Kelly McAloney Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 If my avr is 125 pet channel and my towers are 150rms, in theory could I turn the volume to max without damaging anything Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebuy Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 (edited) Probably not--in some cases you'll probably blow up your speakers. I wouldn't advise it until you find out what you're doing. You sound like you don't have very much experience with audio equipment. I see you have many post--kinda a strange question from someone who is Not a Newbee. Edited November 28, 2015 by rebuy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 I am going to say no just as a precaution because your ears will get damaged if anywhere close to nearfield. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthews Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 in theory could I turn the volume to max without damaging anything NO!!! I was running 250 wpc amp to a pair of RF-7's (250 watt max cont.). It took out all 4 woofers 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arrow#422 Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Sure, theoretically your 150 watt RMS speakers should handle all of your AVR maxed @ 125 watts. I mean, you could always try it, but really, how loud do you need your speakers to play to get that warm fuzzy feeling from owning them? This sounds like a friend of mine who wanted to peg the speedometer in his Ford Cobra Mustang just to say he did over 150mph. All was great with him & his pride ride until he crashed it beyond repair. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arrow#422 Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 in theory could I turn the volume to max without damaging anything NO!!! I was running 250 wpc amp to a pair of RF-7's (250 watt max cont.). It took out all 4 woofers Live and learn - the expensive way. Question: Do you think pumping "only" 200 watts into them would've have the same result, as the RF-7's would've had 50 extra watts RMS to work with before reaching explosion mode? Those are rated at 1000 watts peak and I hear of people pushing 300 watts at them regularly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjptkd Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 You should never have to run anything full volume or even close to full volume. If you do, something needs to be upgraded in your system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arrow#422 Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 You should never have to run anything full volume or even close to full volume. If you do, something needs to be upgraded in your system. I'm not sure you provided any quantitative response to my question which would further assist OP's understanding Question: Do you think pumping "only" 200 watts into your RF-7's would've have the same result, as they would've had 50 extra watts RMS to work with before reaching explosion mode? Those are rated at 1000 watts peak and I hear of people pushing 300 watts at them regularly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly McAloney Posted November 28, 2015 Author Share Posted November 28, 2015 Sure, theoretically your 150 watt RMS speakers should handle all of your AVR maxed @ 125 watts. I mean, you could always try it, but really, how loud do you need your speakers to play to get that warm fuzzy feeling from owning them? This sounds like a friend of mine who wanted to peg the speedometer in his Ford Cobra Mustang just to say he did over 150mph. All was great with him & his pride ride until he crashed it beyond repair. I wasn't considering doing it I was just curious, I've had them about 3/4 the way up and it was uncomfortable not to mention the sub knocks things off shelves at the other end of the house in the basement [emoji15] so then my question becomes why rate them that high if they can't handle this Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psg Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 (edited) If my avr is 125 per channel and my towers are 150rms, in theory could I turn the volume to max without damaging anything The problem is that there is no such 'max'. The volume is gain requested, and what you think is requesting 125W peaks might be 1000W peaks, which will be clipped and sound bad, and may damage your speakers. Back in the day we had VU-meters to have a better guess at the power we were feeding our speakers. But I guess since people saw numbers of 1W or less often enough, that wasn't good information to give in order to sell new 100W+ receivers, so they got rid of them. Edited November 28, 2015 by psg 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pzannucci Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Too many things involved to say you can turn your receiver up full. Full is until your receiver clips. The peaks that are clipped are likely minute points in time. Depending on how many channels you have running, it could be as low as 50 watts. Also depends on the load of the speakers. If you could keep your receiver under clipping while running it, in theory you should be able to run the receiver up to clipping. Unfortunately there is no way to tell unless you have instantaneous clip lights on the receiver and none that I know of do. Most times your receiver will be running along at about 15 watts max but to get it just just barely louder would require 30-40 watts which with peaks at that level, likely clipping. Bottom line is don't think you can turn your knob to full or your digital readout to infinity without compromising something since you are likely pushing the amplifier way too hard. