Im not sure how similar Home PA/Karaoke systems are to car stereo but i had a basic question. yes im a noob at stereo stuff.

My pops just bought a new PA package to play karaoke on during family parties, the speakers are rated for 400 watts RMS, 800 peak. its a 2 way cab, 15inch woofer and a 1.75inch titanium tweeter on a horn.

He bought a power mixer handle the speakers. its are rated for 215 watts RMS at 8ohm and like 400 at 4ohms.

i think the speakers are 8 ohm. it looks like i will be under power the speakers by like 40%, is that gonna blow my speakers b/c of clipping. i don't think he'll ever really play the speakers at anywhere near full volume. my living room is only like 30x30 ft ???

thanks for any help/answers.
the mixer is a Behringer PMP3000, the speakers are Behringer B1520 Pro....

 

erll if the setup is rated at 4 ohms ur in and eveything runs and is power great. However, if it is 8 ohms thats ok too. You question about clipping is a good one and i actually just read up a lil more in depth on clipping earlier today while i was at work. Clipping can ruin your speaker plain and simple. However, clipping is causes by not enough signal by the amp which produces noise which in turn burns out the speaker. It still sends a signal, but its a **** one. That is what ruins the speaker. Just keep the volume moderate. The power that is going to the system either way is alot, i used to dj and i was putting 150 watts to each speaker and it was ****ing loud as ****, no issue at all. Like i never had to max them out it was so loud. You should be fine

 

you should be ok. you don't NEED to power them with full rated RMS power to get good performance out of them. would i send more power to them? yeah i personally would, but if the amp is the only one you have, and sends out decent amount of power...i'd go ahead and use it.

 

sweet thanks guys. great answers.

 

Ascendant is correct. You do not need to drive a speaker with the maximum power rating of the speaker. That is very common misconception that I try to stamp out whenever possible. As Subx said it is clipping that can damage speakers, mainly tweeters. This can be caused by overdriving the input section of the amp. A lot of car amps get installed or adjusted with the gain control set on maximum as if it were a volume control. Clipping can also be caused by trying to get more out of the amp than it is able to produce but if the gains are set properly this isn't a problem. It shouldn't be an issue with your home setup (assuming I understood your setup plans).

 

thanks caraudiohelp. i got the speakers in last week. played some cd' music. they sound fine. The bass is a little lacking for what u would expect out of a 15" woofer, there is definitely some bass there, but it isnt punching as hard as one would expect. . i talked to some PA people and they said these systems are meant to be purchased with a subwoofer. The 15 inch speaker on the 2 way kinda acts like full midrange driver that can can hit some of the lower freq. Subwoofer comes in tomorrow probably, ill let you know how it sounds. overall i am pleased with the setup. ill probably end up buying a PA separate PA amp to power the sub.

 

yeah the subwoofer will definately help with the low end. did you mess with any EQ settings?