Quote Originally Posted by MomurdA
Sorry if this question has been asked before, but i couldnt find it while searching. If a speaker has a sensitivity of 95db@1w@1m, that means that from one meter away with only one watt going to it it is 95db? And that an increase in ten decibels requires twice as much power to that speaker? The reason im asking is because of my magnepans. They are about 86db@1w@1m. Instead of hooking them up directly to my marantz receiver, i am using a separate amp which is 100 watts per channel @ 4 ohms rms. Is this enuf power to make my maggies sound like they should?
An increase of 10 dB requires 10 times the power, and generally makes the music sound subjectively about twice as loud. An increase of 3 dB is slightly louder and requires twice the power.

The impedance of most speakers varies considerably with frequency it is impractical to try to figure out how much power they are using. Voltage sensitivity is measured with an input of 2.83 volts (which is 1 watt into an 8 ohm load) as it is more difficult--and not very useful--to actually figure out the efficiency of a speaker . Anyway, here is a link to a description of the type of measurements Soundstage does at the NRC:

http://www.soundstagemagazine.com/me...udspeakers.htm

Whether your amp is adequate to drive Maggies depends on how loud you play them.