power ratings

[Guest chargerboy]

I have another question. I have two "Realistic" speakers which i think are 12". They are box speakers, but appear to be home made, or at least not formal. As a result, there are no power ratings on the speakers. I have searched for those speakers with the model number and different Radio Shack and Realistic sites and have not found anything. How can I find their power rating? Is there something I could do with a voltmeter?

Thanks,

Michael

[Guest smw]

Michael, unfortunately there's nothing that straightforward. The easiest thing to do would be to pull the woofer out of the box and see if it has a power rating on the magnet. Also check the crossover. The power rating of the tweeter is less important, since the majority of your amp's output goes to the bass anyway.

However, generally power ratings don't have much meaning. There's no real industry standard for them, like there is power output for amplifiers. In general, if you keep your volume at a relatively reasonable level, don't try to use it for PA purposes, you shouldn't have a problem with any size amp. Usually you'll blow out speaker with an amp that's not powerful enough (due to clipping) rather than one that's too powerful.

HTH.

Steve

[Guest chargerboy]

Thank you. That is very useful information.