Jump to content

How Much Can They Take??


Jim and Laura

Recommended Posts

I own a set of K-Horns and I LOVE THEM!!! But I have a Question??? I know there rated at 100 watts continuous power. But I pump 200 plus to them all the time and they Blow The House Down!!!! So my Question Is??? Just how much can they Really Take???

Jim and Laura,

Welcome to the forum.

The Klipschorns have a sensitivity of 105dB @ 1watt/1 meter. If you pumped a full 200 watts into the Klipschorn, at 1 meter the SPL would be about 128dB. That is loud my friend. Jet airplane at 100ft loud territory. Move your listening position back to 15 feet and you would be hearing 90dB with only 27 watts.

Take a look at this link and it may shed some light.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/speaker_spl_amp_power.htm

I guess what I am saying hear is that it is not what the Klipschorns can take, it's what Jim and Laura can take.[;)] Unless you are trying to fill a small auditorium with concert level sound, your Klipschorns will never see 200 watts continuously.

I know I did not excactly answer the question you proposed, but maybe other more technical members can tell you about the Klipschorn drivers' tolerances.

Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recall stories of PWK at audio shows and at some point during the demonstration, he'd crank up the volume and pretty much drown out everything else on the floor. He didn't win over many audio salesmen in the building but I'm sure he took some pride in his creation's ability to separate itself from all competitors back in the day. Of course, he also had to eventually redesign the xover as a result of his customers' recreating the experience at home and blowing the tweeter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I own a set of K-Horns and I LOVE THEM!!! But I have a Question??? I know there rated at 100 watts continuous power. But I pump 200 plus to them all the time and they Blow The House Down!!!! So my Question Is??? Just how much can they Really Take???

At most you are probably only putting max 50watts into them unless you have a very large room. My first set of khorns, I would periodically put a set of wattage meeters onto them to see what they were getting. At the time, with a 200watt per channel Adcom 555 mkII I would only see the meters go a little ways past 10 watts which is pretty loud. A good beefy amp will give them more authority though I doubt you are using the available wattage, at least continually. Transient peaks could be different story.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But I pump 200 plus to them all the time and they Blow The House Down!!!!

Use a multimeter on the amp output terminals or on the pads going down into the woofer. Measure the AC voltage.

For the K-horn, 100w nominal in the bass region would be ~20V. I'd wager you're hardly ever exceeding 8 unless you use EQ with a house curve or something along those lines.

When it comes strictly to the amplifier outputs, talk is cheap...meters are essential.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I own a set of K-Horns and I LOVE THEM!!! But I have a Question??? I know there rated at 100 watts continuous power. But I pump 200 plus to them all the time and they Blow The House Down!!!! So my Question Is??? Just how much can they Really Take???

your seeing music peaks. the tweeter is rated at 5W continuous above 3500hz according to EV data and 25W peak according to the same data. The mid driver is only 40W continous from 400hz to 4500hz approximately based on a lascala data plate which uses the same componets. on the same data plate it listed 25W for the woofer below 40hz and 200W for the woofer above 40hz. Music peaks can be misleading.....200W of jazz music peaks will drive the mid driver pretty hard but 200w of disco music peaks will drive the woofer pretty hard. Khorns perform a little differently in the woofer section than lascalas........there's an impedeance peak in the lascala installed woofer at 90hz that appears a lot lower in the khorn. if you send peak music signals to the impedeance peak...you would see a very high power consumption.....but becase of the impedeance peak...most of that power is heat not music.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...