How do i choose speakers?

[ComputerPsych]

So i have a denon dra-700ae and i need speakers to go with it. Im not an audio guy so i dont know how to pick them

[circeseye]

well for one...do you want towers or bookcase style.

look for the systems wattage and higher...dont get speakers below wattage.. 100 to 200 watt speakers are ideal

i wouldnt recommend off brand speakers (cheap)

3 way speakers sound better then 2 way

[ComputerPsych]

3 minutes ago, circeseye said:

well for one...do you want towers or bookcase style.

look for the systems wattage and higher...dont get speakers below wattage.. 100 to 200 watt speakers are ideal

i wouldnt recommend off brand speakers (cheap)

3 way speakers sound better then 2 way

i dont really have space for towers

 

[circeseye]

11 minutes ago, ComputerPsych said:

i dont really have space for towers

 

i have these Yamaha NS-6490 and they sound really good. not really bookshelf. they a little bigger w10-1/2"  x h16-1/5" x d13-1/5"
hopefully others pop in with recommendations but i know these and am really impressed with them

[H713]

16 minutes ago, circeseye said:

well for one...do you want towers or bookcase style.

look for the systems wattage and higher...dont get speakers below wattage.. 100 to 200 watt speakers are ideal

i wouldnt recommend off brand speakers (cheap)

3 way speakers sound better then 2 way

Wattage is largely irrelevant. If they're active, then presumably the manufacturer did their homework and chose a properly sized power amplifier. If they're passive, then wattage ratings are not nearly as useful as some people think. 

 

As an example, my main speakers are a pair of Quested Q108s (it's an old version of the V2108). They're an 8" 2-way with amplifiers in the 100W range. In a medium-size room, they will get obscenely loud without even coming close to clipping the amp on the woofer. With average speakers, a 40 watt tube power amplifier is often enough to create deafening output levels. It all depends on how the speakers and amplifiers are designed. 

 

3-ways can sound better than 2-ways, but not always. It's a tradeoff. Large woofers struggle to perform at high frequencies, and above a certain size it becomes extremely difficult to cross them over to a normal tweeter. That said, some of the best speakers around are 2-ways. For example, most 5" woofers have no need for a dedicated midrange- they can cross quite happily at 1500 - 2000 Hz without any major directivity or breakup issues, and there are plenty of tweeters that won't mind this crossover frequency either. With a waveguide on the tweeter, it gets even easier. Cheap 3-ways are often much, much worse than a similarly priced 2-way, simply because the drivers will be cheaper (and crappier). Furthermore, the crossover design for a 3-way is much trickier to get right- something unlikely to happen in a $150 speaker.

 

Budget, room size and usage are key here. I'm not going to recommend the same thing to someone gaming in a small room as I would to someone who's shopping for soffit-mounted main monitors for their studio.

My impression is that the OP is looking for passive bookshelf speakers to use with their Denon amplifier. How much they want to spend will dictate the recommendations given. 

 

 

[Ahoy Hoy]

Start with what we know.

The amp is 2 channels of 105Watts at 4 ohms. 
Most speakers are between 4 and 16 ohms so lets calculate the powers the amp could run at.
Impedance(Ohms)   Power (Watts)
4                                    105
6                                    70
8                                    53                            
12                                  35
16                                  26


Lets find a speaker with roughly those stats (Im going to use richer sound its a UK supplier and the reviews and normally very accurate)

£60 Wharfedale Diamond 9.0 - 75W at 6 Ohms so the Amp will run this.

 

£129 Wharfedale Diamond 220 - 100Watts at 8Ohms runnable but may not go super loud.

£179 Cambridge Audio SX50 - 90W At 8Ohms

£199 Wharfedale Diamond 12.0 - 60W at 8Ohms

£229 Klipsch R-41M - 50/200 Watt (continuous/peak)8Ohms

£449 Wharfedale Evo 4.1 - 100Watts at 8 Ohms


Within in seconds found multiple speakers at multiple price points all with high reviews from a decent seller all capable of being run on the amp.

So I recommend find a supplier near you if your not in the UK (Richer sounds is best for UK) work out your budget do remember you got to spend a little on cabling. If you see one you like look at it specs and if the power is less then the amps maximum output then it will work. Just be cautious if its drastically less it means the amp could send too much power and break the speaker. If you worried just link a load in forum and Im sure there will be people to comment which is best.

(edited because I did a woopsie and calculated the power wrong by using the wrong resistance in my calculation)

[H713]

3 hours ago, Ahoy Hoy said:

Start with what we know.

