Please Suggest Floorstanding Speakers Which Flourish with 80 Watts per channel

[BigHats]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for 2 floorstanding speakers which will be powered by the 80 watts per channel Onkyo TX-8050 receiver. I don't care about how the speakers perform for movies or TV, my only concern is stereo music.

I'd like to keep the price of the speakers between $100-200 USD each, so $200-400 USD for the pair. I'm willing to increase the budget a bit but my fear is that the more I spend on the speakers the less likely they are to be able to be powered to a lively level by the 80 watts per channel Onkyo.

Regarding sound signature: I prefer speakers to error on the side of being warm / smooth instead of the ultra-clarity / fatiguing side.

I'm not a bass fiend, but I do want a full, powerful sound. I do not want a subwoofer - just two floorstanders

I've seen Polk Audio models that look promising, but again, I'm not sure which speakers I can power correctly with 80 watts per/ch. I don't play music tremendously loud - but I do want the speakers to sound lively and impactful even at lower volumes and I don't know how much power speakers require for that.

I'm open to any and all suggestions that fit my budget.

Thanks so much!

 

[Rethep]

Your 80 Watts is not an issue, especially because you don't play loud! But the character of amp's sound matters! Is it's sound crisp or polite, tight bass, good soundstage ?

How about some nice second-hand speakers like some old Kef's or B&W's ?

In the end you must listen yourself, always.

 

[ID.]

I quite liked it combined with Monitor Audio BX5 when I heard the combination in store. Slim speakers, so not massive bass, but I though it was good quality.

 

[KidKomet]

The power of the amp won't be an issue, it's really the sound signature that you'll need to get along with. I'll throw a load of on-the-nose options at you. KEF iQ7's, Q Acoustics 1050i's (Or 2050 if you can find them), Wharfedale diamond 10.3's, Mission MX3's and finally the Acoustic Energy Neo V2 (Though these are quite bass oriented if I remember correctly).

 

[James7]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for 2 floorstanding speakers which will be powered by the 80 watts per channel Onkyo TX-8050 receiver. I don't care about how the speakers perform for movies or TV, my only concern is stereo music.

I'd like to keep the price of the speakers between $100-200 USD each, so $200-400 USD for the pair. I'm willing to increase the budget a bit but my fear is that the more I spend on the speakers the less likely they are to be able to be powered to a lively level by the 80 watts per channel Onkyo.

Regarding sound signature: I prefer speakers to error on the side of being warm / smooth instead of the ultra-clarity / fatiguing side.

I'm not a bass fiend, but I do want a full, powerful sound. I do not want a subwoofer - just two floorstanders

I've seen Polk Audio models that look promising, but again, I'm not sure which speakers I can power correctly with 80 watts per/ch. I don't play music tremendously loud - but I do want the speakers to sound lively and impactful even at lower volumes and I don't know how much power speakers require for that.

I'm open to any and all suggestions that fit my budget.

Thanks so much!

As has already been said, you really don't need to get bogged down with whether your amp will be powerful enough. 80 watts, especially if that is into 8 ohms, is generally more than enough - don't forget that wattage is an exponential affair, so to double the power of an 10 watt amp you would need 100 watts (not 20 as you might expect). More important is the sensitivity of the speakers, which is usually between about 86 and 90 db - there is a great deal of difference between the two as a 3 db increase in sensitivity basically equates to being able to go equally loud on half the power (so 90db speakers are effectively twice as efficient as 87db speakers). Just because you spend more money doesn't mean the speakers will be any harder to drive. The other assumption to ditch is the idea that bigger speakers need more power - actually, big, floor-standing, ported speakers tend to be significantly more sensitive than small standmounts, especially if they don't have ports.

So if your total budget if $400, see what's out there and try to audition a variety of models with your Onkyo, and if possible at home. But if actually you could spend a little more, and are limiting your budget because you are worried the Onkyo won't drive more expensive speakers, I would say have a listen to speakers further up the price bracket - I would be very surprised if you auditioned any your amp wouldn't drive to suitably high levels, and you may find that a little more buys quite a step-up in quality.