Audio Systems: Home stereo problem, home stereo speakers, impedance curve

Question
I recently bought some new Cerwin Vega CLS10 ( 200 peak watt ) home stereo speakers. Upon hooking them up to my system which was powered by a JVC 370 max watt integrated amplifier with 4 channels (which I bought brand new in 1991) I did what any music guru would do and I went to see how good the speakers sounded and of course at a good volume. I was real shocked to see them shut my amp down within seconds at less than half volume. I also have some older Yamaha tower speakers that are only rated at 160 watts max and am able to turn them up as loud as I dare without abusing them to much which is about 3/4 volume and my amp does not shut off at all. By the way I am doing these test playing Steely Dan since it is very clean and clear music. A tech from Cerwin Vega said it might be that my amp is struggling to push the speakers that are a high wattage speaker so I said OK , I went and bought a good used Yamaha A-1020 450 max powered integraded amplifier which was a nice high end amp from the mid 80's that had true, clean power.I was getting about 70 watts per channel from my JVC and now I am getting 125 watts per channel from this Yamaha and am still having the same problem , but I can still crank the old Yamaha tower speakers. I find it hard to believe that this amp is not strong enough to push these speakers since I have have had much bigger and louder Cerwin Vega speakers hooked up to my JVC in the past with no problems but I am no expert. I am using 14 gauge monster cable and the ohms are matched and both amps are clean and in great working order. Please help if you can. Thanks........Todd

Answer
Yes, Steely Dan is great music.  Good test music; very popular with audiophiles and buffs.

I have great admiration for CV speakers. Eugene Cirwinsky, the creator and grandfather of their designs is a super speaker engineer.

The CV speaker you have has a big dip in the impedance curve and puts a very low impendance on the speaker at the 60 to 150 Hz region.  This is too low for many amplifiers.

This speaker should be driven by very robust amplifiers (which integrated and receiver amps are not).  

ALSO: You must check one or both speakers to make sure there are not shorted terminals or some such thing.

BUT: Bottom line, I really think the speakers are the culprit due to their low impedance in the bass register. You will not that CV refrains from putting an impedance rating on their online sales blurb.

Come back to me if there is more to discuss.

C