I have 6B's for my fronts, a 5C for the center, 4B's for my rears and a 10D for my sub.   All of this is hooked to an 7.1 channel Onkyo 706 with 100W/channel  in a small (<1800 cubic square feet) living room with wood floors and 9 foot ceiling.  The fronts and center are about about 9 feet from the seating area and the rears are about 7 feet to either side.  I did the Audyssey setup included on my receiver.  Crossovers are set at the standard 80Hz.

Given the low sensitivity the 6B's (82 dB)  do I need to concern myself with speaker damage or clipping (especially with uncompressed PCM,  Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD soundtracks from my blu-ray player)?   I routinely play movies at -10dB (sometimes as loud as -5dB if its not too late)  and it all sounds pretty fantastic to me.   What would clipping sound like if it was present?

Hello there,  

At 9 feet with 100 wpc you should be able to get about 92.5 dB out of the 6Bs before you run into clipping, which is pretty darn loud.

If the amp did begin clipping you would hear a distorted or compressed sound out of the speakers.  

I wouldn't worry about damaging the speakers or the receiver with that set up.   

Thanks Jason.  You helped me a lot about 3 months ago when I was researching what I needed to buy and I really appreciated it.   I absolutely love my Aperion system and I recommend yall to anyone I can.   You guys really give new meaning to customer service.  

I haven't heard any distortion that I am aware of so I guess I'm safe.   But man can this system crank!  And now that I have a new Blu-ray player that bitstreams TrueHD and DTS-HD the dynamic range is awe inspiring.

Gunnar Garness

Jackson, MS 

cgarness:

Thanks Jason.  You helped me a lot about 3 months ago when I was researching what I needed to buy and I really appreciated it.   I absolutely love my Aperion system and I recommend yall to anyone I can.   You guys really give new meaning to customer service.  

 

I haven't heard any distortion that I am aware of so I guess I'm safe.   But man can this system crank!  And now that I have a new Blu-ray player that bitstreams TrueHD and DTS-HD the dynamic range is awe inspiring.

 

Gunnar Garness

Jackson, MS 

Cool, always glad to help, I hope you keep enjoying them for many years to come.  

Greetings All,

I have a pair of 6Bs (fronts) driven by a Marantz SR 7002 (110w/ch) in a 5.1 set up.  Our listening level rarely goes above medium-high (-15 or so on the dial) in a room thats about 20x15 (we sit about 13' from the sound stage).  I understand the need for additional power to drive an inefficient speaker at high levels to avoid clipping (as discussed above)...causing some folks to add a separate amp for additional power.  My question:  although I don't listen at high levels, would adding an amp (200w/ch) improve/enhance the sound produced by the speakers at normal to medium-high listening levels?  Along the same line,  what about times when, while listening at a normal level, there's a rapid increase in the intensity of a passage (an explosion, for example)...would there be a noticeable improvement?  I guess what I'm wondering is would I be throwing $600 out the window if I bought a 200w/ch amp to drive my fronts?

Thanks in advance for your recommendations.

Bill 

I would bet that with a 200 wpc power amp you would notice a fuller more open sound from the 6Bs in comparison with your Marantz AVR.  Also when you hit those peaks such as during an explosion you could be momentarily clipping your amp now, so an amp would also help out in that regard.  As for whether it would be worth it, that's a trickier question. 

I'd say that you should think about how you feel about your system's performance now.  If you are incredibly happy with it then I'd take a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" approach and leave it as it is.  However if you feel that you aren't getting the full potential out of your 6Bs, or if you have noticed a a distorted or compressed sound when you hit a dynamic peak in a movie then a power amp will certainly address those concerns.

I hope that helps but please let me know if you have any further questions, thanks!