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Lenaxia · 07-11-2009, 01:10 AM

I actually have two questions:

The first is how to select power ratings on speakers. This is my first audio system and I picked up one of Onkyo's new HT-RC160. I would've done the 607 but the 160 had a pretty steep discount from newegg and I'm not looking to blow out my windows. It's rated for 80W/ch x 7 channels.

Now when selecting speakers to go with it, and I see a power rating should I get one that matches the range more? Specifically I'm looking at a pair of Polk Monitor 50's or Monitor 60's.

The 50's are rated 20-150W and the 60's are rated 20-200W. If I were to get the 60's would the volume suffer if my reciever can't put out enough power? Or would I actually get more? Or does it not even matter?

As a continuation of the previous question, what about choosing a sub. The RC160 has a dynamic power rating of 100W at 8ohms. This means that if I get a 200W continous power sub, I'm wasting 100W even at the peak. But if I were to get a 50W continous power sub (Polk's PSW10), would I risk damage to the sub due to the extra power going to it? Or am I interpreting all these numbers wrong?

My second question is more specific. So right now pretty much only my computer is hooked up to my reciever as I have an HTPC. It serves as my music player, DVD player, Bluray player, etc. However I noticed something interesting. When no sound is being outputted, the reciever turns off the sound channels, and if for instance there's a very quick sound that occurs on the computer, it gets dropped because the reciever can't respond fast enough to turn on the channels and play the sound. Is there anywya to disable this? Not really asking specifically for the RC160 (since not too many people probably have one), but do other Onkyo recievers have a feature as described? I wasnt able to find one.

07-11-2009, 01:10 AM	#1
Lenaxia My plasma is High Def. Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 5	Selecting speakers I actually have two questions: The first is how to select power ratings on speakers. This is my first audio system and I picked up one of Onkyo's new HT-RC160. I would've done the 607 but the 160 had a pretty steep discount from newegg and I'm not looking to blow out my windows. It's rated for 80W/ch x 7 channels. Now when selecting speakers to go with it, and I see a power rating should I get one that matches the range more? Specifically I'm looking at a pair of Polk Monitor 50's or Monitor 60's. The 50's are rated 20-150W and the 60's are rated 20-200W. If I were to get the 60's would the volume suffer if my reciever can't put out enough power? Or would I actually get more? Or does it not even matter? As a continuation of the previous question, what about choosing a sub. The RC160 has a dynamic power rating of 100W at 8ohms. This means that if I get a 200W continous power sub, I'm wasting 100W even at the peak. But if I were to get a 50W continous power sub (Polk's PSW10), would I risk damage to the sub due to the extra power going to it? Or am I interpreting all these numbers wrong? My second question is more specific. So right now pretty much only my computer is hooked up to my reciever as I have an HTPC. It serves as my music player, DVD player, Bluray player, etc. However I noticed something interesting. When no sound is being outputted, the reciever turns off the sound channels, and if for instance there's a very quick sound that occurs on the computer, it gets dropped because the reciever can't respond fast enough to turn on the channels and play the sound. Is there anywya to disable this? Not really asking specifically for the RC160 (since not too many people probably have one), but do other Onkyo recievers have a feature as described? I wasnt able to find one.