Duntech PCL-3 on-wall will xover at 80hz make easier to drive


If you crossover a "hard to drive" speaker, does it really make that much easier to drive if your amp is underpowered?

I picked up a sweet pair of Duntech PCL-3 on-wall speakers. They’re probably 30 years old but sound so dang good! However, I’m going to put them in the bedroom where I only watch tv on 2 channel with a little Marantz receiver at 50 wpm. These are pretty hard to push and 50wpc just isn’t enough.. But, if I add a sub and crossover the speakers at 80hz, how much does that ease the amp strain?

Keep in mind - this is not intended to be an audiophile setup.. The little marantz is perfect because it’s small and has HDMI ARC which is a must have for my tv watching.

Thoughts?
dtximages
Don't worry about a DMM, I just wondered if you could measure the impedance of the Duntech PLC-3's.
I believe imhififan has the correct solution; Set speakers to small and add a subwoofer. +1 imhififan. 

Bringing this back up.. I'm no electrician but I do have a multimeter. What kind of impedence should I expect to see? 8 ohms? Do i connect my multimeter to the speaker terminals?

I have 3 sets of these and they all have different stories.. I HIGHLY suspect some of the crossover components don't operate like new anymore and probably differ greatly in each speaker. Should I put my multimeter ends on the cap and test that?  If so, what is a "good" number? 

You should see about 2.9 to 3.3 ohms DC with nothing connected to the drivers. You'll need to remove the wires from the amp to the driver.  Again, don't mess with the crossover. If you feel they are lacking in power after adding subwoofers, you could replace the amplifiers with 100 to 200 watt amplifiers.  The bigger amplifiers will need to replace the existing amps and be external. Post more info if you have specific questions.

I owned Duntech Princess speakers for 19 years, the longest I've kept any component.  With that bit of experience I can offer a caution.

My Duntechs were rated 90 dB efficient and the manual suggested 100 wpc normal and 200 for "maximum musical enjoyment".  The best performance I experienced was driving them with Parasound JC-1 mono blocs, rated at 800 wpc into the 4 ohm load.  So I didn't consider them to be as efficient as claimed.  I suspected two reasons.  First, the load actually dropped below 3 ohms in the bass range.  Also it had a very complex crossover to achieve the time and phase cohered Dunlavy considered to be so important.

I realize the PLC-3 is much smaller but in my experience all the Duntech models liked power.  His later DAL designs were apparently more efficient.