Re: Question concerning adding new 2 speakers
This is a copy of somthing I sent to another post.
The way to match an amp to a speaker is by the wattage. If you have a 50 watt driver, this means that you need a 50 watt or better amp to achieve full throw. If the amp delivers less, and you wind it up past what the amp can deliver, you get "clipping". What this means is that even though audio is alternating current, the amp itself has a plus and minus volatge rail to supply the AC. I'll use a really bad analogy... If your amp will give you plus and minus 3" and your speaker needs 5" plus and minus, the preamp doesn't know it isn't there, so the signal can't exceed the rails and clips the top off the top and bottom of the wave. You just can't get more out of it. Instead of the speaker flowing back and folrth smoothly, the DC holds the voice coil either forward or back and heats the voice coil. Clipping is hard to hear in a noisy environment. Having said all that, if you have a 50 watt driver and a 100 watt amp and turn it up too much, the voice coil exceeds it's throw and as the voice coil form comes back in, it tends to hit the slug in the center (pictures online). this "frapping sound" scares the willies out of you, and you turn it down for fear of blowing something up. Not enough power is why your buddies, after that 4th beer think they can get more power out at a house party, and wake up in the morning with burnt voice coils. Last point, You tend to get what you pay for... buy a good amp.
