Too much / too little power "over-drive" speaker?


I know that clipping can occur with too little power, but outside of experimentation, what are the guidelines for having too much power? My system is BW N804's, Classe CA 300 amp, and Classe cp50 pre-amp. Before that I had a smaller amp, and noticed clipping started at higher levels, hence I got the new amp. No Problems at all, very nice clean power, but I'm just worried about getting too much volume, so far I have heard no distortion at relatively high volume, but I haven't pushed it fearing it could blow a speaker. Also, if a speaker does "clip" once or twice, can it sustain permanent damage or does it require sustained clipping? my musical taste is mostly jazz/light rock.
thanks,joe
joeb

Showing 1 response by jvia

Most that know(and I am considering myself one of those for this moment) will say your better of with lots of clean power over your speakers rated "wattage" than too little. If you start overdriving 804's I would imagine the woofers would start bottoming out, and you would hear that. If you are playing the music you say you are, I would have a hard time believing you could do any damage. The speaker can handle huge amounts of power on transients and such, its just sustained volume and abuse, bass control(if you have one) cranked all the way up, distortion being obvious and not doing anything about it.
Personally it sounds as if you have a nice set up, i would think the Classe and the B&W is good sound.