Outlaw 750/Denon 3300, Reference series

[ToddB]

Would the Outlaw 750 damage my RF3, RC3,RS3 speakers? The outlaw amp is rated at 165 x 5. I believe the Reference line is rated at 150 watts continous and 600 peak? Does anyone know if this would be true?

[dougdrake]

Todd - If you put 165 watts (or 150 for that matter) continuously into the Reference speakers, your last worry would be the condition of the speakers -- more likely, it would be how you would adapt to your hearing loss

Most listening is done at the milliwatt or a couple of watts level, especially with Klipsch speakers due to their efficiency. You may have read on this board about people using 8 watt tube amps to peel paint off the wall.

Anyway, you'll be fine. You want the extra power that the Outlaw has to handle the transient highs and lows that take more juice -- that's the peak part.

Doug

[USparc]

Let's do a litle calculation.

RF's : 98dB @ 1watt/1meter(that is sensitivity)

If you know that an increase of 3dB would take to double the power than you get:

1W 98dB

2W 101dB

4W 104dB

8W 107dB

16W 110dB

32W 113dB

64W 116dB

128W 119dB

....

To compare:

Military jet aircraft take-off from aircraft carrier with afterburner at 50 ft . . . 120 dB

Turbo-fan aircraft at takeoff power at 200 ft . . . 115 dB

Boeing 707 or DC-8 aircraft at one nautical mile (6080 ft) before landing . . . 106 dB

Autch ,my ears...... (don't try the first one)

But I have to say that when playing an action movie at THX ref I get sound levels of over 110 dB.

By the way it is better to have more power on an amplifier whatever the speakers are rated, rather than to less. The last one could and would damage the speakers. That is clipping of the amplifier.

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Receiver: Onkyo 676

DVD: Pioneer DV-525

Screen: Thomson 46" RetroProjection

Front: RF-3's

Rear: RF-3's

Center: RC-3