The amp is 2 channels of 105Watts at 4 ohms. 
Most speakers are between 4 and 16 ohms in increments of 2 ohms so lets calculate the powers the amp could run at.
Impedance(Ohms)   Power (Watts)
4                                    105
6                                    157
8                                    209
10                                  262
12                                  314
14                                  367
16                                  419


Lets find a speaker with roughly those stats (Im going to use richer sound its a UK supplier and the reviews and normally very accurate)

£60 Wharfedale Diamond 9.0 - 75W at 6Ohms so the Amp will easily run this. Wouldnt turn the amp up too much as it can go over the speakers max rating

 

£129 Wharfedale Diamond 220 - 100Watts at 8Ohms so same again easily run able dont turn amp up too much

£179 Cambridge Audio SX50 - 90W At 8Ohms

£199 Wharfedale Diamond 12.0 - 60W at 8Ohms

£229 Klipsch R-41M - 50/200 Watt (continuous/peak)8Ohms

£449 Wharfedale Evo 4.1 - 100Watts at 8 Ohms


Within in seconds found multiple speakers at multiple price points all with high reviews from a decent seller all capable of being run on the amp.

So I recommend find a supplier near you if your not in the UK (Richer sounds is best for UK) work out your budget do remember you got to spend a little on cabling. If you see one you like look at it specs and if the power is less then the amps maximum output then it will work. Just be cautious if its drastically less it means the amp could send too much power and break the speaker. If you worried just link a load in forum and Im sure there will be people to comment which is best.

Where did you come up with those numbers? If it makes 105W into 4 ohms, then how could it possibly make 209 watts into 8 ohms when P = (V^2)/R ? In a perfect world doubling the load impedance will result in half the power, in practice it's a bit more since the power supplies in these amps are unregulated.

 

As I mentioned, however, speaker power ratings really aren't all that critical. If you're worried about maximum SPL, then you'll want to look at both the power and sensitivity ratings.

Let's say I have a pair of Quested HQ210s. Quested doesn't list their maximum power rating (they list a maximum SPL rating), but they're rated at 92 dB @ 1W  @ 1 meter and knowing the drivers being used, they can comfortably handle a few hundred watts. With that kind of sensitivity, if you put them in your office with a 50W power amplifier, you'll have hearing damage before you run out of headroom on your power amplifier. Quested recommends at least at least a 300W power amplifier, but they also assume these are being used as mains in a large control room. In a smaller, more reflective room you would not need anywhere near this kind of power. This is obviously an extreme example- nobody would put something like that in an office, but it illustrates my point nicely because of their power handling, efficiency and intended application.

As an experiment, turn up the volume until it's louder than you would choose to listen at, then monitor the output of the amplifier on an oscilloscope and see how much voltage swing you're actually getting. You may be very surprised by what you see.

 

Power ratings, however, are usually one of the last specs I look at in speakers for a home stereo. 

[Ahoy Hoy]

3 minutes ago, H713 said:

Where did you come up with those numbers? If it makes 105W into 4 ohms, then how could it possibly make 209 watts into 8 ohms when P = (V^2)/R ? In a perfect world doubling the load impedance will result in half the power, in practice it's a bit more since the power supplies in these amps are unregulated.

 

As I mentioned, however, speaker power ratings really aren't all that critical. If you're worried about maximum SPL, then you'll want to look at both the power and sensitivity ratings.

Let's say I have a pair of Quested HQ210s. Quested doesn't list their maximum power rating (they list a maximum SPL rating), but they're rated at 92 dB @ 1W  @ 1 meter and knowing the drivers being used, they can comfortably handle a few hundred watts. With that kind of sensitivity, if you put them in your office with a 50W power amplifier, you'll have hearing damage before you run out of headroom on your power amplifier. Quested recommends at least at least a 300W power amplifier, but they also assume these are being used as mains in a large control room. In a smaller, more reflective room you would not need anywhere near this kind of power. This is obviously an extreme example- nobody would put something like that in an office, but it illustrates my point nicely because of their power handling, efficiency and intended application.

As an experiment, turn up the volume until it's louder than you would choose to listen at, then monitor the output of the amplifier on an oscilloscope and see how much voltage swing you're actually getting. You may be very surprised by what you see.

 

Power ratings, however, are usually one of the last specs I look at in speakers for a home stereo. 

Woops my bad I put it in the wrong slot of my excel sheet. One mo let me edit that

[HumdrumPenguin]

On 3/4/2021 at 5:28 AM, ComputerPsych said:

So i have a denon dra-700ae and i need speakers to go with it. Im not an audio guy so i dont know how to pick them

Although I haven't heard for myself, I know people that like Tirangle's lineup of speakers. Maybe you could visit a local dealer and check out the Esprit Comete EZ. If I was getting new speakers now, and wouldn't want to spend much, I'd start by looking at these personally.

[H713]

Since we're tossing out high-end offerings now, I'll pitch my recommendation for Quested. The H108 would be the direction you'd want to look since it's a passive speaker. You can sometimes pick these up for a reasonable price on the used market.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[geo3]

Since no budget was specified I'll just say get you some Buchardt A500.