Andrewjvt said:
davedotco said:
Is the key if you really want to play loud.
You want at least 90dB per watt, this will be the equivilent of increasing the power of your amplifier by a factor of 4, and should be enough.
If you play really loud, look for an even higher rating than that.
However, you will be lucky to find anything bookshelf sized that can do that.
Looking at specs some makers only state the sensitivity but others like atc also give a max spl
Id like to hear your thoughts on this please(for my own info) i presume we all have on this a good power amp and plenty of headroom.
Cheers
In theory sensitivity x max power will give you max spl, it's that simple, whether you use peak or continuous figures.
In reality it is more complicated, decent recordings should have peaks that are much higher than average levels, for modern recordings 10dB is realistic. So a 200wpc amplifier will typically produce peaks of around 280 watts (200 x √2) and an average of 28 watts. So for the 84dB/watt speaker above, this relates to peaks of about 108 dB, average of about 98 dB. (obviously)
But this takes no account of the amplifiers ability to produce this power in a sustained manner, many would struggle, so the calculated (as opposed to measured) dB ratings should be looked at with a degree of caution. Similarly, speakers suffer from dynamic compression, ie twice the power may not even at modest levels, quite, raise the level by 3 dB, this is particularly noticeable at higher levels where the suspension is no longer linear and the impedance of the speaker rises due to thermal effects.
Obviously these effects will vary depending on the quality/capability of the amp and speakers, so a high efficiency speaker may well exhibit less dynamic compression than a low efficiancy design, this is easily heard and for some listeners, very important.
This is a big subject, the above is only a starting point, feel free to ask if it does not answer the points you were thinking of.