Welcome Clawton,

In my judgment, the 7100 is not overkill for speakers rated for 80 watts. As odd as it may seem to some people, an amplifier output of too few watts is a greater risk to one�s loudspeakers. Reasons:

If, in your case, you drove your speakers with a 50 watts-per-channel amplifier and one day decided to �take things to the limit,� before you would hear distortion based on loudspeaker limits, you would reach the amplifier�s power supply limits and be firmly into �clipping.� Voltage clipping can send large and erratic signal spikes to your loudspeakers. This type of signal can cause damage to components of passive loudspeaker crossover networks and cause the more sensitive of your drivers, especially tweeters, to receive amounts of current and physical excursions well beyond design parameters. Within a few seconds, and sometimes within a fraction of a second, damage can occur.

Let�s consider a situation where the ratio of power is the opposite. At one time I had a pair of speakers rated at 140 watts peak, 40 watts continuous. These were driven with amplification rated at 100 watts per channel, continuous. If I pushed things to the limit, I could hear performance distortion from the loudspeaker beginning well before any signal clipping. This would allow me to lower the volume before the coil windings of the larger drivers, which are usually more robust than the windings found in tweeters, could rise in temperature sufficiently to cause damage. If I had ignored the distorted sound, perhaps after many seconds or even minutes, I could have burned out a coil, but, in this type of situation, I have the time to react to avoid damage.

The other advantage to having a bit more power in the amplifier than the loudspeaker requires is �headroom.� If there are sharp but acceptable transients in the high frequencies of the signal being amplified, the amplifier handles the transients comfortably and accurately. The loudspeakers may receive a level above their continuous rated power for a few fractions of a second here and there, but the signal does not exceed the peak capacity of any of the loudspeaker components or drivers. Your equipment is relatively safe and at less risk when the amplifier won�t be pushed to it�s absolute limits in order to drive your speakers.

Assuming that they are within your budget, I wouldn�t hesitate to give the 950/7100 combo a try. After all, we wouldn�t want your bank account or credit card to be driven into �clipping,� now would we? It�s just about the same principle. If a watt was a dollar, you could spend $80 out of an available $100 to $165 without problems. Trying to spend $80 out of an available $50 to $75 would be a problem.

I hope this helps.


[This message has been edited by bestbang4thebuck (edited February 14, 2004).]