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Silver Member Username: GavincummNew York USA Post Number: 964 Registered: Feb-05 | messing around on the Orb Audio website, I came across their FAQ, and in it they answered the "how many watts are they" question that many people ask about speakers. The answer that they provided is BY FAR the most direct, easiest to understand, and straight to the point "speakers don't have watts" explanation I have ever come across. They also went on explaining how distortion and underpowering speakers can also do damage as well. here...take a look: It is about 3/4 down the page. http://www.orbaudio.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=1 |
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Gold Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 8287 Registered: May-04 | It's a good answer, though I've never noticed a blown speaker smelling burned. As they point out, the wires that open (normally in a tweeter first) are typically very fine guage and buried in the driver's inner workings. But, that's a small issue. As I was called to task for suggesting to someone on another thread that "speakers don't got no watts", I have to amend my answer slightly. Yes, the voice coil moving in the magnetic gap of the speaker's motor does produce some amount of "wattage". We covered this in a thread on bi-amping/bi-wiring where the discussion turned to issues of what happens when the speakers motor's back EMF begins to affect other drivers in the speaker system and/or drive the amplifier's outputs with a negative voltage. So, technically, the idea "speakers don't got no watts" is incorrect. They do produce some amount of back electromotive force (back EMF) which can be measured as a negative voltage and current. Put that in an equation with the resistance (impedance) of the amplifier's output section and you have "watts". That is, this all happens, if we are discussing a typical dynamic speaker with a voice coil operating within a magnetic gap. Of course, not all speakers are dynamic designs. Elecrostats have no voice coil nor magnetic gap. So they, and ribbons, to name a few designs without voice coils, have no (electrical) "watts". All loudspeakers produce acoustic wattage (until someone blows them up that is), but that is another matter all together. Thankfully. Now, do I say, "some speakers don't got no watts; but some do got some; just not as many as you want to think"? Or, do I try to explain why some speakers have some watts and some speakers don't? Then I would have to explain why the watts his speakers might have might be making the watts his amplifier might have sound like crap. And, do I try to do this with someone who seriously believes "speakers do have watts"? And, do I do that if they think if they aren't buying an amplifier with as many watts as their speakers have, they are only driving their speakers to, maybe, 70% of their potential? No, I think my original "speakers don't got no watts" will still be the best approach; and, if anyone wants to dispute the fact on a technicality, I'll let them do the explaining. Thanks for the information though. I'll keep it in mind when someone asks. |
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Silver Member Username: GavincummNew York USA Post Number: 965 Registered: Feb-05 | Jan, Ive blown a speaker and it had a burnt smell to it AT THE VERY MOMENT I did it. I did it once with a woofer in a pair of old klipsch bookshelvs (not my beloved RB-5's) trying to tide me over using them in too large a room for the size of the speaker. I think they were a 5 1/2 or 6 inch woofer speaker in a room fit for a bigger monitor or possibly small tower. I then moved up to the RB-5 from there, and they filled the room much better, even though it was on substandard amplification. This was all before I knew the importance of amplifier / speaker mating it will smell like an electrical fire. That is the only way I can describe it, almost like the smell of burning plastic. Was it because the speakers themselves had plastic drivers? or was there possibly more to the story? I don't reccomend replicating this to find out, unless someone has a pair of old ported (how I could smell the burning) speakers lying around, or wants to burn (literally) 20 bucks for a cheap pair of speakers to blow. |
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Gold Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 8288 Registered: May-04 | Probably the voice coil got hot enough to melt some of the plastic cone it was attached to for a brief period of time. I've never smelled burnt wires. Maybe someone else has. Like I said, most often the tweeter goes out long before he woofer gives it up. Since most of the blown tweeters I've repaired or been around have been silk domes, there's no melting going on. I've never smelled burnt ferofluid either. |
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Bronze Member Username: Mortal_oneCanada Post Number: 33 Registered: Nov-04 | Well I "blew'd up" a horn loaded tweeter once, that was not so bad. Had a slight smell, more like burning plastic. It was from the internal part of the tweeter, as there was "glue" around the wires to keep them in place which had fried (technical explanation). Also fried a regular tweeter, no smell, not near as rugged construction. I have blown three drivers in my time, that I have known off! One, no smell, did not know I did it until the next day when it started to distort at any volume. Two, fried it and it made bad noise and smell as soon as I did it! Third went silent, no sound at all! First one was weird, did not make sense. Two was the amplifier clipping and the speaker clipping at the same time. Bad combination! third as just too much freaking power, oh yes my friends! More Power! That was more than double the power that the driver could take. I have burned wires, soldering iron and a cable that moved to quick, smells bad, hard to describe. |
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Gold Member Username: NuckPost Number: 2212 Registered: Dec-04 | A crossover, on the other hand, can produce enough smoke so as to see it chuffing out of the port in plumes. |