Watts

[AZNracerx1989]

I talked to an audiophile and he said that more watts can help not clipping and you can never overload the speakers... Lets say we have speakers rated 100 watts max... If I put 200 watts to them and keep the volume right so it doesnt kill it, will it burn or blow up?

[mas]

I think what he meant was that it never hurts to have an amplifier that is rated at more than the speaker. The reason for this is actually pretty simple.

Having an amplifier with a greater capacity allows for it to recreate signals without entering into its non-linear range - in other words, without distorting. Distortion will damage a speaker. Having an amplifier with suffient 'headroom' will allow for the reproduction of transients - those moments of loudness - that can easily drive a lesser rated amplifier into its non-linear range beyond which it cannot accurately and 'cleanly' reproduce the signal.

However, you can still overdrive a speaker resulting in a greater dispersion of heat that the construction of the speaker can withstand! And hence the rating in watts - it is a thermal rating - how much electrical energy is converted to heat. Beyond a certain point, too much applied power can damage a speaker.

So, I think what he was getting at was that a higher rated amplifier allows you to run the speaker within the speaker's operational range without the amplifier entering into its non-linear range resulting in distructive distortion while allowing for the accurate reproduction of the median signal levels as well as the more demanding short term transients.

[AZNracerx1989]

Beyond a certain point, too much applied power can damage a speaker.

Is this only when you turn the volume up too high? or will it just damage it without high db?

[mas]

Beyond a certain point, too much applied power can damage a speaker.

Is this only when you turn the volume up too high? or will it just damage it without high db?

The simple answer is yes. Turning up the volume too high can result in damage. But I think that it is reasonable to assume that you will not have a problem with this unless you are trying to prove some point about how loud they will play. (...Without getting into some abstract discussion regarding the driving of some extremely inefficient loading of a speaker, etc.) ...But with a very efficient speaker such as Klipsch you will be able to achieve quite respectible volumes/spl levels without the need to drive the amplifier into its non-linear range and without applying too much 'power' to the speaker. If you simply use some common sense with regards to listening levels you should be fine.

Generally speaking, you cannot go wrong with an amplifier rated greater than your speaker (providing you do not simply over drive it 'because you can'!). You are more apt to run into problems running an amplifier that is too small for the load because you will be tempted to operate the amplifier in its non-linear range thus producing speaker damaging distortion in order to achieve the desired listening levels and in the reproduction of signal transients.

[JohnA]

Beyond a certain point, too much applied power can damage a speaker.

Is this only when you turn the volume up too high? or will it just damage it without high db?

If you are asking what I think you're asking, the answer is no.

A 10,000 watt amp will not damage speakers rated for 100 watts,

unless you turn the volume up so high that more than 100 watts are

pushed into the speakers.

I have damaged speakers with too much power and with too little power. Too much power is obvious, heat kills the drivers.

Too little power is less obvious but causes more damage, more

often. If you have too little power the amp is driven into

clipping and the resulting signal compression and perhaps the harmonics

generated by the clipping amp, overload the tweeters and cause them to

overheat and fail.

A bigger amp, if it still sounds good, is better.

[pauln]

Just for perspective, the waveform going to the speaker is supposed to be wiggly and smooth. When the amp 'clips' the tops and bottoms of the biggest waves get chopped off so that they are flattened. The speaker is designed to play smooth wiggly waves so that the cone is always in motion. As long as the cone is moving to the signal wave it tend to stay cool and within its capabilities.

When the speaker tries to play a 'clipped' signal wave, the speaker interprets the clipped part of the wave as a request to hold the speaker cone in either a back or forward position for a brief period of time. Not only are they not meant to do this, but they generate lots of heat trying to do so - it is like a brief period of direct current going through the speaker which makes it try to sustain a position displacement away from its normal middle position... Very bad for tweeters which have less ability to cool themselves than the bigger speakers that have larger voice coils.