Kain Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Just wondering if distortion in movies is bad for speakers. When I say distortion, I am talking about stuff such as when the first pod in War of the Worlds comes out of the ground and blows its horn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 That depends. At spirited levels with high sensitivity speakers, it's normally not an issue. With a poorly executed HTIB in a large room, it could be a recipe for a toasted driver. A "bad" situation for the speaker depends on the average voltage across it and at what frequency. If the signal falls within limits, the speaker will be just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brac Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 If your getting distortion or clipping, yes that is very bad for your speakers. If you are referring to the strange sounds in the movie then it's fine. Hard to explain the difference though. Maybe listen at a much lower volume and try to see if it sounds the same (yet softer). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kain Posted January 5, 2013 Author Share Posted January 5, 2013 Yeah, I meant sounds that sound distorted regardless of the volume. In War of the Worlds when the first pod blows its horn, it sounds all distorted regardless of the volume. I just wanted to know if it is recorded in the movie distorted, does it harm speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris A Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Yeah, I meant sounds that sound distorted regardless of the volume. In War of the Worlds when the first pod blows its horn, it sounds all distorted regardless of the volume. I just wanted to know if it is recorded in the movie distorted, does it harm speakers.The only "distortion" that I know to be detrimental to speakers is when your amplifier runs out of overhead and clips - thereby producing extreme amounts of hf signal not present in the source that gets dumped into your tweeters (...assuming that you aren't bi-amping or tri-amping your speakers...). This will likely blow your hf drivers.The other extreme, of course, is if you've got more amplifier than speaker, and wind up over-driving the speaker's drivers or even more commonly overheating the voice coils in lower efficiency drivers/speakers so that they basically distort, melt, or catch fire (yes). In the case of compression drivers like those typically used in Klipsch speakers, it is possible over time to damage the diaphragms due to cumulative overloading of the drivers. Progressive deterioration of phenolic and aluminum diaphragms is a well known phenomenon. Other than that, "distortion" is in the ears of the beholder. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 I know what you are referring to and it CAN be hard on speakers...especially the tweeters. Whenever the recording "engineer" lets the signal "go into the red" while recording, then this same RECORDED distorted signal can/will drive an amp to clipping when played back. For example: Let's use "What a Feeling" by Irene Kara...the "Flashdance" theme song...from the movie. I like the song, myself, but the recording "engineer" screwed up in laying her voice track down...particularly at one particular point near the end of the song...which, when played loud enough, will drive the amp into clipping with the resulting "warbling" sound (that's the only way I know to describe it) in her voice which denotes overdriving the tweeters at that point! The sad thing is that this recording sounds great loud UNTIL you get to that particular point in the song...really SAD! PWK's term for this was "garbage-in...garbage-out"...meaning that a poorly-recorded number will sound even MORE poorly-recorded through horn-loaded efficient speakers. This is an example of what he meant! -Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris A Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Whenever the recording "engineer" lets the signal "go into the red" while recording, then this same RECORDED distorted signal can/will drive an amp to clipping when played back. I believe this is an inaccurate/misleading statement without a bunch of qualifications being added. Recording distortions are not the same as playback distortions. Also, there are analog recordings from that era, and digital recordings. I'll stand by my previous statement: you don't really have much to worry about unless you are overdriving your amplifiers or speaker drivers, except your own ears. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Richard Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 True that, Chris. Many songs using electric guitars and/or synth patches feature an overdriven sound by design. It is part of the "tone" the instrumentalist creates and will not be harmful unless played very, very loud on efficient speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 "If your getting distortion or clipping, yes that is very bad for your speakers." An urban myth. Two things ruin speakers, too much long-term average power, and mechanical damage from over-excursion. Unless the distortion or clipping cause either of the above two, your speakers will not be harmed. Anyone that wants to argue will have their head handed to them when am done with them, search for my previous explanations as to why this is a myth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiva Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 I am aware of that horn blast in War of the Worlds. That blast was extremely impactive and impressive in the movie theater. it was probably one of the loudest sustained sounds I had ever heard in a theater, up to that time. I was looking forward to hearing it when it came out on Blu-ray. When I heard it at home I heard the distortion you are talking about. My thought at the time was that it was too much for my KLF C-7 center channel to handle. Though, now my impression as already stated above is not so much hearing your speakers distort as it is hearing a distorted note on the disc and the speaker is just playing it back. If memory serves, I think I plugged in my headphones and listened for that blast and heard the distortion in it as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 There's a similar sound in the soundtrack to "The Incredibles". There's a scene where a rocket is taking off. The sound of the rocket's engine made it sound like my sub or mains were clipping. It's a crackling noise mixed in with the sound of the rockets exhaust. It took me a while to figure out that it was the sound track and not an issue with my system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 I bought a CD of movie trailers that sounded impressive on the computer. Not so impressive on a 'real' stereo, it's a bit distorted (only in parts). I think the producers do this to simply make it sound louder without having to worry about blowing up lower powered systems in the older theaters. Listen to the MP3 of the entire album: http://positionmusic.com/album.php?id=260 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 I think there's a TV commercial for Windows 8/Microsoft Surface that has built in distortion. Still rubs me the wrong way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 I am aware of that horn blast in War of the Worlds. That blast was extremely impactive and impressive in the movie theater. it was probably one of the loudest sustained sounds I had ever heard in a theater, up to that time. I was looking forward to hearing it when it came out on Blu-ray. When I heard it at home I heard the distortion you are talking about. My thought at the time was that it was too much for my KLF C-7 center channel to handle. Though, now my impression as already stated above is not so much hearing your speakers distort as it is hearing a distorted note on the disc and the speaker is just playing it back. If memory serves, I think I plugged in my headphones and listened for that blast and heard the distortion in it as well.Bears resemblance to the issue discussed here. DTS bouncing off full scale.[] Could try one of the Dolby Digital audio tracks to see if there's an audible improvement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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