[badtz]

Greetings,

The A/V receiver i'm planning on getting spits out 45 watts per channel....


question:


if i put a bigger speaker in the center channel, what would happen to the volume now that the center channel is bigger and the power supply remains constant?


the speakers i'm getting are www.orbaudio.com [the mod1 for the front/rear and the mod2 for the center channel] the mod2 is essential just TWO of the mod1 speakers put together.



???

[k_munic]

the speaker sets of one manufacturer are normally coordinated (couldn't describe better); if you make your own mix of speakers, your amplifier has the option to control the loudness of each speaker.

and:
watts doesn't equal loudness!

the loudness of a speaker depends of the effectiveness of the speaker; and has some psycho components (some freqs are felt "louder" for example).

[d.fine]

What's the purpose of doing that ? Do you want the center speaker to sound louder ? If that is what you want then you can adjust the center speaker volume on the AV receiver, no need for a 'bigger' speaker ...
You can make any combination of speakers. You do need to take the impedance of the speakers into consideration, not all brands have the same speakers. If you want to mix speaker brands, stick with brands that have the same impedance, say 8 or 4 ohms. This will be safer for your amp.

[badtz]

the receiver will be 45watts x channel @ 8ohms....


the center channel will be the same speaker (just two of them connected together) .... reasoning is purely for esthetics.........

[d.fine]

How will you connect those 2 speakers to the amp ? Parallel or in Series ? Makes a big difference in what the amplifier sees.

[badtz]

^ I'm not sure ??

http://www.orbaudio.com/manuals/Mod2...yGuide1104.pdf



according to that PDF, does it look like it's connected in series or parallel? [unfortunately i'm not a super expert on speaker/amp setup ]

[d.fine]

According to those pictures they're connected in series (parallel would be 2 speaker cables from the amp to the 2 speakers, in series is 1 speaker cable from the amp to 1 speaker, and then speaker cable from speaker 1 to speaker 2).
They're 2 identical speakers, so you'll be fine as long as they both have the same impedance. Happy listening !

[banninated68]

45 watts RMS or peak? If that's peak, that's a pretty wussy amp.

Anyway, it depends. If your new center channel has larger drivers with stiffer surrounds (to avoid distortion), just think about it.

Imagine two speakers.

One is a cheap paper and foam jobby that's rated to handle 10 watts. The other is a poly and rubber one with huge magnets that's rated up to 200 watts.

If you hook a 10 watt amp up to both of htem, the cheap paper speaker will sound okay, and the other one will be pretty quiet. Why? The stiffer suspension and bigger magnets REQUIRE MORE POWER.

Summary: It'll work, but if it's too much of a speaker you're goingt o have to crank your amp to get it up to a decent level, ie, look out for distortion.

- Rob

[badtz]

If all the speakers are the EXACT same thing but the center channel has two of the smae speakers [in series] would it make much of a difference [sound output from the center channel]?

also, on the site it states that the Mod1 is 8ohm nominal and the Mod2 is 4ohm nominal (a mod2 is TWO of the Mod1's in series) .....


what exactly does "nominal" mean?



[thanks for all the help so far! very helpful ]

[d.fine]

Originally posted by badtz:
If all the speakers are the EXACT same thing but the center channel has two of the smae speakers [in series] would it make much of a difference [sound output from the center channel]?

also, on the site it states that the Mod1 is 8ohm nominal and the Mod2 is 4ohm nominal (a mod2 is TWO of the Mod1's in series) .....

So the Mod2 is 4 ohms, you'll have to watch out with that. A 45w/c @8 ohms amp will put out about 90w/c into 4 ohms if it is an excellent amp (otherwise maybe 60-65watts), but it will get a lot hotter because it will have to work a lot harder (lower impedance requires a lot more power and work from the amp, they are much harder to drive, hence there aren't many 2ohm speaker manufacturers). You'll have to check and see if the amp can drive 4ohm speakers, most good modern day amps can, but I'd check anyway. The combination of 8ohm speakers with a 4ohm center speaker is not advisable. I'd stick with an 8ohm speaker.

Maybe this will help a little

[badtz]

Thanks d.fine for the help!

According to the orbaudio site....

http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?Pa...stom&ID=25

.... it says that it "should be compatible with all 6/8-ohm receivers" .... is that possible? or is that just marketing?

the receiver that I'm planning to match it up with [harman kardon AVR 130 or 230] has the following specs. ...


http://digbig.com/4cdtg


it doesn't mention about the output handling of 4-ohms.....?


should that be a concern?

[bmedina]

You'll have to try it out and see. If it overloads the amp, it will just turn off and give you an error message.

But if you're only in it for aesthetic purposes, I would just leave one unconnected. The center is designed to match the mains acoustically when it's driven by itself.

[d.fine]

You'll have to watch what you do. Driving a low impedance speaker with an amp that can't drive it will make the amp start clipping, which will lead to distortion. This in turn can damage your speakers. (A less powerfull amp can do more damage to speakers then a more powerfull amp, because when driven hard it will clip and feed distortion to the speakers which damage them, replacing a tweeter of a woofer is no fun... with a powerfull amp you can go louder with no distortion, of course if you go to loud you'll also damage your speakers, but you'd have to be pushing real loud).
Not all amps have a built in security, like suggested by bmedina, but I think HK does, check tough. Otherwise if you overload the amp you'd need to have the center channel power amp replaced in there, no fun either.

Explanation on the HK website, maybe better explained :
__
' There are two ways to blow speakers: The first is the one we all know and understand. If you pump 500 watts into a speaker that is only rated at 100 watts, it blows up. The second way is called "under powering." It's really a misleading term, but let's try to explain. Example: You have a 1000-watt speaker and a 100-watt amplifier but the way you like to listen to music requires 300 watts. So, you ask your amp to put out the 300 watts that you want to hear. The amp will do it, but it will "clip" and "distort." Unfortunately, the human ear can't hear distortion until it reaches almost 10%. By that time it's usually too late. The speaker keeps trying to reproduce this distortion that it''s not capable of reproducing and, eventually, it blows (usually the tweeter fails first). There is a very easy way to determine if you are asking too much of your amplifier. Follow these directions to perform this test:

Set the Bass and Treble knobs in the middle (flat).

Make sure all Equalization buttons are turned off (loudness, EQ, contour, etc.).

Put on a CD. Turn the volume halfway up (electronic volume controls/ display would read 0dB). If you normally listen louder than this, chances are you are pushing your amp too far, causing it to clip and blow the speakers. Generally speaking, when listening to CD, VCR, DVD, or Laserdisc, you are at maximum clean listening volume when you reach the halfway point on your volume control. The reason is very simple. These sources have a very hot output. In the old days when we were all using turntables, you would hit maximum volume at the 3/4 mark. This is because the output of a turntable is considerably lower than any of the newer sources. The reason this standard has not changed is because of versatility. Please keep in mind that if you normally listen with your Bass and Treble knobs boosted and/or the loudness button pushed in, it is possible to push the amp too far with your volume knob as low as 1/3 volume. If you are pushing your receiver too hard, we recommend that you get a more powerful amplifier. Please realize that if you buy speakers that will handle more power but don't buy a more powerful amplifier, you won't solve the problem. The speakers will still blow, because it's distortion that's blowing them, not too much power. '
__

Like you mentioned, I can't see any mention of the amp being capable of drving 4ohm speakers. You can try, but check that it has a built in security first.