[budyog]

Hey Mike, How much power can they really take. I have never blown and ACI product, but after cranking out Saturday night and I must have been pushing over 5 amps into them because the 5 amp fuses in my AVA 350EXR blew (See Pushing the Limit  in the AVA thread), the Panorama's kept cranking out. Wow did they sound GREAT along with the powerful Maestro sub.
I know taking the lower end out of the Panorama's help, but have you ever hooked them up and kept putting power to them until something blew? If so, what might go first, woofer, mid, tweeter or crossover?

[thedeskE]

I don't know about the upper ranges, but I had a LF blast via a funky receiver crossover mistake one evening that blew air up my body from 8.5 feet away via the port.
The drivers didn't fart. Guessing they got 100 or so at 30, perhaps lower - the surrounds were moving well forward, enough to make me jump out of my chair. I always wondered how 300 would make them feel, but I have no interest in seeing them fry, just wonder how the headroom would sound.

You can cook anything if you feel the need. What's the point?

E

[budyog]

I know you can cook anything if you want to put enough power to it. I guess I was wondering, being that we are able to communicate with the speaker designers directly, how do they come up with the power hanlding maximum?
Do they just combine all the specs of the individual speakers and crossover specs or do the actually hook them up and put the pedal to the metal?

[Mike Dzurko]

I don’t believe we’ve yet had a single driver failure in any Panorama.  I’ve run them VERY hard with 300 watt mono-blocks without any distress . . . I had to be in another room because it was loud enough I needed to protect my ears, but still very clean. The tweeter and mid are pieces we’ve used in several designs over the years and they are as bulletproof as any drivers I’ve experienced. The woofers are very tough indeed, but depending on the frequency content I’d guess they might actually be the first to go, for instance trying to reproduce subsonic movie bass at very high outputs without being high-passed. Still, hasn’t happened yet.

FWIW, for the most part, power ratings are something consumers want to see, but they really don’t mean much. I’ve seen speakers rated at 50 watts that could take a ton of abuse, and I’ve seen speakers rated at 400 watts that were relatively easy to damage. MOST speakers (NOT all) will give some warning. If it starts to sound harsh, or sounds compressed, etc. turn it down a notch and your speakers will live to play another day
 

[budyog]

Thanks Mike!

After what I put the Panorama's through the other night and they took it with ease, I don't believe you will be seeing me needing any replacement drivers. I'll just get another pair of Panorama's, turn them upsidedown and stack'em on top of a "Maestro" in each corner!

[Herb]

Any idea how loud they were playing in db? Curious, are we talking concert level here? TIA

[budyog]

Herb writes,
 

Any idea how loud they were playing in db? Curious, are we talking concert level here?

I am sorry Herb I did not take a DB reading, but I will say it was loud. The loudest I have ever heard my system or any other 2 channel home system. I will also say that there was a little more head room if I wanted to even think about turning  it up more! The Panorama's were not hard on the ears. My friend the next day even said for how loud it was, he could not believe how good it sounded. The room was very full of the full spectrum of sound. When you can play something that loud and sounding that good, who cares about the DB level. Their would have been no way I could have stopped that evening to get the meter out and check the level. We were to into the moment and the show. That would have killed the evening.  
By the way, yes, there was no dought were at some concert levels!.