[fengshenwee]

Hi. I come across this ad and he state that he did not overdrive his speakers through out his years of usage for his Speakers.

A question suddenly comes to mind. Is there such thing as over-driving your speakers? As in if the recommended amp to pair with your speakers is only 25-100w but u are using a 150w one to drive it instead. Will it shorten the lifespan of your speakers which someone told me with normal usage, a pair of speakers can easily last for 10 years.

Sorry for the noob question. Not sure if it is a question that can be answered in the first place. Just wondering if I see the day,(hopefully not) my speakers pop.

[wwenze]

Using a 150W amp to drive a 100W speaker - not a problem.

Using a 150W amp to drive 150W into a 100W speaker - big problem.

Either you see the foam start to break apart, or the driver move out too much and get stuck. Voice coil overheats and burn.

Youtube for subwoofer + torn surround and see what happens.

[weib]

I'm wondering if its according to the volume?
Isn't it pushing 150 watt if you blast it by turning it totally up?

[epos]

short answer: don't bother about high power amp driving small speaker unless it >1KW.

long answer: you can google for more info about power and decibel, like Relationship Between Watts and dBs.

a doubling of electrical power only yields an increase of +3 dB. Increasing the power tenfold will yield an increase of +10 dB and is a doubling of perceived loudness.

some say +6dB(quadruple the power) instead of +10dB(decuble). If an amppifier feed the speaker 50W to produce 100dB, it will need 200W to increase the sound level to 106dB or 500W for 110dB.

generally speaking, the speaker will start to distort before it suffer permanent damage. what you should be careful is NOT to turn the volume too loud and you are safe.

[DragonFire]

Speakers like big amps far better than small ones.

With an oversized amp you will likely damage your ears before the speaker.

With an undersized amp, you may get clipping at relatively low volumes, which will freeze your coils and burn things up.

Driving 300W speakers with amps pushing 800W @ 4 ohms heheheh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipping_(audio)

DF

[fengshenwee]

Thank u for all the info.

[ermotang]

From my experience, I felt using a more powerful amplifier with a lower power speaker an easier choice coz you can attain better details / separation or dynamics at a lower volume. But if with an under powered amp, you might need to increase volume to a certain peak for better dynamics and slam which might cause clipping to your speakers. I'm not an engineer and know nuts about specs. I always believe my ears more than the specs. Ultimately, it's our ears that's the judge,right? Just my 2 cents.

[fengshenwee]

I am just wondering if overdriving the speakers will shorten the lifespan of the speakers.

I did trust my ears and got an amp that is about twice the price of my speakers and which is also a bit more powerful than the recommended amplification.

[DragonFire]

It shouldn't. From experience the amp always breaks before the speakers. Except in one case where fungus ate the cones.

DF

[wwenze]

Originally Posted by DragonFire

It shouldn't. From experience the amp always breaks before the speakers. Except in one case where fungus ate the cones.

DF

You must be working with outdoor events. :s13:

[ermotang]

Originally Posted by fengshenwee

I am just wondering if overdriving the speakers will shorten the lifespan of the speakers.

I did trust my ears and got an amp that is about twice the price of my speakers and which is also a bit more powerful than the recommended amplification.

I've got a 400w Classe power amp with me driving a pair of dynaudio contour 1.3... which I think only about 100w. It's been with me for more than 5 years and still working faithfully.

[wwenze]

Come to think of it... indoors we won't be stressing the systems much anyway as our ears will blow faster than either the amp or speakers. If you use more than 100W @ 1m I'd recommend seeing an ear specialist.

BTW manufacturor ratings are for reference only, both on amps and speakers.

[tensor]

let;s put it this way ah.

even when u purchase a 1xxxxMegaWatt psu.
it doesn't mean u have to use all of the avaliable resource that's an tap yeah?

ps its nice to have a some excess margin on ya amp.
less problem with clipping yeah?

[DragonFire]

Originally Posted by wwenze

You must be working with outdoor events. :s13:

Nah.

In 15 years of service our ARC VT130SE needed service 4 times. 2 blown output transformers, 1 complete output tube replacement (maintenance), and one circuit board rework (the biasing controls stopped working properly)

In the same 15 year time period the ProAc Response 3.5s attached to the amp had to have 2 drivers replaced each due to fungus assault. They used latex cones back then which had issues in our damp climate. That was a particularly expensive operation as matched drivers had to be found.

Entire set was finally replaced last year. We weren't overdriving that set of course, with the VT130 rated at 110W, and the speakers rated for amps between 20-250W @ 8 ohms.

What I am trying to say in the end is that the power amplification kit is a whole lot less reliable than the speakers

Got a 25 year old pair of KEF C80s in the family area that still work perfectly. The attached Denon amp on the other hand has been replaced twice.

DF

[darKHell]

hmm lets not worry abt the speakers being overdriven first... lets worry abt ur own ears