[QUOTE]Originally posted by oneaudiopro

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by oneaudiopro I have to chuckle when I read some of these threads and see some of the bad or misleading information being exchanged by some of the resident and so called and self proclaimed "Experts".

 

I understand that playing Barry Manilow or extended periods of time will destroy a speaker...and your hearing.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MacGyver

 

William's solution seemed like it would be effective.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by PJK3

 

oh... we shouldn't forget Yanni....

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by WLAURENT

 

Point well taken...............I apologize if I came across egotistical in any way, that was not my intent. I am still however an "expert" in this arena, and I hope that thru further post in here, I will be able to earn all of your respect and also get information in other areas that I could use information that I know little about.......ie exaust, engine mods, intakes, etc.. To clarify my previous post, and to finally put this subject to rest, almost every blown speaker that I have ever dealt with has been blown due to some type of distortion. The by product of distortion is heat, and it is that heat that will burn a voice coil up. That distortion can be caused in several ways...........1)clipping the amplifier.....2)starving the amp of the necessary voltage it needs to put out its rated power(ie..alternator/battery/power wire/etc)....................and 3)In some instances, mounting a speaker(primarily subs) in the wrong enclosure which can result in mechanical failure of the driver because it is not being allowed to operate in it's optimum environment. And yes.........you can damage a speaker that is rated @100 watts easier with a 25 watt amp than you can with a 200 watt amp merely due to the fact that you can induce distortion easier in a smaller amp than you can in a larger one. And one last point.............a couple of people made statements about overpowering a speaker was the same for a "clean" signal as it was for a "distorted" signal. Although distortion may be a component of power, it's best to refer to overpowering a speaker as a "clean" signal as a distorted signal is something entirely different. I hope this clears up any misunderstandings there might have been in my previous posts and I look forward to sharing/gathering more information with all of you in the future. Respect needs to be earned.................I hope this gets me a few steps closer.......................................Bob

 

Everything in your second statement is completely true...a byproduct of distortion is heat, and heat will burn up a voice coil. You'll get no argument from any of us about those statements.

Where you're failing is in the next logical leap. What creates heat? Power being dissipated in the coil's resistance. While the extra power is a byproduct of the heavy distortion, it's an irrelevant point...the power could just have easily come from a clean, yet more powerful amplifier. The conclusion is that too much power destroyed the coil, not the distortion. Distortion was the cause for a larger-than-desired amount of power being applied to the speaker, but the distortion itself is not to blame for the speaker being destroyed, the extra power is. Hence the basic conclusion that power is the killer, not distortion.

Don't forget clipping/overdriving of the input signal. This can be just as harmful since the end result is nothing but an already clipped signal being amplified.

While this will cause distortion, it may not cause harm to the speaker...it depends on what level the speaker is being driven to and how deep the voltage drop is. If the drop is significant, there will be massive distortion, but the amplifier will no longer have significantly high rails, so the power level will drop significantly.

This is a vague and potentially misleading statement, so I'd appreciate some clarification. Just because a speaker is being run in a non-optimum box does not mean harm will come to it. If you attempt to power it to its maximum limits and it's in a non-optimum environment, then yes, harm could come to the speaker through either overheating of the coil or damage to the surround. When underpowered however, the potential for damage is significantly less, and will decrease as you move away from the max spec.

This statement is flat out wrong, and the argument has been raised before. A 25W amp maxed out for distortion will still apply significantly less average power than a 100W speaker would see from a clean music signal at full power. There is one caveat...the increased frequency spectrum from heavy levels of distortion. My previous example using your numbers will hold for a woofer/midrange, but tweeters are a different animal. There IS potential to damage a tweeter with the right kind of distortion due to increased average power levels from the high frequency components. Whether or not this is significant enough to ruin speakers in the real world is still up for debate, and I just don't have the time to sit down at the bench and start plowing into the data with some speakers sitting in front of me....modifry? Want another project?

Normally I would say this is splitting hairs, but considering the discussion was based upon your assertion that blowing a speaker by distortion is not the same as overpowering it, it's an appropriate distinction. The bottom line, though, is that power is what destroyed the speaker, regardless of the source/cause of that power.