gofar99 Messages: 1906 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi, For speakers it would usually mean do not feed them more than that power level. Either severe distortion would occur or damage. The problem becomes one of how are you to know? Amplifier power ratings will not provide a suitable answer. An amp "rated" at 40 watts can be either more powerful or less powerful than the indicated level. Vintage high quality amps (like the Marantz playing above my head right now) are quite conservative and even after nearly 50 years it will deliver around twice what they rated it at. New inexpensive amps are often listed at considerably more than they can deliver before serious distortion set in. They tend to show "peak" watts and that can mean nearly anything. So amp size is not really a good guide on how to know. Considering the 40 watt limit on your speakers I will make a few assumptions (yes I know dangerous to do). First that is generally a really low value for speakers in general. So I would expect them to be actually comfortable with half that amount. Unless they are some super efficient ones then the actual sound level you can get will be on the low side before distortion. Since it is typical to listen at levels well below max ratings as long as you don't push them too hard they will probably be OK. A thing to watch out for is bass response and if you use tone controls how much you boost it. It is quite easy to exceed ratings while trying to get enough bass output. A few clicks on the control will easily get to the max level.
Without further information it is difficult to be more specific, but unless the speakers are high quality and efficient they are likely to be small, inefficient and probably not all that great. Just my 2 cents.
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