AaylaSecura
New Member
Greetings! I have to say I have very little knowledge on the topic of audio systems (and electronics in general), and to be honest I don't have the time for thorough research. So I was hoping I can get some advice for my specific needs and to clear some of my confusion. I'd like to build a moderately loud (100dB for a 5m x 8m room with tiles on the floor), good quality 2.0 or 2.1 setup that will connect to my PC. I have an ASUS X99 PRO motherboard which boasts some very high quality sound capabilities (8-Channel Realtek ALC1150), and apart from the usual analog output it has optical S/PDIF digital output, which I'd like to make use of. The specs also list "High quality 112 dB SNR stereo playback output (Line-out at rear) and 104 dB SNR stereo playback input (Line-in)" and "High-fidelity audio OP AMP(s)", don't know what that means or how it is relevant.
Is my understanding correct that:
Power rating in Watts on speaker specifications refers to max safe input power and does not directly relate to the sound pressure level (SPL) in dB? But is this only relevant if connected to a 3rd party amplifier or does it refer to the internal amplifier? What does it tell me if I want to connect it to a 3rd party amplifier?
Sensitivity is the SPL 1m away for 1W of input power? The problem is that most speakers omit the sensitivity in the specifications so how can I tell what the maximum SPL in dB I can get out of the speakers is? Can I connect any speaker set to an amplifier to make it louder and how do I match the power rating of amplifiers and speakers so that it is safe for both the amplifier and the speaker?
I just returned a pair of Microlab Solo 8C since the left speaker developed crackling noise. I noticed that they would get kind of hot if I'd leave them on (even without feeding any sound to them) for a full day and they would also stop working from time to time (it looked like it may be some failsafe built into them). So I wonder what caused them to fail, was it incompatibility between them and my sound card's amplifier? Is it possible to damage my sound card by connecting it to low impedance speakers? The specs for the speakers state that the "amplifier power" is 55W RMS per channel and the input impedance of each driver is 4ohms. I'm not sure what to make of that. Does that mean I can connect them to an amplifier rated for at least (but not much more than) 55W per channel at 4ohm load? I found the speakers to be too quiet sometimes, so I would often turn them to almost max sound, but then I'd hear some distortion--does that mean the power input to them was too high or that they were trying to draw more current than what the amp could provide?
Bottom line: For my motherborad and room, what speakers should I go for and do I need an amplifier?
Is my understanding correct that:
Power rating in Watts on speaker specifications refers to max safe input power and does not directly relate to the sound pressure level (SPL) in dB? But is this only relevant if connected to a 3rd party amplifier or does it refer to the internal amplifier? What does it tell me if I want to connect it to a 3rd party amplifier?
Sensitivity is the SPL 1m away for 1W of input power? The problem is that most speakers omit the sensitivity in the specifications so how can I tell what the maximum SPL in dB I can get out of the speakers is? Can I connect any speaker set to an amplifier to make it louder and how do I match the power rating of amplifiers and speakers so that it is safe for both the amplifier and the speaker?
I just returned a pair of Microlab Solo 8C since the left speaker developed crackling noise. I noticed that they would get kind of hot if I'd leave them on (even without feeding any sound to them) for a full day and they would also stop working from time to time (it looked like it may be some failsafe built into them). So I wonder what caused them to fail, was it incompatibility between them and my sound card's amplifier? Is it possible to damage my sound card by connecting it to low impedance speakers? The specs for the speakers state that the "amplifier power" is 55W RMS per channel and the input impedance of each driver is 4ohms. I'm not sure what to make of that. Does that mean I can connect them to an amplifier rated for at least (but not much more than) 55W per channel at 4ohm load? I found the speakers to be too quiet sometimes, so I would often turn them to almost max sound, but then I'd hear some distortion--does that mean the power input to them was too high or that they were trying to draw more current than what the amp could provide?
Bottom line: For my motherborad and room, what speakers should I go for and do I need an amplifier?