I'm considering an ixl-18 for home theater, however as I don't have any money (yes, I need to sell something to buy the 18 ) I am limited when it comes to powering it. In this case, power will be from a harmon kardon receiver. I can comfortably massage 120wpc (rms) continous from the unit without a second thought. Modeling the driver in a 7cuft/19hz vented box in winisd shows me 111.5dB output 19hz and up at 240w.. I know the receiver will easily exceed 120wpc, and being that this is a dual 2ohm driver, I can reasonably expect 240wrms per coil for short bursts. Thermal limitations will come into play if it needs to supply that much power for extended periods though, and I'd rather not melt my receiver as I eventually plan on using it for biamping (I have two 3 series avr's, a 300 and a 340, both with 6/8 channel direct in's). I have a lot of experience designing enclosures and system for car audio, but when it comes to h/t I'm a bit in the dark. Will 111db typical (240w), 114db short term (musical/dynamic, 480w) be 'enough'? The driver has lots of leg room with this application (480w only takes it to just over half it's xmax worst case), and a power upgrade will take it much further, but I can't see a power upgrade anytime soon. Anybody have some low power tips for h/t? As a reference, my last decent h/t subwoofer was an old phoenix gold 15 in a 5cuft enclosure tuned to 25hz with 115wrms, which would easily remodel my china cabinets a floor above and at the other end of the house during parties and/or movies.
