For the past two decades or so, speakers didn’t really see many changes. However, they have now been paired with a wide variety of speakers.
But there are several important things you need to know and understand first so that you can match the components of your speaker with the leading receiver options you can find in the market today.
While it is easy to match an amplifier with speakers, some barriers may get in the way of achieving an optimum connection between a speaker and a receiver.
This is why you must learn how to know if speakers are compatible with receiver. To do this, you need to be familiar with the tech requirements, subwoofer options, and specifications to create a good audio system.
Matching Your Speakers, Receiver, and Subwoofer
The good news is that it is not really that difficult or tricky to match your speakers, receiver, and subwoofer. Most modern AV receivers and amplifiers alike feature protection circuits and thermal fuses. You can shut them down when an overload takes place. However, you might still end up buying the wrong amplifier that might not be a great match for your speakers.
The good news is that many amplifiers and receivers are compatible with the leading speaker options today. But it is important that you closely and carefully study all the specifications first before you do anything. You should know more about impedance so you can match your speakers with a good quality setup of receiver and amplifier.
Impedance is the resistance of the speaker. This particular number is reflected by the specifications of a speaker. More often than not, it is anywhere around 4 to 8 ohms. Many amplifiers also support most of the speakers available right now, but some will not really match in ohms.
If your speaker set has low impedance like 4 ohms, this can strain the power supply of your receiver and amplifier. If ever this is the case, see to it that your receiver will be able to handle low impedance.
Do You Plan to Buy New Speakers?
You have to ensure that your current receiver will be able to handle the new speakers or new subwoofer that you are planning to buy. Since high-definition formats like Blu-ray and HD DVD are now available, some of the new speakers might not really be able to handle the maximum audio of a receiver.
Check the Sensitivity
The sensitivity rating of a speaker set is measured in dB or decibels. This measurement has something to do with the ability of a speaker to turn the power of an amplifier into sound. You can expect that the speaker set will be more efficient if its dB rating is also high. It is also typical to find a speaker system around 87 to 93 dB while speaker sets that are more than 90 dB are considered very good.
This means that you should only buy speakers with a high dB rating because you can be sure that these will be able to accommodate your existing setup. It is also worthwhile to take note of the impedance of your speaker.
If you are connecting an 8-ohm amplifier with 6-oh speakers, the amp will end up enduring more load than what it can handle in the first place. Once this happens, the amplifier may shut down, overheat, or burn out.
Risk of an Overpowered or Underpowered Speaker Set
As mentioned earlier, burnout may, unfortunately, occur if there is a mismatch in power. Having said that, you might experience a lost sound quality if you have a low-power speaker set.
Each speaker set has its own power handling specification. The specification is being measured in terms of watts, and this is represented in the format of RMS or root means square. This number serves as your guide to determine the amount of power that can be handled by a speaker set. It is also ideal to pick a speaker setup that comes with a high RMS rating.
On the other hand, the peak music power output or PMPO of a speaker is its absolute limit in terms of operation. Once a speaker system goes beyond this number, it will be at risk of suffering serious damage.
Although this rating is not frequently used, it is still important that you pay close attention to it. Your speaker set might get damaged if the power of the receiver exceeds this limit.
How to Match an Amplifier with Speakers
When matching your new speakers with an amplifier, see to it that the speakers will be powered with just a bit more than what they can handle. This bit part means approximately 10%.
When you do this, you can be sure that the amplifier will not be working too hard in driving your speaker set to its full capacity. This will result in a dynamic and rich sound. Now, you don’t need to worry.
Speakers are specially designed for handling fluctuations in power levels. Just a bit of juice now and then will be safe enough without causing much trouble.
Factor in Future Additions
It is only understandable that you will want to have new speakers installed sooner or later. It will be a wise idea to ensure that your amplifier and receiver are consistent because replacing them will be more expensive. However, you should buy speakers that have high-rated watts for every channel.
Your ideal option here is one where the watts per channel of an amplifier matches the watts per channel of the speaker set. The new channels will not overload it if the rated power handling perfectly matches, You might also want to consider buying rear surround sound speakers, center channel speaker, and other similar additions. You don’t have to be concerned with future overloads if the system can power up a high wattage.
Making sure that your speakers are compatible with the receiver and other components is something you need to do to achieve the most wonderful sounds with your system.