Audio Systems: Receiver, jensen speakers, watt amplifier

Question
I have 2 MTX tower speakers that are 500 watt and 2 150 watt Jensen speakers on my home stereo. If I get a 500 watt receiver that has 100 watts per channel, will that be ok for my speakers?

Answer
In all my years of installing club and concert systems I must tell you that a speaker rating that can handle 500 watts of power are very expensive. Not to say that your sound system didn't cost you. I would truley doubt that rating. Ratings for consumer products are vague. Look for fine print if you can even find it. Is it peak or rms? At what frequency and what standard (AES, EIA, etc) and for how long can it handle a given wattage? The same holds true for receiver ratings. The rating for receiver and speaker should be scrutinized carefully. Let me give you an example: todays receivers are generally surround which means that if they have 6 channels and the rating is 500 watts then you would divide 500 watts by 6 to see approximately how much wattage each channel will deliver. Then of course there is the center channel and subwoofer which may require more or less wattage. The short version is that watts are not the guide to matching a speaker with it's amplifier. The guide is in how efficient the speakers are; what cable are you using and how long is it; how large is the listening space; what volume level makes you happy; position of speakers; acoustic properties of a room. These are basic guides. You will generally get better power transfer from basic amplifiers then all in one receivers. One good rule of thumb is that underpowering a speaker is much worse than overpowering it. For example there is nothing wrong with using a 1,000 watt amplifier to power a 100 watt speaker as long as you don't turn the volume up to where you can cause overexcursion of the speaker driver. The end result will usually be cleaner sound because it is not overworking. Like driving your car at 50 mph when the speedometer says you can take it to 140 mph