Watt damage

[The Black Adder]

Hi guys n girls (if there is any around these parts)

Ok.. a simple question to some but I'm just wondering about the rated power specs that are set for loudspeakers.

When a speaker is rated at a high sensitivity (say 93), 6 ohms and a max power rating of 30watts does that mean that anything above that will blow it's noodle?

I've been toying with wanting to try a more powerful amplifier with either my Tannoys, Celestions so I can have 2 systems but don't want to damage anything.

Looking in to a Krell or Chord next year maybe.

Cheers

[Reid Malenfant]

No, you'll be safe with an amp of twice the power or more because it'll only feed the speaker a musical signal. The first nasties you will hear will be from the speaker, so turn it down a bit. However, with a low powered amp the first nasties are produced by the amplifier clipping & this sends enormous power to the tweeter as high power high frequency harmonics & cooks it in no time at all :rolleyes:

As an example the Yamaha NS1000M is rated (rather ridiculously imo) at 50W RMS per channel... Yet i have stuffed more than 300W RMS into each bass driver with no damage at all :eyebrows:

[DSJR]

Some very highly efficient speakers will reproduce any noises or distortion at low levels that some amps can give out and, if the speakers are old, make sure they can be refurbished in case of accidents, 'cos most can't - another thumbs up for Tannoy here....

[Puffin]

If you know what distortion sounds like, you know when things are going wrong. Amplifier output and speaker handling are irrelevent.

[The Black Adder]

thanks guys.. It would be used with the Celestions anyway as the Quads work best with the Tannoys. Or, if I decide to get some Harbeths a powerful amp might be best with those,

[RobHolt]

If you know what distortion sounds like, you know when things are going wrong. Amplifier output and speaker handling are irrelevent.

Generally you can hear signs of distress before damage is done, but not always and especially with a vintage loudspeaker.
The problem is often that the voice coil cannot get rid of the heat produced from high power drive. So it can appear to be playing fine and then go into failure pretty fast.

Older soft dome tweeters (and some modern ones) will only take around 5-6w RMS for any period of time. That's actually fine assuming the crossover isn't running the tweeter too low, but if the amplifier is clipping - and that isn't always obvious - the clipped output can easily destroy a dome tweeter.
That's why historically it has always been better to use a more powerful amplifier well within limits than take a smaller amp and stretch it.
More of an issue with SS than rube amps as the latter clip far nicer, usually.


Some very highly efficient speakers will reproduce any noises or distortion at low levels that some amps can give out and, if the speakers are old, make sure they can be refurbished in case of accidents, 'cos most can't - another thumbs up for Tannoy here....

Ah, the importance of the 'first watt' - very important with sensitive loudspeakers.
In fact it isn't even a watt, since with a 90-96dBw loudspeakers you can regularly be listening to an amp producing milliwatts. Noise and crossover distortion need to be well controlled in such amplifiers. Very probably the driving factor in valve amps being popular well into the era of the transistor where sensitive loudspeaker systems were used. Less important today IMO since clean SS at low powers is pretty common.

[Jonboy]

If you know what distortion sounds like, you know when things are going wrong. Amplifier output and speaker handling are irrelevent.

Just be carefull with your (volume) knob ;)

[Puffin]

Just be carefull with your (volume) knob ;)

I always practice safe aural pleasure :lol:

I am in the "sensitive speakers" miliwatt camp. Crossover-less Fostex horns and Pass Labs F2....Luvverly (IMO of course)