Safe to overpower speakers?

[tniemuth95]

Hey guys I currently have a 4 channel amp rated at 100w rms x4 or 270w rms x2. My speakers are rated at 100w rms (Alpine SPR-60). Currently I just have them on a single channel and they sound pretty good. I'm wondering if it would be safe to bridge them to 270w rms if I turned the gain down and set it properly with a dmm. I'm wanting to do this because the THD on my amp is rather high. It's a sound ordnance m4100 and the THD is 1%, pretty high. So if I could send the same amount of power to them with the amp working less hard then my overall distortion would be better.

TL;DR- IF gain is properly set is it safe to use 270w rms amp with 100w rms speakers?

Thanks guys!

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[WhatsAminiTruck]

4 channel sub?

But yes, if you have a DMM.... there is nothing wrong with using that amp if you can get the gain right.

You wont be overpowering them if you set the gain correctly...

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

Short answer: no.

Longer answer: 1% THD at RMS power means we can assume the amp is operating at lower THD most of the time. Your speakers would be in trouble if they were getting 100W for more than a few seconds, and on top of that the speakers are adding a LOT more distortion than the amplifier.

Additionally, the amount of power the speakers see is dictated primarily by the music. If it's mostly music made in the 90s or later then it's probably compressed so there is very little dynamic range. Poor dynamic range = less variations on power required to play the transients. Fully explaining this concept takes a while, and if you have the time I recommend you look up "JL Audio School of Sound" on YouTube.

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

Depends on install and a bunch of other things, in addition to what Trumpet said. If you have to ask, then no.

 

[tniemuth95]

Thanks for all the help guys. I'm just going to leave them as they are now, they already sound pretty sick lol. Thanks a bunch