I am planning to buy a 120wpc receiver for 2 400watts large speakers.will it work or I need to add an amp?

Question

I am planning to buy a 120wpc receiver for 2 400watts large speakers.will it work or I need to add an amp?

Answer 1

It should work fine unless the speakers have very very low sensitivity (by that I mean really low like 80dB). That would mean you would need more watts to power the speakers to normal listening levels.

You'll only damage speakers by under powering if the amp starts clipping. Clipping would be if you had to turn it up so much that it was over driven. If the 120wpc is rated at > 0.1% THD then you should be fine. If it's rated at 120wpc @ 10% THD then I would say you might be in trouble because you could start clipping at moderate volume levels.

If you add a comment on what receiver (make/model) you're looking at I can inform you better.