How much can I overpower 45w speakers?

What wattage should be considered too much for speakers that only need 45 watts rms? I am looking at an amp that puts out 60 and I'm unsure if that is just too much.

An amp will can put out less than its rated RMS power, just turn the gain down a bit. Using a 60 watt amp on a 45 watt speaker should be no problem. Jazzy

Yea judicious tuning can bring pretty much any speaker in line with pretty much any amp. An over/under power situation of just 25% is never going to make much difference though... regardless of the application. Indeed, I used to run 150watts to a componet set rated for 60... to be honest... it was the loudest componet set I've ever ran. Stood up to some serious abuse for a good year or so before one of the midranges blew."I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

as long as the speakers arent distorting, poping, or bottoming out then you should be fine. if you notice that your poshing them harder then they want to be run just cut back on the volume some (or turn the gain down)Tri County KustomZ

certified installer

You CAN overpower them zero watts. That's why the 45 watt rating. This is their THERMAL limit. How much amplifier COULD you connect to them? 10kW... go for it. As long as the output of the amplifier never exceeds 45 watts on a continuous basis, you will be safe. This is where level matching and system matching comes into play. Personally, I run 370 watts per channel to a Morel 6 in each door. These 6 inch woofers are only rated 120 watts, but as I said, careful matching is important when "overpowering" a speaker.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."