Hello, I'm new to the forum and home audio. I have a question that I have tried to find doing a search but can't. I have some new audio equipment and do not want to over drive my speakers and blow them. How do you know when you are over driving or playing speakers too loud? I understand if the speaker is distorting I'm playing them too loud, but can a speaker still blow even if it's not at the level of distortion?
I suppose the potential exists to overheat the voice coil by playing them a their maximum volume for extended (read hours) periods of time. If that's how you generally play them consider pro equipment, and a hearing test.
Thanks for the reply Timn8ter. No I don't play them at their max volume but the woofer does move in and out a bit. Just wanted to make sure this was ok. I appreciate your input, thank you.
A well designed high-excursion woofer should have a large enough voice coil and adequate ventilation to allow it to play within Xmech without failing. If it doesn't, blame the engineer.
You should watch out for playing music loud, when it has little dynamics (difference in loud and soft pieces) e.g. some live-cd's or else. Then it is very tempting to play it loud to get some real feel. Anyway else, you should use your ears to judge. Sensible use will give no damage!
K, you are much more likely to damage the speakers by using amplification which is too small, and asking too much of it, driving it to clipping. Understand if your gear is being overdriven, or the amplification is clipping.
With a source recorded at high or low levels? 2 or 7 speakers? 8 or 2 ohm speakers? Van Halen or Von Beethoven? At 1meter or 1 mile? @20Hz or 20k Hz? Discreet output amplification or front biased?
I think the only rule of thumb is don't suck it...you don't know where it has been.
If it sounds too loud it is too loud. Listen to the highs, if they hurt your ears turns it DOWN. If the bass go to crap turn it down. All speakers will move, that's kind of how they work. As far as the vol. knob is concerned, there is a huge difference from a CD to FM to vinyl.
Yeah depending on the source, volume levels change dramatically. CD seems the loudest and Sat. TV the lowerst. My H/K receivers volume range is -80 to 0 and with a CD I will listen at volumes between -50 to -35. With the TV as low as -25.
When everything sounds real bad, you've gone too far. Even if your close to distortion(just below the volume you know it distorts), you are still probably overdriving them, and they are distorting, you just cant hear it. Play it safe, know the speaker, and amps limits, and limit errors on the volume control! Be especially careful of CDs, or movies with big swings in dynamics, as both the speaker, and amp could be overdriven quickly, without you having time to adjust. Then you will know for sure that they have been overdriven.
ok thanks.