Wattage for Speakers/Output of Receiver.

Actually the counter-intuitive audio rule of thumb is to have your amplifier/receiver to be capable of just a little bit more power than what your speakers are rated for. The most common damage that happens to a speaker occurs when an underpowered amplifier clips (tries to produce more power than it is capable) and a sudden DC voltage exists across the terminals of the speaker. While many woofers can handle this, a tweeter will be thrown hard its full but short excursion and the voice coil gets damaged.

Redfred, As X -designer and manufacturer and repair facility for JBL. Klipsch, B&W, Altec, I agree: what you say is right.

More speakers are damaged, and specifically burnt in the speaker coil winding by amplifiers that are too light and start to clip.

Here a heat snow ball effect develops:

Normally a speaker has a rated impedance, let's say 4 or 8 ohms.

For car speakers 4 ohms or even lower is most common because the power voltage is only 12 volts. For higher power "freak systems" a higher voltage is generated to feed the amplifier.

This impedance of the speakeris commonly know as by 1000 Hz test condition. When an amplifier clips = or is forced to deliver more than it can provide, especially the low tones heat up the voice coil.

If there is no clean signal available, the amplifier "sees more a resistance, close to the copper wire resistance, which can be as low as 0.8 ohms for a powerful 4 ohm rated speaker. Result: the amp wants to give more power, clips more, the coil gets hotter and ... your speaker starts to sound like a spring loaded coil - because the glue of the voice coil fails and...

with some luck you have output fuses in the amp that blow, otherwise...

say goodbye to the end stages of your amp too. I rather GO FOR A HIGHER POWER AMP on a LOWER POWER SPEAKER than the seller's VICE VERSA myth.

Once your bass speakers start producing "square carton" sounds your amp is clipping.

When a bass guitar and a big drum sounds like a beaten bag

Be also aware of our sound detection ear hairs system. They vibrate on different frequencies and once over- bass'ed - hairs gone - nothing comes back - you become selectively deaf.

This however happens first in the MID TONES, because the lowest bass tones are more experienced as a VIBRATION instead of as a sound. LET YOUR MUSIC SOUND NATURAL - your car parts do not need to vibrate through the streets. You should become deaf from S*X too, but that is an other story.

Definitely a GA from me.