Speaker ideas

[Dandan111]

I have my new,old realistic sta 76 ic/fet receiver playing realistic mc 500 bookshelf speakers in my living room. Not earth shaking but great clean sound. I would like to find some larger speakers to run to the basement. What size ,type should I be looking for? Would advents, something with 6 or 8 inch woofers be too much for my sta 76? My basement is about a 15 x 20 ft area.
I know the sta 76 is a lower power unit,don't want to over do it with speakers.

Just looking for ideas at this point.

Thanks

 

[dspear99ca]

You can get window-shattering sound out of your receiver with the right speakers.

There is a whole class of tube amps called single-ended triodes (SET) that only output a couple of watts, some only one watt, and there are speakers for which this is plenty of power. There are literally HUNDREDS of speakers that will sing with 20 watts.

Speakers are rated for both a) maximum SPL, that is, how loud is the loudest sound they can produce and by b) sensitivity or how much power it takes to put out a certain amount of sound. The standard spec is dB/w/m or how much sound, in decibels, is produced 1 meter from the speaker when 1 watt of input signal is applied. The range for consumer speakers runs from about 83 dB/w/m up to over 100. Bear in mind that you need to DOUBLE the power to raise the output just 3dB, so the difference between 83 and 100 is huge. To generate the same SPL (sound pressure level) that you'd get pumping 1W into a 101 dB/w/m speaker, you'd need to pump 64 WATTS into an 83 dB/w/m speaker. Yes, you'd need 64 times more power to get the same sound level. So, as you can see, choice of speakers is key.

There are plenty of sensitive speakers out there. Older Klipsch come to mind... you could pick up a pair of reasonably cheap KG-2's or similar. Older Cerwin-Vegas were quite efficient too. Tons of options. I'd recommend keeping an eye on your local craigslist, then check the specs on speakers to see where they fall on the efficiency scale to decide if you want to look at them.

 

[Dandan111]

Interesting,so when I see 100 watt speakers you don't need a 100 watt amp to run them? I should be more concerned with the minimum watts needed?

 

[dspear99ca]

Sorry, I should add one more rating for speakers: c) the maximum power they can handle. 100W speakers can (says the manufacturer) handle 100 watts RMS, for the sake of simplicity let's say that's 100 watts continuous. It's a useless spec, as music is not continuous, but filled with peaks and valleys. Look for sensitivity north of 91 dB/W/m, don't worry about the wattage rating.

Most listening is done at a power output level under 1 watt. Even when you're cranking it your PEAKS might hit 100W if it's real loud, but most of the music won't. What you want is HEADROOM, which is power reserve for instantaneous peaks like kick drums or pull-off bass notes. Not many manufacturers give a spec on headroom, but suffice it to say BOTL (bottom of the line) pieces tend to have less and TOTL stuff tends to have more. YMMV.