I just read on the J*L site that they suggest using an amp. that has twice the watts of the speakers you're powering (ie. speakers that can handle 350 continuous watts should be powered by a 700 watt amp.) Then I checked the CV site and they suggest an amp. with wattage less than, but as close to the watts on the speakers you're using. What do you guys suggest?

In my opinion, your amp should never clip before your speakers are blown to pieces . What I mean is that if your speakers can handle the sound without you're thinking that they can blow any minute(the music sounds as good as when you had your amp on for example 1) the amp shouldn't clip. So my suggestion is that you buy an amp that can take more WATT than you're speakers.(Replacing an amp is a much more expensive business ans yes you can blow up amps )

cya
Paul

Hey djp

This will all depend on how carefull you are with your settings. Having an amp with double the power there should be no chance of you running your amp in to clip which will harm your speakers. This also depends on your buget.

I'm not worried about the money I just want to what would be the best SOUNDING set up. I have a 170 watt amp. and was thinking about using 225-250 watt speakers. From your replies it sounds like I don't need speakers that big. Any suggestions on speakers I could use?

170 Watt amp is pretty small. What size gigs are you doing?

As for power ratings, I think it's generally a good idea to match amp and speaker ratings. Having a little extra power is better than not having enough, because you're less likely to clip the amplifier. Clipping not only can damage the amp but is more likely to damage the speakers.

Twice the wattage seems a little high to me, unless we're comparing peak power to continuous power. If the amp rating is in peak power and the speaker rating is in continuous power then yes I would suggest having twice as much power in the amp. Otherwise matching power is probably your best bet.

Another option would be to get a more powerful amp than necessary and get a compressor to make sure you don't turn up the volume too high.

The whole point of this is to find the balance between 1) requiring your amp to put out more power than it's capable of, causing clipping and 2) sending your speakers more power than they can handle.

In order to elminate number 1 you need the equivalent or more power than your speakers can handle, to elminate number 2 you need either the same amount of power, or some way to make sure you're not sending more power than they can handle. Either by watching it yourself, or adding a compressor to limit the sound if you forget.

Gary you're right 170 is small, but it's just for my practice room and if I take my stuff to a friend's house or something. Thanks for the advice.

Well then nevermind. 170 is plenty enough power for that kind of thing

Just thought i'd throw my 2 cents worth in.
I do alot of car audio installs and have always used amps with double to triple the rms power rating of the speakers.
The reason for this is that you can keep your gains all the way to minimum and you never have a problem of cliping the signal.
The biggest problem with using amps rated at the same power or equal to your speakers is that when you want it to play loud you are going to turn the volume control on your amp way past the half way mark and consequently clip the signal which speakers to dot appreciate verry much.
If you can't afford to get a very powerfull amp look at speakers with a very high sensitivity rating.
Take this into consideration:
every 3db = double the power...for eg: if you were using a 100 watt amp on a pair of speakers rated at 97db you could get the same SPL (sound preasure level) using a 50 watt amp with speakers rated at 100db.
In simple terms the more sensitive the speakers the louder it would play.
Hope i made sense here !!!!!!

If this were a professional sound setup I would definately suggest overpowering your speakers. 2 times the power seems excessive. But since this sounds like a home setup, he's probably not going to be driving the system that hard, and 170 watts sounds fine for that kind of thing.

170 watts in a living room is plenty of power. If you were in a gym you might as well try djing with your walkman.

Simple, If your amp can push alot more than your speakers are "rated" for thats GOOOOOD. Keep your amps levels down and it will sound awsome, alot better than a weak amp maxed out....

Standard suggestion is amp=2x speaker CONTINUOUS. Remember, continuous means that's how much the speaker will draw during normal playback. When a deep base line hits, the speaker will "ask" the amp for more power, so you have to leave plenty of headroom. Also,most speakers are blown out by UNDERPOWERING them, not over.