What Stanwal said. Manufacturer's recommended power ratings are nominal, and you run more risk of damaging your speakers with a small amp than a large one, because of the high frequency content of clipped signals. 380 watts is a good size for 83 dB efficient speakers, assumign the amps can deliver enough current for a 4 ohm load. Most good amps can, and they'll usually put out more power into 4 ohms than they will at 8 -- not quite a doubling, but close. Again, we're talking peaks here, not steady-state, acoustical music typically has a 10-20 dB peak-average ratio, which means that they're playing 10-100 times as loudly on the peaks as they are on average.
Am I going to blow my Apogees with all this power?
I just got a pair of Apogee Acoustics Centaur Majors to replace my Klipsch RF-7's. I purchased a Carver A760X that puts out 380wpc after hearing the RF-7's liked a lot of power, but the Centaur Majors are only rated for 100w-8ohm/200w-4ohm. Am I going to destroy these things? Should I go back to using my NAD 2400 (100wpc-8ohm) for now and consider trading the Carver for a lower power/higher quality amp?
More info: The Centaurs are nominally 6 ohms, but dip to 4 at times. If the Vu meters on the Carver are accurate I'm putting peaks of 300ish watts out at my preferred listening level (peaks of about 90db). The Apogees are much less sensitive, 83db vs 102db for the Klipsch. I haven't listened to the Apogees for extended periods yet.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
More info: The Centaurs are nominally 6 ohms, but dip to 4 at times. If the Vu meters on the Carver are accurate I'm putting peaks of 300ish watts out at my preferred listening level (peaks of about 90db). The Apogees are much less sensitive, 83db vs 102db for the Klipsch. I haven't listened to the Apogees for extended periods yet.
Thanks in advance for any advice.