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Question: Do you think pumping "only" 200 watts into your RF-7's would've have the same result, as they would've had 50 extra watts RMS to work with before reaching explosion mode? Those are rated at 1000 watts peak and I hear of people pushing 300 watts at them regularly. If I had to guess, many quality 200w/channel amps actually put out more than the rated spec'd RMS along the lines of 225w/ch ++ so you may not have as much room to twist the volume knob as you think. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly McAloney Posted November 28, 2015 Author Share Posted November 28, 2015 How would I know where reference level is Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronH Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 How would I know where reference level is Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk SPL meter. Most people blow speakers using underpowered amperage than overpowered. Also, You have to consider source material, if it has a lot of bass, it could damage the 10's in the RF7's. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthews Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 (edited) if it has a lot of bass, it could damage the 10's in the RF7's exactly!!! I was listening to The Starlight Mints. Their music has some very strange bass waves, for lack of a better term. To explain is difficult. While listening to them, you can see the woofer traveling (extending) to its max. However, it is a nearly inaudible or "felt in the chest" bass. Unusual, I know... BTW- the volume knob was no where near full open but my meters were reading full output +. Live and learn - the expensive way. All four woofers promptly replaced by Klipsch 5 year warranty Edited November 28, 2015 by Matthews Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 (edited) Reference level is 0 on most avr's. I use the avr as a preamp and have a 200 watt acurus amp powering the mains and center currently. I turn it all the way up with impunity all the time. I have a buddy with a 125 watt Pioneer avr and a Emotiva 200 watt amp powering the mains and he runs at reference all the time. It just depends on all the gear in the chain and the quality of the components. The disclaimer is that we run the mains as small and use subs. At times we have ran 10 db's + over reference. The key is careful experimentation with your system and knowing it's limits. For most people the RF 7 or 7 II's don't need 200 watts in most rooms if any. Edited November 28, 2015 by derrickdj1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 (edited) There are many factors which might destroy the speakers at max volume as Mr. Matthews pointed out, "watts per channel" is just one of them. I know the question was theoretical, and I would say "yes" theoretically a 125 wpc AVR would be safe to run full tilt to speakers which can theoretically take 150 wpc. My real world experience would say "don't push it" because you don't know how much power is actually being drawn by the speakers. Power is rated at a percentage of distortion such as .1 or so. The AVR run wide open might actually be capable of producing more power but with greater distortion. In my case if I want to push things to their limit (my wife seems to think I'm good at doing that to her nearly every day, go figure ) I use EQ and turn down ALL the settings, but especially the lowest and highest. Edited November 28, 2015 by wvu80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly McAloney Posted November 28, 2015 Author Share Posted November 28, 2015 There are many factors which might destroy the speakers at max volume as Mr. Matthews pointed out, "watts per channel" is just one of them. I know the question was theoretical, and I would say "yes" theoretically a 125 wpc AVR would be safe to run full tilt to speakers which can theoretically take 150 wpc. My real world experience would say "don't push it" because you don't know how much power is actually being drawn by the speakers. Power is rated at a percentage of distortion such as .1 or so. The AVR run wide open might actually be capable of producing more power but with greater distortion. In my case if I want to push things to their limit (my wife seems to think I'm good at doing that to her nearly every day, go figure ) I use EQ and turn down ALL the settings, but especially the lowest and highest. This is definitely helpfulSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Are you going to run the speakers as Large or as small and use a sub with them is the big question? One of the functions of a good sub is to do the heavy lifting, dig deeper/cleaner/ increase avr headroom. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly McAloney Posted November 29, 2015 Author Share Posted November 29, 2015 Are you going to run the speakers as Large or as small and use a sub with them is the big question? One of the functions of a good sub is to do the heavy lifting, dig deeper/cleaner/ increase avr headroom.I run them as small with v1800 as backup, I do not plan on trying thisSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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