Originally Posted by
riessen
I'm probably not the one to give a good answer to this. You need one of our electronics "gurus" to speak up.
Right now I'm running the bottom end of my 4350's on 600 WPC, RMS ( a friend of mine runs his 4350's on 1000 WPC of bridged Crowns) - mostly because that's when I have and not that they require it. The result is PlEnTy of headroom. At levels I can't stand to listen too, the amps are just idling and the outputs are barely warm.
About 20 years ago I was running a pair of my Sovereigns full tilt, listening to Sultans Of Swing as I remember. The walls were bulging and then I heard a snap and the right channel lost all the highs. I was running them on a power amp that had a rated output of 100 WPC. It was aparantly not enough power to handle the peaks. I learned from that experience that compression drivers do not like square wave. I sent the driver (LE85) into JBL and their comment was "VOICE COIL SHATTERED". They repaired it under warranty - bless their souls.
From that day on I have always powered my speakers with amps that have plenty of headroom. How much is enough? I don't know but double the handling ability of the speakers is what I shoot for. I run a pair of L100's of a 200 WPC RMS amp and they sing. I've got a pair of electrostatics that sound like crap on less than 200.
You need to ask some of the other guys out there who can "splain" to you in better terms.