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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: You hear, but you can not see.... posted by Rod M on August 25, 2003 at 20:05:53:
I've repeatedly stated that clipping harmonics can make lower power amps slightly more dangerous to tweeters than higher power amps.Assuming the listener plays the treble at exactly the same volume, the clipping amp will produce slightly more treble output from the clipping harmonics of bass and mid-range transients without one touching the volume control -- with real music this is likely to amount to 1/2 to 1 watt of intermittent clipping harmonics, which would be only a small percentage of the power required to damage even a cheap tweeter.
So I assigned 5-10% of the blame for tweeter damage to clipping harmonics.
But the typical "buy a more powerful amp" advice given to someone who has blown tweeters does not work. Some people do get conned into spending a lot of money on more powerful amplifiers. And maybe they will never damage tweeters again. But let's not be so fast to credit the new amplifier -- people who damage tweeters learn from their mistake and usually are more careful about playing LOUD music in the future (I had a tweeter-blowing experience as a teenager in the 1960's and have been much more careful since then = no tweeter damage in the following 35 years).
The reason this "buy a more powerful amplifier advice" does not work is because the new amplifier (assuming it NEVER clips which is probably not true) can only play the treble slightly louder than a clipping amp before the replacement tweeters will be damaged!
(No clipping at all but the tweeters will still be damaged ... although the "good" news is the treble will sound better ...
before the tweeters are damaged this time!"When voltage peaks of bass transients or lower midrange transients are clipped, the average power increases. The music is somewhat compressed ... and just like a compressed dynamic range TV commercial, the music sounds LOUDER. True that the kick drum hits can't reach higher dB's as you turn the volume control clockwise if the voltage peaks are being clipped ... but the guitars and cymbals and everything else can continue to get louder (as the average power increases).
Our perception of loudness is based mainly on the average dB's (power level) -- haven't you ever noticed how LOUD compressed TV commercials can sound -- that's from the high average dB (power) level.
The danger to tweeters from clipping harmonics coming from a clipping amplifier is comparable to turning up the volume slightly with a
non-clipping amplifier. That's why a "more powerful amplifier" accomplishes little -- it doesn't address the root cause of tweeter damage = treble played TOO LOUD for too long!
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Follow Ups
- You can read ... but still didn't understand white paper - Richard BassNut Greene 08:01:19 08/26/03 (0)
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