Speaker wattage question

Of course, all three elements must come together to make good speaker, but drivers come first, that's the start.

Hi all, I know 165 watts sounds like a lot but it is not a huge amount.

The way to think about this in my opinion is in dB.

100 watts into 8 ohms is a 20 dB amplifier  referenced to 1 watt of power and you add that 20 dB to the 1 watt efficiency of your speakers.  
When talking power 3 db is twice the power so 165 watts is close to 23 dB added to the 1 watt efficiency of your speakers.
a 1000 watt amp is 30dB of power.
So if you decide 1 watt is the reference power level
Then 10* log of (RMS wattage of your amp) is how many dB it adds to the 1 watt efficiency or sensitivity of your speakers.
If you do that with your 165 watt amp you come up with 22.16 dB added to say 90 dB for a total sound pressure level of 112.16 dB at 1 meter.

General rule of thumb if your speakers sound clear you aren't putting in too much power if they sound distorted you should turn it down and see what is going on.


This is how JBL determines maximum power level and it is run for 8 hours to sense failure not distortion.
https://www.jblpro.com/pub/technote/spkpwfaq.pdf

other companies may do it differently.

You can always install a fuse on the speaker cables to insure that you won't damage them...