Low quality signal to harm the speakers?

[alphaGT]

Playing crappy signals can contribute to blowing a speaker, but in and of itself will not harm it.

Speakers are harmed by too much power, that will either throw the voice coil all the way out of the gap, or melt the voice coil, shorting it out. Unless you tear the paper on an old speaker, (and I’ve done that! I added an amp to the stereo in my truck, and it ripped the center out around the voice coil former! I used contact cement to reattach). But just playing crappy noise will not readily damage speakers.

Using too small of an amp, or in other words, trying to make it play louder than it should, will push the amp into clipping, and that DC current in the signal will heat up the voice coil and melt it.

A speaker is a very simple machine, with only one moving part. Sure, no one wants to listen to a bunch of noise, (although a lot of Pop music makes me wonder?) but if we are worried about damage, Loud pops and unexpected transients can send the voice coil out of the gap! And clipping will melt the coil. Avoiding those scenarios should be easy enough?

Russell

[Sansiiro]

Thanks to all. Avoiding scenarios would be very easy if it were just me pushing the buttons
I have a lot of ground to cover here. Currently all of my listening-habits and soft- and hardware are in the process of renewing and rethinking. Phew.
I have entered the realm of caring about T.H.D. and the manufacturers wont make it easy for the customer with their tilted spec-sheets. I will hit that forum again very soon.