First, we were never talking about "walkmans"..........Second, amps are rated at at whatever watts per channel they might be WHITHIN certain parameters of distortion just like home amplifiers are rated at. When you force an amp to put out more than their "rated" power, ie turning up the volume too much, distortion increases dramatically. The by-product of that increased distortion is heat..........which is what destroys voicecoils in speakers. You always write a page or two on all these "calculations" but never once make mention of the heat generated by that distortion, which is the REAL culprit that will eventually destroy the voicecoil

 

<sigh> Yet again, I'm forced to quote the relevant portion of your first post...

"First, any amp can blow any speaker........regardless of its manufacturer or power rating."

"Any amp", that includes amplifiers in Walkmans...they're audio amps, too aren't they? The point, which you continue to miss (for some unknown reason) is it doesn't matter what package the amp is placed in, a 5W Walkman amp is not going to destroy a 500W speaker.

Let's make it simple, answer me this one question (there's no caveats or conditions on it, so you can't shy away from it): Do you believe a 5W amplifier can destroy a 500W speaker? If you say "no", then all of the above argument you've given is crap and you shoudl say so. If you say "yes", specify EXACTLY what would destroy the speaker.

Potentially true, but you need to specify exactly what figures you're talking about. Many times manufacturers give you an rms and/or peak figure when only one channel of a multi-channel system is being driven, but people blindly assume the figures given mean when all channels are driven at once. Manufacturers also specify a specific THD figure, but they don't always specify at what power level that figure was measured at...the common figure is measured at 1W, but people blindly assume an amp specified with 0.03% distortion and 400W means it is only distorting 0.03% AT 400W, but in actually it distorts at 0.03% at 1W and maybe 3% at 400W...HUGE difference. Manufacturers do not always tell you the specific details on where their figures came from, a common marketing technique in the electronics arena (something you as a corporate salesman for 5 years, of all people, should realize).

This is absolutely, positively, 100% correct. Do you think I'm somehow disagreeing with you on this point? It's exactly what I've been saying...too much power is killing the coil, not the fact that distortion itself exists, but the resultant power FROM that distortion.

The heat is generated by the POWER, not the distortion. If we go back to your original statements in theis (and other threads), you were jumping up and down screaming "distortion kills, not power", and yet again you were wrong. A 5W amp heavily distorted isn't going to make a 500W speaker flinch, so it's obviously not the distortion. A 500W amp heavily distorted, however, is going to make a 500W speaker go bye bye. Why? Because the extra power cooks the coil.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by PJK3
care to expound on that a bit more?

 

Hey Mac & Mod, I have always subscribed to your explanation of power killing speakers, not distortion (per se). The Walkman-hooked-up-to-the-1000 watt speaker is a great example for challenging that old wives tale that seems to be told again and again and again.

Would one of you mind taking the next step for my curiosity?

What makes an amp clip in the first place? What is the actual electrical process inside the amp that creates a "clipped" wave instead of a, well, "tipped" wave. What are the components that temporarily fail when an amp begins clipping.

Somewhere in this would be the engineering basis for why some amps are rated higher than others, right?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by PJK3

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by LATEOTT
What makes an amp clip in the first place? What is the actual electrical process inside the amp that creates a "clipped" wave instead of a, well, "tipped" wave.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MacGyver

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by PJK3
but how long are you going to listen to a square wave signal at 4000 Wrms before you're ??

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by samura1
How much wattage is too much?

 

correct -- RMS does not refer to power, but voltage. but it's a common misused phrase... technically it's average power, but industry wise, it's actually called RMS power. technically, it's the power created at RMS voltages.