the power handling rating of your speakers is not the best indicator of how much power you will need. what you need to know is how
efficient the speakers are - ie: what is the spl rating with one watt? in a room as large as yours, i would suspect you will need extremely efficient speakers to fill it w/loud spl's, w/an amp rated 25wpc. speakers definitely rated
at least 95db/1w/1m, as it takes a doubling of power for each additional 3db of sound level increase. and, unless your speakers are a line-source design, not typical 3-way floorstanders, the spl will drop off rather quickly as you get further than 1m away. ie: With a line source radiation pattern, the sound level decays at only a 3 dB per distance doubled rate instead of the 6 dB per distance doubled for a typical speaker such as yours.
also note that more speakers are blown by overdriving an underpowered amp into them, (which causes amp clipping, thus blowing the speakers), then by driving speakers with too much power...
i am not familiar w/the vintage rotel gear; i do know that harman kardon, sansui, & tandberg, among others, made killer integrated amps & receivers in their heydey... go to audiokarma.org for more info on vintage electronics...
doug s.
Hi All,
I’m looking into going vintage and I was just wondering about what my needs will be. I’m pretty keen on getting a Rotel RX series receiver from the seventies. The RX’s tick all the boxes for me; I dig the Rotel sound, I already have an RP-1000 TT which would look pretty cool next to it and finally IMO the RX’s are the sexiest amps/receivers ever built (wife approved for the living room). My question is what model? I’m looking at a RX-402 at the moment (25 watts per channel). I like to listen loud every now and then (but not ear bleeding, have headphones for that). I just really need to be able to drive some three way floorstanders (rated at 100w each) andfill a biggish room (46’ x 26’). Will the 402 do it or do I need the bigger 802?
Cheers
Steve