Connecting pre-amp to aux-in instead of main-in?

[antcollinet]

Sometimes sensitivity is (incorrectly) called "efficiency,"

Sensitivity and Efficiency are two different ratings.

Sensitivity - dB / Volt
Efficiency - dB / Watt

Sometimes people mix them up.

 

[Chrispy]

Sensitivity and Efficiency are two different ratings.

Sensitivity - dB / Volt
Efficiency - dB / Watt

Sometimes people mix them up.

I always liked this way of looking at it https://sengpielaudio.com/calculator-efficiency.htm

 

[Sokel]

1. Somewhere the sensitivity of your speakers is specified! In the manual, on the back of the speaker, somewhere. Google is your friend. Sensitivity is an important spec, and you can use it to answer some of your questions. Sometimes sensitivity is (incorrectly) called "efficiency," a common (incorrect) name for it for the first many decades of High Fidelity. The sensitivity spec is much more relevant than the power handling capacity of the speaker, dynamic power of your receiver or power amp, etc., partly because manufacturers have (conveniently) not standardized the method of measuring same.
2. How big is your room (in cubic feet)?
3. Is your room "live" (lots of hard surfaces, like glass), "dead" (carpet, soft "overstuffed" couch and chairs), or in-between?
4. How far away from your speakers do you sit?
5. Do you sometimes play music or films with their realistic dynamic range (up to about 100 dB peak for the midrange, and up to 110 dB peak in the deep bass)? Or do you play at a lower volume?
6. I predict that you will be fine keeping and using your Yamaha, but we won't know until you answer these questions, or if you never (well, hardly ever) hear distortion in the loud passages.

I would add EQ to the equation as it can take a good chunk of amplification.
Somewhere in a thread some days ago I saw a correction filling a 14dB dip at about 20Hz (and I think it was an automated one,like DIRAC or something),that would need a separate amp of it's own if level had to stay the same across the spectrum.

 

[garyrc]

Sensitivity and Efficiency are two different ratings.

Sensitivity - dB / Volt
Efficiency - dB / Watt

Sometimes people mix them up.

Yes.

dB / 2.83 Volts / 1M = 1 Watt into 8 Ohms / 1M

There are some old timers (older than me!) who insist on using % in specifying efficiency, reserving dB / input unit / 1M for sensitivity measurements. So a typical speaker, with a sensitivity of 88 dB / 2.83 v / 1M would have an efficiency of less than 1% (about 0.40%). No wonder manufacturers and dealers only rarely talk about efficiency (in %) -- the figures seem minuscule.

One of the most sensitive speakers out there, the Klipschorn, has a true sensitivity of about 101 dB / 2.83 v / 1M* and an efficiency of about 7.9 %.

* Klipsch started out measuring in a simulated living room long before they had an anechoic chamber. When they built one, they still specified sensitivity in a "typical living room," so the sensitivity wouldn't seem to have gone down, I guess, which generated a sensitivity rating of 105 dB, about 4 dB higher than it would have been in an anechoic chamber. An asterisk in their literature explains this.

 

[Chrispy]

Yes.

dB / 2.83 Volts / 1M = 1 Watt into 8 Ohms / 1M

There are some old timers (older than me!) who insist on using % in specifying efficiency, reserving dB / input unit / 1M for sensitivity measurements. So a typical speaker, with a sensitivity of 88 dB / 2.83 v / 1M would have an efficiency of less than 1% (about 0.40%). No wonder manufacturers and dealers only rarely talk about efficiency (in %) -- the figures seem minuscule.

One of the most sensitive speakers out there, the Klipschorn, has a true sensitivity of about 101 dB / 2.83 v / 1M* and an efficiency of about 7.9 %.

* Klipsch started out measuring in a simulated living room long before they had an anechoic chamber. When they built one, they still specified sensitivity in a "typical living room," so the sensitivity wouldn't seem to have gone down, I guess, which generated a sensitivity rating of 105 dB, about 4 dB higher than it would have been in an anechoic chamber. An asterisk in their literature explains this. View attachment 370061

Most of the time people do not see this information about Klipsch sensitivity tho