I read in an old thread that the Triton 2s have approx 860 watts of continuous power on board. Is this rating per speaker?

I'm wondering how it is even possible that they would require such a powerful amplifier. There are many full range tower speakers out there that have similar -3db points to the Triton 2s that would never be able to accept anywhere close to that amount of power. Are the Triton 2s extremely inefficient?

Hi Buckchester,
Welcome here on the forum.
I guess all speakers give a recommended power level that they can handle, not that such a figure is of any use that I know of.
And that is a TOTALLY different figure than what you are quoting for the T 2s. They have a built in sub that has its own power amplifier just to run the sub, and it is plenty powerful. That is not power handling, it is power available, probably for a short burst of deep bass, but I will let the Moderator speak to the actual spec.
I cannot find the specs here now for the T 2s, but the T 2+s show a whopping 1200 watts available for the sub, and a power recommendation (handling) of 20-500 watts per channel.
I hope this clears things up a bit, the T 2s are a VERY efficient speaker, around 91 dB if memory serves. That is what the T 2+s are.
So it takes very little amp power to really get them singing.
Please ask more questions if this is not clearer now.
We are happy to help each other on this forum, we have and love these speakers.
My T 2s are wonderful!!!!
God Bless,
Wayne

Thanks for your reply. I guess I just don't understand, but I would like to know more about how this stuff works.

For example, I have a PSA v1500 sub. It's internal amp has a continuous power rating at 725 watts. That seems to make sense, since it's got a tuning frequency in the teens.

However, the Triton 2s (which I also own, BTW) have 860 watts of continuous power in their internal amp (according to a post by a moderator a few years ago). The tuning frequency of the T2 is probably in the low 40s, high 30s? So then why would it need a more powerful amp than the PSA?

And if I were to look at any number of passive tower speakers that have similar low frequency extension to the T2s, I wouldn't be pairing them with an amp that has anywhere near 860 watts RMS. More likely 200-300 max. I don't even know of any external amps that have anywhere close to that amount of output and shudder to think about how much something like that would cost.

See what I'm saying?

Obviously, I'm not an expert in this stuff, but would like to understand better.

Lots of clean power is a good thing. You won't ever use the amps at their max continual output, unless you want to break the speaker. In reality, this kind of power gives you a lot of headroom to reproduce peaks with little dynamic compression or distortion (within the speaker's limits). It's possible to see 50x or even greater peak power needs in recordings.

Well Buckchester, I am glad to hear that you too own T 2s. I hope you find them to be as wonderful sounding a pair of speakers as I do.
I still don't think you are comparing apples and apples. But the ratings for sub amps are, OOPs the Moderator Dude will not like me saying this, but here goes, marketing.
They must put out that kind of power on a short burst, over a very limited freq range, but that is not the same kind of amp spec you would be looking for full range speaker use. Not the same at all, and certainly not the same as the recommended input figures.
What matters is, how they sound. Do they do the job?
I find they sound great and do the job very well.
So I don't get hung up on the numbers.
Hope this helps, but if not, I am sure the Moderator Dude will kick my sorry reply into the dirt and perhaps shed some more light on things.
God Bless,
Wayne

So what is the peak power then of the Triton 2?

It just seems unusual that this speaker would have an amplifier with such a high RMS rating when it doesn't come close to approaching the low-end output of a sub like the PSA V1500.

How is the 860 watts of continuous power in the Triton 2 measured? This can't possibly be measured at full bandwidth (20hz-20khz) at 0.1% (or even 1%) distortion into 8ohms? How was this number measured?