Are CDT ES-620s really 180 RMS?

[mspiegle]

So I bought a set of these speakers thinking that they were 180 RMS per side. I then emailed CDT's support for speaker specs and he pointed me to the ES-600 woofer PDF (http://cdtaudio.com/pdf/ES-600.pdf). According to that PDF, the woofer itself is only 60RMS/160Peak. I then emailed support back and asked the following:

Hello,
I recently purchased a set of ES-620 components which I am enjoying. I
noticed there doesn't appear to be lots of technical data on this set
and I was curious if the "180 watt" figure on the website was in RMS or
peak? Thanks!

Mike

And then I got the response:

CDT Support wrote:


Hi Thanks for buying CDT speakers,
The power handling is at 100Hz high pass RMS

Rgds
John
CDT Customer service

So, i'm thinking one of the following:
1) They really are 180RMS per side
2) They are 180RMS for the entire set
3) He's lying to me

What do you guys think?

[jonnyb]

put 150 on em, and you'll be fine.

[mspiegle]

put 150 on em, and you'll be fine.

So do you think the spec sheet is wrong, or their speakers are way underrated?

[suleman36]

Use an amp that does 150 x 2 @ 4 ohm

I personally use a ppi a600.2 / 150 x 2 @ 4 ohm to my CDT HD62 set and they sound amazing.

[Jonathan]

Two aspects of power handling: thermal power handling and mechanical power handling.

The reason he says the power handling is rated with a 100hz HPF is because that limits the excursion (rather the overexcursion) of the driver with that much power applied. Go without the filter and the power handling will be less. In other words, their rating is in line with the mechanical limits of the drivers.

Plus, you have to think that just because you're running a 180Wx2 RMS amplifier, doesn't mean that you'll be pushing that much power all the time, if hardly ever at all. Ideally 180 would only occur at the absolute highest dynamic peaks, while usually the amp will be cruising along producing just a couple of watts or so at normal volume levels.

[mspiegle]

Two aspects of power handling: thermal power handling and mechanical power handling.
The reason he says the power handling is rated with a 100hz HPF is because that limits the excursion (rather the overexcursion) of the driver with that much power applied. Go without the filter and the power handling will be less. In other words, their rating is in line with the mechanical limits of the drivers.

I think this pretty much answers my question. Thanks!

I was looking at getting the Zapco 750.2 which should be a fairly good fit for these speakers.