My receiver is 30 watts per channel. What specifications should I be looking for when shopping for speakers? What will keep my speakers and receiver safe from being damaged? With wattage I'm not sure if I have to stay within a speakers power rating. For example, would a speaker rated at 50 watts be acceptable? I'm also not sure if it's important to have speakers with higher efficiency or if it's just desirable. What's the deal with efficiency?
Speakers for low watt amp
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Tom Bombadil
AK Member
Not all 30 wpc receivers and amplifiers are the same. Some rate their power conservative, others inflate their specs. What brand is your receiver? Also how large of a room is your system in and how loud do you play it? In a small room and with someone who listens to moderate volume, you can drive pretty much any speaker with 30 watts, even ones with low efficiency, down around 82dB sensitivity.
HTHMAN
Super Member
The higher the efficiency rating of the speaker, the less power that will be required to reach the same volume level. The wattage rating of a speaker makes no difference except that if will handle more continuous power without burning out the voice coil. A 30 watt receiver should drive just about any vintage or modern speaker to listening levels louder than you will want to listen. I have had several 30-40 watt receivers and used them on lower efficiency vintage speakers and never had trouble driving them. At normal listening levels, I seldom exceed a couple watts of power.
My receiver is a Marantz 4230, my room is 14'x14' and I typically listen at moderate to loud levels.
janikphoto
Lunatic Member
The above posts are correct. One extra note to consider: use your ears! You can put a 75 watt rated speaker on a 30 watt rated amp and still damage it. If you hear too much distortion in the music, either buy bigger speakers, a bigger amp, or both!
janikphoto
Lunatic Member
If you can fit some vintage Klipsch in your budget, they'd be a great match.
Tom Bombadil
AK Member
Marantz usually exceed their power specs. However as yours is around 40 years old, if it hasn't been restored, it could be out of spec and need new capacitors or other parts replaced. Normally a 30 wpc Marantz could power many different speakers, but you might run a risk of clipping a tweeter and blowing it out if you run a medium to low efficiency speaker at loud levels with it. I'd probably go no lower than an 87 to 88dB/1 watt speaker under those conditions. And if you really like to crank it loud, then I'd be looking at 90dB & higher speakers.
asilker
Super Member
The standard measure for efficiency is how loud (in db spl) are these speakers if you were sitting at 1 meter away with 1 watt of power.
That being said, because most of us here don't listen at deafening levels, the biggest concern is matching power to efficiency. If your speakers are quieter at 1watt from 1meter away, you'd need more power to get them to a realistic listening level.
To give a benchmark, on what I'd consider a loud day, I'm pushing 80db. 68-74db is more common.
If you're running a 30 watt amp take a look at finding vintage JBL's locally. They're easy to drive because they're efficient.
That being said, because most of us here don't listen at deafening levels, the biggest concern is matching power to efficiency. If your speakers are quieter at 1watt from 1meter away, you'd need more power to get them to a realistic listening level.
To give a benchmark, on what I'd consider a loud day, I'm pushing 80db. 68-74db is more common.
If you're running a 30 watt amp take a look at finding vintage JBL's locally. They're easy to drive because they're efficient.
I have had it restored and everything is working properly as of 1 month ago.
Get the highest efficiency, quality speaker you can afford. Because your amp will drive most speakers to insane levels in your room, you can be choosy. On my tube setup, I have speakers that are rated at 95dB. With my 8 watts per channel, I can't turn it up all the way and keep my hearing.
Zach Nelson
How deep is this rabbit hole?
Super old thread, but do you, or did you have issues when getting and low end to come out of that low watt tube amp?
KentTeffeteller
Gimpus Stereophilus!
Yes, Klipsch KG4, Heresy, Cornwall, LaScala, Belle, Klipschorn, or Forte and Chorus are superb with 20-50 watt/channel amplifiers or even 10-15 watt amplifiers. They'll give you plenty of volume, can handle wide dynamic swings, and very efficient. An Altec Lansing Model 1, is a good bookshelf to use with 20-30 watt/channel amplifiers with reasonably efficient, full range sound which works great on a bookshelf.
No problems, really. If the amp has good transformers, a good circuit and sufficient feedback, the bass is nicely present and not flabby.
Zach Nelson
How deep is this rabbit hole?
I've been running this amp that was completely rebuilt with oversized transformers, on my kg4s and the low end just sucks
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I am out of my league suggesting anything else. How do the Klipsch sound on other amps?
Zach Nelson
How deep is this rabbit hole?
amazing.
A23gt
Nobody special
Is the low bloated and flabby, or just lacking. Some of the old tube amps have a very low damping factor, and don't do a good job controlling the woofers. Those types tend to like big single woofers like in old University, Altec and the like, but don't do well with smaller paired drivers like 2 sixes or eights per side.
Zach Nelson
How deep is this rabbit hole?
This could very well be it. It's very flabby sounding where it's normally tight and punchy