, that's a completely subjective subject. In other words, what sounds good to you may not sound good to me, or anyone else. You'll really need to try to have a good listen at the sets you're interested in to have a good feeling on what sounds GOOD to YOU. Online reviews and recommendations are always far too biased, tainted, or misrepresented to be blindly trustworthy. That being said, I've gone out on a limb many times and bought something that reviewed well, or was highly recommended, but I knew what I was getting myself into, knew the risks and costs involved and made that decision accordingly. If you can't listen to them before you buy them be prepared to take a hit and sell them for different ones.

check out speakers from morel , cdt , jbl , boston acoustics

some of their models are rated to handle around 150wrms

Welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Headroom is always nice. I believe it also helps with the dynamics of music as Alton said.

Just an example in my case:

Say I set the gains accordingly and I'm getting about full output from an amplifier rated for 100watts.

Now I lack a little midbass, and want to add a little EQ to an area, say I adjust some midbass region up by +3dB, that's now going to require twice the amount of power, but the amps pretty much already at it's limits, so that region that I tried to make louder may become "clipped" and distorted.

I believe that's also why people like to EQ stuff down, instead of up.

Now if the amplifier was rated for 200watts, but I had it set near half power, then it would still have 100watts left for that region I EQd up.

That's a rudimentary example of what can happen when EQing, but it's also similar to music being dynamic (it will have various frequencies, and all at different amplitudes.)

So the "extra" power can provide better sound before the amp reaches it's limits and causes distortion.

At least that's my crude understanding.

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Depending on your goals, yes you can run sets of speakers on channels, but that also depends on their resistance, and how they are wired.

I wouldn't judge a speaker by it's RMS value, although it's often misused as a marker for "quality" or "getting louder."

Edited May 11, 201213 yr by stefanhinote

check out speakers from morel , cdt , jbl , boston acoustics

some of their models are rated to handle around 150wrms

I heard that boston was going out of business, anyone else hear this? I heard this at a boston dealer.

check out speakers from morel , cdt , jbl , boston acoustics

some of their models are rated to handle around 150wrms

I heard that boston was going out of business, anyone else hear this? I heard this at a boston dealer.

I believe they stepped out of car audio is all.

I decided to go with these and are on order.

http://www.cdtstore.com/braxials/es63it.htm

http://www.cdtstore.com/upstage_series/cs-020x.htm

Any experience with them?

Do you really want opinions if they are already on order?

600$ seriously?

I decided to go with these and are on order.

http://www.cdtstore....ials/es63it.htm

http://www.cdtstore....ies/cs-020x.htm

Any experience with them?

I have an opinion, but you won't like it.

Typically best to ask for opinions before you order something

600 is a lot of cheese. I was thinking of doing something like that center stage , was going to use 3.5's though.

600 is a lot of cheese. I was thinking of doing something like that center stage , was going to use 3.5's though.

For that much i would have bought the hertz hsk line and left the rears empty.

The only time you want rear is if you have intentions of running a 5.1 set-up and have video to make full use of it.

Sure, give me your opinions because shame on me if I don't learn from my mistakes. True, I already ordered them but still can learn what others have been able to spot and considered it a learning curve.

Oh and for the record, I did ask for opinions. http://www.soundsolutionsaudio.com/forum/topic/55486-speakers-for-a-pickup/ I am willing to take suggestions but they need to be given. It was recommended on this thread to- "check out speakers from morel , cdt , jbl , boston acoustics".

I decided to go with these and are on order.

http://www.cdtstore....ials/es63it.htm

http://www.cdtstore....ies/cs-020x.htm

Any experience with them?

I have an opinion, but you won't like it.

Typically best to ask for opinions before you order something

Well? Whats the issue?

Check out Scanspeak, they make some of the best speakers out there, and are moderately priced.

Can you return them?

I decided to go with these and are on order.

http://www.cdtstore....ials/es63it.htm

http://www.cdtstore....ies/cs-020x.htm

Any experience with them?

I have an opinion, but you won't like it.

Typically best to ask for opinions before you order something

Well? Whats the issue?

IMO the cost of CDT isn't worth it for the speakers you are getting, and all of their "upgrade" kits such as that center stage kit you purchased are completely unnecessary and nothing but a marketing ploy to separate consumers from their money.

That money could have been much better spent.

And yet I am told sound quality is subjective. If I am told one person's ear may like one speaker with another preferring a different brand and specs won't necessarily tell you quality, how is a person to choose? Is there a write up I miss stating the up front speakers are a marketing ploy? What don't you like about CDT?