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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: From your example, I would think differently. posted by bwkendall on August 25, 2003 at 14:33:29:
The voice coil wires don't care if the music is distorted or clean sounding -- if there is too much electricity for too long the wires and adhesives of a voice coil will overheat/melt/break. Most amplifiers can actually produce average power 3dB higher than the rated power -- that means a 20wpc amp can usually produce 40wpc ... and 40watts of treble energy can damage almost any tweeter.
So just about any amplifier more than a few watts per channel is capable of damaging most tweeters.When the amplifier is clipping (typically clipping is intermittent during transient sounds such as kick drum hits, snare drum hits, etc.) some high frequency harmonics are generated that reach the tweeter through it's high-pass filter without one touching the volume control. It's just like turning up the volume control slightly.
These clipping harmonics only happen when there is clipping.
They make each snare drum hit, for example, sound harsh.
But since the music is already loud at that point it may take 5dB clipping or more before anyone notices the harshness.Maybe 10dB clipping if listeners are drunk at a loud party before anyone notices.
If the music was already very loud, it's true that an extra watt of clipping harmonics could be the 'straw that broke the tweeters voice coil' but let's not place 100% of the blame on clipping because a more powerful amplifier playing just as loud would also damage the tweeters (although the sound quality would be cleaner just before the damage was done!)
Let's place 90% of the blame on the person who last touched the volume control ... where the blame really belongs ... and buying a more powerful amplifier will do very little to prevent tweeter damage in the future. Too loud for too long with no clipping at all and it's still "goodbye tweeters".!
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Follow Ups
- Its all electricity to the voice coil wires whether clean or distorted - Richard BassNut Greene 16:30:11 08/25/03 (0)
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