How much power for room?

omniscient_toad

Hi all, I'm looking to buy a new amp/cd player/speaker set of separates and it's for a reasonably large room. I realise that there will be large acoustic variations with every room but is there a rough rule of thumb to calculate power required for room size, and is it best to select speakers to suit the room and work backwards in selecting an amp that would then drive them sufficiently?

cnocbui

I would go for the speakers and work backwards from there.

There is no simple power to room ratio, because a lot depends on the efficiency and power handling capabilities of the speakers. A speaker that produces a volume level of 87db for one watt, is going to need four times the amount of power to reach a desired volume level than one that is 93db efficient. (A sound that is 6db louder than another, will sound twice as loud, but will need four times the power to achieve.)

A lot also depends on how 'live' or 'dead' the room is acoustically.

freeluas

You havnt said the room size. So I assume 4m x 4m. A regular Seperate Amplifier would normally be 45-120 Watts RMS. 45 will adequately fill any room. That is unless you are deaf or want to play music to silly levels. For Speakers it again depends on personal taste. I have a pair of Castle Severns
which are rated at 80 watts. I believe these to be conservative ratings. Some of the ****e loudspeakers such as JVC sell will typically claim 460 watts per channel. You could try Yamaha and Marantz Amplifiers in Peats. For speakers its best to listen to a few sets. 'Q Acoustics' are supposed to be great budget speakers. I listened to them is Peats and they sounded completly lifeless and dull.
You can get Pioneer Amplifiers from Pixmania.ie at much better prices than in the shops. You can get a 60 watts model for 150.00, the dearer Marantz is about 250.00 in Peats. I have listened to the Marantz and to me it sounds superb.