Thermal Distortion your loudspeaker most likely suffers from it. But do you care?

 I posted because I feel many over-fixate on known or obscure issues without realizing nothing is or can be perfect all is flawed

I guess Easter week is as good a time as any to get philosophical, but even my almost 40 year old speakers have sounded close to perfect for 3+ decades.

Or at least they offer a close enough taste, to convey the perfection of the thoughts.

@johnk actually I am going to walk back may earlier post.

If the crossover or other electronics in a planer speaker are not suffering compression, then it is entirely reasonable for you to have mentioned it.

so it’s a sage post,
 

apologies sir.

Speaker testing often shows thermal compression at 86, 96 and 102 dB.
So if one is listening at 80-85 dB, and there is little or no thermal compression at 102dB, then that is ~20dB of dynamic range.

Hence it is something that, IMO, is worth considering as much as FR.
Along with the HD and IMD, it shows a lot to be concerned about.

 

It’s also part of the sound of interconnects.

Not likely.
This sounds like a #metoo post where interconnects are suffering compression like speakers.
And it reads more like an advert for something not on topic nor germane to speaker compression.

 

Besides the problem of the given audio cable having it’s most perfect impedance at exactly one frequency and one frequency only.

Where all other frequencies are imperfectly handled and are converting to heat and distortion in the phase realm or time realm. smear. noise.

…

OK a 1v signal from a preamp with 600 ohms of output impedance will have < 0.002 W (If shorted).

Into a 100k ohm is almost no “work”/“power”.

 

All cables are compromises designed for the hearing of individuals with individual gear. That’s why there are so many brands and designs.

BS most cables are neutral.

 

That is part of what we complain about when we say that passive preamps are not as good as active preamps.

I found ^that^ pretty hard to believe,

The fact that the output impedance takes a thrashing at low levels is more likely the lion’s share of trouble.

The most linear of all in this area of technological challenge across all levels of loading, is the liquid metal audio cables. We’re talking a good minimum of a magnitude better, to the point that all complaints are pretty well entirely gone and people relax into realism. There is a reason that our now closed Hong Kong Distributor, who was active in and describable as the peak of the Hong Kong High end scene (no small thing, that!), called our best cables ’the biggest most important positive change in audio, of all time, in all technological areas of audio’. The only way to know if it is, or not...it is to try them out.

You distributor’s words should be that they are better than sliced bread. This is not unusual.

 

<Advertisement removed>

 

PS, if you ask why were’ not on everyone’ slips and in every one’s system(if we’re so dang odd, like I say, pfffft...), well it is jungle out there ....and we don’t have a million dollars to spend on advertising and reviews, so that we can make $100k on the vanishingly small group who do actually recognize and seek the best.

If the gear did all of ^that^, it would be nice.
Someone should try it.

What return policy is there?
If you can convince me, then it should get easier with less skeptical types.

===============

Back to thermal distortion of speakers, it is one of the things I look for,
The crossovers can take a thumping in addition to the speakers.

Probably the simplest example/change would be active cross overs.
Say we had a 30W amp, and if it is not clipping it is somewhere in the 1-5W RMS range. And at say 1W RMS there is typically 150 mW going to the tweeter
Now we turn up so it clips and we can get it to ~42w, and probably 20W is going to the tweeter.

So we do an active XO and the tweeter gets maybe 1W and the woofer has a bigger amp, and there is no actual passive XO to fry.

+1 @ieales … another #metoo attempt, and this time trying to sneak in panels as a heat stroke sufferer.

@johnk are we talking about compression? Or something else?

 

I would not claim to be an expert on thermal dissipation through a conductor which travels through a magnetic field.

Me too.

 

However through the decades of experience in electronics and and a hobbyist at speaker building I do know that the speakers that I used have a vented pole piece which aids in keeping the speaker cool while in operation. Also it has a large magnet which helps, large compliance, spider to aid control. Most quality high excursion woofers use this design for that very reason. There is much science applied when figuring the "thermal factor "

If we are talking about compression, then I believe that that sets in on the order or milliseconds, and not minutes, so it is not a long term event.

 

My woofers came with technical blue prints showing Q, free air resonance, magnet weight, cone mass , pole gap magnet strength. and so on. So what? …

Did they have compression plots?

 

 

As back EMF is created by a speaker conductor going through large excursions the thermal distortion is minimal compared to other factors. One of which and foremost the power amplifiers ability to deal with back EMF which is the reverse movement of the cone throughout music reproduction. I tested several high quality, high current, solid state amplifiers that could not deal with it and distorted before the speakers did. In my case the best bang for the buck was a quality tube unit. The cones move more, no distortion. That was one of many examples.

I am pretty sure that tube amps are renowned for having a low damping factor compared to SS amps.
(Or do I have that backwards?)

And I am also pretty sure that back EMF is primarily addressed with amps that have a high damping factor?

 

Matching the type of speakers with the best amplifier makes a huge difference.

Agreed.

 

Also, if you exceed the rated RMS continuous rating to get great dynamics, then you are mismatched. This factor remains true with tweeters and mid range drivers as well. Most important is the end result, sound. My comments are strictly for completely passive speakers.

If the speakers have instantaneous wattage specs, then it could make it easier?
What would be the sound of compresssion limiting?

 

Thermal problems causing audible distortion is the least factor to be concerned with.

It is something that is likely of more interest to people that like higher dynamic range recorded music.

I’l boil down yo answer to “No”.
… Where this was the question:

Thermal Distortion your loudspeaker most likely suffers from it. But do you care?