Rainbows power underated???

[RI-Matt 10+ year member]

Recently bought a set of Rainbow SLC 230 ( thanks 6spdcoupe //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif ) and they are rated at 80w rms and 120w max. I often see people saying they can handle more and they are underated.

What would be a safe amount of power to give them???

If it matters I can supply them around 120w but don't want to blow them.

By the way they sound awesome //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Matt

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[flakko 5,000+ posts]

i give myne old ones rated at 60 w around 80 ish

 

[HitManSE 10+ year member]

120 rms should work fine.

 

[camry_tuner 10+ year member]

just be careful /w the gains and u'll be fine

 

[RI-Matt 10+ year member]

camry_tuner

That's why I was asking. If I use the gain tutorial on this site I need to figure out the wattage for the speakers. I was thinking of setting the gains based on 100w.

Matt

 

[flakko 5,000+ posts]

what i do is set by ear. if you hear thems speakers crackling turn the gains down

 

[Fast1one 10+ year member]

If you want to sleep at night....cross them over high...like at 100HZ or even 120....and youll be fine with 120w.....

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

With music, you will run much less than the rated output of the amp to the speakers. You might approach rated power in an RMS fashion on transients. Otherwise you might get some transient power spikes. On the whole as long as you don't clip the signal and set the crossovers correctly, most speakers can handle an amp rated for a decent bit more than their rated power.

 

[carguy83 10+ year member]

yeah they seem a bit under-rated. i'm sending mine a little over 100 per side and have no problems what-so-ever.

 

[alphakenny1 10+ year member]

yea as helotaxi said, most of the time your speakers will not see the rated power your amp puts out. shoot i know someone who's running his lotus reference mids rated at 90w and sending them 300+ //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif.

 

[bdawson72 5,000+ posts]

Dammit..i want sum!!!!!! NOW!!!!

 

[FoxPro5 5,000+ posts]

yea as helotaxi said, most of the time your speakers will not see the rated power your amp puts out. shoot i know someone who's running his lotus reference mids rated at 90w and sending them 300+ //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif.

I only have 225 //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

Rainbow uses two ratings...one using a straight sine wave at like 60hz and the other with music. Music is dynamic as taxi mentioned and the speakers don't always see full power...a class a/b amp is only about 50% efficient. Power is control. Set the gain intelligently and they will last forever.

 

[bamaboy 5,000+ posts]

set them by ear

 

[chadillac3 10+ year member]

I only have 225 //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif
Rainbow uses two ratings...one using a straight sine wave at like 60hz and the other with music. Music is dynamic as taxi mentioned and the speakers don't always see full power...a class a/b amp is only about 50% efficient. Power is control. Set the gain intelligently and they will last forever.

Don't always...you mean they rarely do. People would be surprised how loud a true 100 watt signal is...

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Music is dynamic as taxi mentioned and the speakers don't always see full power...

In a 1:1 gain structure (setting the gain with a 0db test tone, for example), you'll typically only see an average power output of about 10% of the amplifiers rated power output. So for a 100w RMS amplifier, you're seeing an actual average power output of around 10w.

a class a/b amp is only about 50% efficient.

At full power output.

At 1/3 power (which you will typically be at or below with most musical content), most class A/B's are only around 33% efficient.