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completely overwhelmed

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playa mike

New Member
hi guys ive been a long time lurker and am desperately in need of advice. i recently purchased a yamaha ax-900u on craigslist for a price i thought was fair, but i am struggling to find a pair of speakers that would be appropriate for it (130 watts per channel). this system will be used strictly for music. i primarily listen to classic rock, but i do enjoy somewhat heavy bass that id suppose would be more of an importance to people who mostly listen to pop and rap. i have $300 to spend which i know isnt much as far as speakers go but that is all i can afford. ive located a new pair of polk rti6 for $200 but my research suggests that most people use them in home theater applications, but please correct me if im wrong. also, my father has a set of klipsch 3.2's that have been sitting in a spare room for at least 10 years, im pretty sure he would give to me if i asked, but from what i understand they are pretty sensitive and i wouldnt want to blow them. im open to any and all suggestions and criticisms. thanks in advance.
 
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Try the Klipsch if you can. I've had the 3.2 and they will rock with very little power. I ran them in a medium sized room with 35 watts per channel and they were blisteringly loud.
 
If your concern is that 130 wpc is too much for a lot of speakers, stop worrying.
Good, clean power is much safer to use since it produces less distortion at higher SPL, and that's what kills speakers.

I've run Dynaco A-25s with my 165 wpc amp, and they sounded great.

Rule of thumb: if it sounds bad, turn it down - the speakers are trying to tell you something.
 
playa mike, consider the volume control on your receiver as a light switch dimmer. You lights aren't putting out their full wattage unless the dimmer is turned all the way up. Whatever speakers you use, the power going into them is controlled by your hand on the volume control of the receiver. An efficient speaker, like the Klipsch 3.2's, will get very loud without your receiver getting anywhere near it's rated power output.
 
Another vote for the Klipsch 3.2's. Just don't drive them to earsplitting levels and you will be OK. If for some reason the bass is not enough for you, consider adding a powered subwoofer.
 
It is a common misconception that your amp's output should match power handling specifications of a speaker. In fact, if what you had in mind was finding speakers rated 130W for an ideal match for your receiver, then you have already started wrong. Be aware that there really is very little, if any, correlation between those two specs.

Those Klipsch would probably sound great to you; they have decent power handling ability even though they don't require a lot of power, and thus will play pretty darn loud. The key is just as those above described: your hand on the volume control. Regardless of what speaker you get, you will have to exercise some caution and common sense when you crank it up - there is no getting around that. So don't obsess over those specifications, and learn to trust your ears to determine when loud is getting too loud for a speaker.
 
In that price range, another good speaker for cranking loud and clear would be JBL L36 Decades.
 
Plenty of good old JBL's in the discount bin. If you can find any of these, they are worth looking into for the money:

JBL 830/940
CF series
LX44/55/400/500

jblnut
 
I had an AX-900 for years... awesome amp. The phono section is really good too. I always thought it sounded best running more power-hungry speakers than highly efficient ones, but efficient speakers sounded good too. I had a couple sets of EPI 2-ways that sounded good with it, but I couldn't turn them up very loud before the tweeters started distorting. My favorite speakers to pair with it was ADS L810.
 
I would not feel overwhelmed....I would be glad to have the option of trying out the Klipsch speakers, and if they are not a good match, then you have a ton of options even at $300.

Older Polks, like the Monitor 7 could be a good fit at maybe $150 if you can find them.

My advice would be to take your time, enjoy the search.

Good luck
 
The sensitivity rating of a speaker just indicates how efficiently it converts watts into sound.

The more efficient a speaker is the less power you need to feed it to get a satisfying volume level.

Efficient speakers and a powerful amp will probably lead to unhappy spouses or neighbors long before you damage the speakers unless you're playing at rock concert levels.
 
jpciii said:
I had an AX-900 for years... awesome amp. The phono section is really good too. I always thought it sounded best running more power-hungry speakers than highly efficient ones, but efficient speakers sounded good too. I had a couple sets of EPI 2-ways that sounded good with it, but I couldn't turn them up very loud before the tweeters started distorting. My favorite speakers to pair with it was ADS L810.
Click to expand...

It's funny that you mention that because their is a set of ADS L710 for sale locally for $55 if that is a good deal I might jump on it
 
ADS L710's put out a super high end sound and if you can get those for that? OMG (Don't quite know why there seems to be so many great bargains with a brand of this caliber?) Regardless, if you pick the right Klipsch,JBL,Dalquist,Pioneer HPM,AR,BA....it's worthy and an investment in many different ways. (Polk....lot of it out there too and those 7's mentioned hold there own....truly special little speaks.)
Relax and pick (w/all this help here) as it all flips or trades well.
 
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