I've always read that low power amps are more likely to damage speakers than high powered ones (provided they're not overdriven). This normally in threads where a member asks something like: Will my 200 watt amp damage my speakers rated at 100 watts?
I've driven several 86db, or thereabouts, efficient speakers with just a few watt tubed amps and have never damaged my speakers.
Was I just lucky or is it I didn't push the speakers into loud enough volume for the low watts to damage the drivers?
A usual rule is 12:00 High. Should be your max, “should”
Every amp is different with gain and so on. most of my amps, preamps, speakers I’ve owned, usually the 12:00 o’clock high is my max, unless I hit early distortion, and quickly lower the volume!! At most get togethers, by myself, adding some old friends (Powers and Bushmills, etc) our ears and fingers tend to push the volume up a bit more (FIGHT THE TEMPTATION!!!) Slowly volume up until it’s just good enough, unless you have a concert array of line source speakers hanging from your ceilings, Go easy on your gear. Nothing worse than waking up and hearing missing midrange from a right speaker, or the crackling from your left tweeter!
There is a small red line on my pre faceplate, which tells me and the wife (stop here) the wife will never go loud anyway, as she don’t know how to use my stereo ;)
that is an extremely coarse, rough rule of thumb... almost useless, as between 2 components the output capability of one and the input sensitivity of the other, and relative impedance characteristics dictate how far the volume control on the driving unit would be set for proper volume
Beyond extremely coarse. There is nothing in all of audio less significant than the number the volume control points at. Anyone thinks it matters please study carefully the following documentary video clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xgx4k83zzc
As I understand it tweeter have less power handling capacity than mids or woofers. If an amplifier clips it can produce a square wave type signal with a large amount of higher harmonic content that would normally never be present in music. The key factor is whether the amplifier can exceed the tweeter's power handling capabilities. If you clip a 70 watt amplifier for a significant amount of time it's far more likely to damage a typical tweeter than a 5 watt amplifier.
Historically its common for low power amps to damage speakers particularly tweeters when they hard clip and distort.
Tube amps typically soft clip and are less likely to cause damage when clipping to speakers because they distort differently. Read up on clipping and differences between hard and soft clipping for more.
My personal experience is that advances in amp and speaker design over the years makes this less of an issue than in the past, but still something to be aware of and avoid. Clipping is public enemy #1 to good sound....it is distortion and can easily occur anytime to the detriment of sound quality even if no physical damage done. So always better safe than sorry when it comes to having sufficient power to drive speakers to desired levels with minimal distortion.
When at clipping basically the tweeter sees a peak level for an extended period of time. No time for voice coil to cool. Have you ever seen a tweeter on fire? It does not matter if the amp is big or small, you can damage speakers either way. A small amp let's say 5w most likely will not do any harm when clips as its peak output would be much less than the continuous power handling of the tweeter. A 30w amp has more chances to destroy tweeters.
MC Mine goes to 11. Nyah nyah. What Erik said. iPad ain’t got enough power for destruction. Doh. The only tweeter I ever fried was 18 watts, AB SS with a goofy broad at the controls.
Here is the basis for the widely-stated comment that low power amps can blow speakers.
Music is mostly complex sine waves. When an amp is overdriven, it starts clipping. Clipping flattens the tops of the signal, increasingly turning them into square waves. If you look at a full square wave, it goes from all the way "on" at the negative end of the cycle to all the way "on" during the positive phase with no "off" period. Also, square waves contain a lot more high frequency info. A 1 KHZ pure sine wave wave contains only 1 KHz info. A 1 KHz square wave contains a ton of higher frequency harmonics.
So, it is very easy for a clipping amplifier to send lots of power to a tweeter even though the music being played doesn't have a lot of high frequency content. This, combined with the increased "on" periods makes it easy to overheat tweeters in particular, but the other drivers can also be affected.
As others have said, though, clipped music sounds nasty and is clearly obvious to almost any listener. If this happens with your system on a regular basis, you either chose the wrong speakers or the wrong amp.
Do neither, don't over-power them or under-power your speakers especially if you are going demand higher listening levels. Match the amp to the speakers and they are going to sound their best. You don' want to put a 200 watt per channel amp on speakers that are rated only 100 watts or less.
It is the "clipping" of an amplifier which may destroy a speaker. It happens when you overdrive your amplifier (in simplistic terms, this typically means listening to it at very hi volumes).
Regardless of the power of your amplifier, or the power handling capability of your speaker, if you drive your amplifier to clipping levels, then you will definitely have the danger of destroying your speakers.
In your case, since you have not destroyed your speakers, one of these below applies:
- You have not listened to your amplifier at a volume which has yet caused it to clip. - You may have clip detection circuit in your amplifier. - You have been lucky and the crossover network in your speaker has managed to protect them. - You just have been very lucky.
I’ve seen my share of fused voice coils on all manner of drivers, from el cheapo to Wilson Audio, and the culprit is almost always the same...inebriation, ignorance, and raging hormones. Technically, it’s clipping that does it, as stated very clearly by many above. But it’s not understanding the consequences of distortion and being dulled to the awareness of it occurring that is the human cause. Hormones? That’s when you want your HiFi to perform like a nightclub sound system to impress the dancing crowd. In the AM...no tweets!
Solid state amps, if underpowered, will generate large amounts of higher ordered harmonics when overloaded, which the crossover cannot keep out of the tweeter. So the tweeter fails as its only able to handle a few watts.
Tube amps generate less higher ordered harmonic content as they overload, so its much harder for them to damage a tweeter doing this since you get plenty of warning that the amp is being overdriven.
Watts are only a fraction of an amps power rating and the impact it will have on your speakers. I can show you a high current amp that puts out 2 watts and will destroy a lot of speakers. People get way to focused on watts in the power game. Like i have said many times before. It is like an engine with rating of horse power and torque. You can have a 500 horsepower car that could not pull a trailer, and then you could have an engine with 25 horsepower but 2000 feet pounds of torque that can pull a tree stump out of the ground. Point is there is way more to the formula and you have to look at the big picture. The world revolves around marketing and watts per channel is heavily marketed to the masses. Not meaningless but only small part of the big picture.
You know when you overdrive an amplifier the sound gets all kinds of nasty when you do tube amps can mask this to some extent but they still get nasty too just not as nasty as low powered solid state does normally most people are never going to use more than a few watts and if you have efficient speakers above 95db it is the first watt that really matters the most.
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