How much speaker power handling do I need?

I often get asked what amount of power handling is necessary for a speaker or speaker for an amp. There also seem to be some misconceptions among players about what amount of power handling is needed to safely use the amp. The answer depends somewhat on how loud and how distorted a player's sound is. The louder you tend to play and more distorted the higher the power handling needs to be. This is because square waves do not allow the speaker to rest and overheat the voice coil. Heavier duty voice coils and larger magnets can disperse this heat but no speaker is indestructible. Light weight speakers with low power handling sound great but a susceptible to damage.

It is very important to remember that speaker needs to be selected for the tone you want---you should view power handling as qualifying requirement for consideration not specification you need to match. The requirement is that you have enough power handling. There is no such thing as too much power handling. If you like a 25W speaker with a 15W amp great! If you prefer the same 15W amp with a 200W speaker that's great too.

The bare minimum (not recommended):

The bare minimum you'll want 125% of the output rating of the amp. This however only going to be safe for player who play are moderate volumes and relatively cleanly. I do not recommend this amount of power handling. Many of the blow speakers I've encountered have been in setups of this sort.

Our Recommendation for moderate volume and distortion:

We recommend that players use 150% to 200% power handling if they play vintage type sounds at moderate volumes. This will ensure long speaker and vintage sound and feel. This the amount Carl's Custom Amp uses on it's vintage style amps. It will be reliable for most except that that run their amps cranked up at all times.

If you play very loud and/or distorted:

You will want between 4 to 5 times the output power of the amp. This will ensure you will not be blowing speakers on a regular basis. A classic example of this approach was Stevie Ray Vahan's amps. Later in career all his amps were fitted with Electo-voice speakers which could take the abuse of the high volume cranked up tone he used. Many metal player find high power handling necessary to handle the loud distorted tones they use. Even if you do not play loudly and you may like sound of higher wattage speakers. This is good choice too and with eliminate the possibility of blowing a speaker.