What speaker wattage?

I am looking to replace the door speakers in my 306, so I am looking
for some 6.5 inch diam speakers, with a max mounting depth of about
65mm.

I am having problems deciding what wattage speakers to put in.
I have a sony head unit which says in the tech specs "4 x 50W music
output at 4 ohms impedence". Fine, but is figure rms, mpo or pmpo?

What wattage speakers would be applicable to this head unit?

I was thinking of fitting a set of sony XSF1731, or something similar.
Trouble is, these speakers are quoted as "180W peak power input",
"rated input 30W".

So are these speakers good enough for my head unit?

I have a feeling the head unit is REALLY 4 x 50W MPO, 4 x 25W RMS.

Therefore these speakers would be ok?

Any advice very much appreciated.
Rich.

On 24 Nov 2004 13:45:24 -0800, richardnoon1@supanet.com (Rich) wrote:

>I have a sony head unit which says in the tech specs "4 x 50W music
>output at 4 ohms impedence". Fine, but is figure rms, mpo or pmpo?

That's the peak output - probably with the head unit run off an
unrealistically high power supply voltage.

>What wattage speakers would be applicable to this head unit?

Anything exceeding the rated output of the head unit.

>So are these speakers good enough for my head unit?

They're perfectly capable of handling the head unit power, but not
amazingly good speakers. Wattage figures are 99% hype, and almost
completely irrelevant. All they tell you is the thermal power
limitations of the speaker before the voice coil fails. The only thing
that can tell you whether a speaker is actually any good is your own
ears. If you want an honest opinion though, you'd do well to spent
another £20-30, and to look towards US or European manufactured
speakers, which generally sound better than similarly priced Japanese
equivalents.

Jon
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