Overpowering

baboon

So if I use an AMP with a higher RMS ratting than my recommended amount of my speakers, its will not damage my speaker but will play the full range better?

example:
Marantz MA700 monoblock 200watt

with Polk CS1 Center Speaker (125watt)

madmax

It will play louder and cleaner than a lower powered amp before damaging the speaker. I've always gone with massive power and have never fried a woofer or tweeter yet. Of course you can if you really try to.
madmax

*Seby*-Polk-

If you put higher volume levels..you'll probably damage the tweeter. Blown the tweeter . Take carefully. 75 W of difference is too much.

unc2701

*Seby*-Polk- wrote:

If you put higher volume levels..you'll probably damage the tweeter. Blown the tweeter . Take carefully. 75 W of difference is too much.

Actually, that's wrong. Having more power NEVER makes you more likely to blow speakers. The wattage is almost never the issue- a "125 watt" speaker can easily handle 2 or three times that wattage of music. However, with a lower powered amp, when you try to crank it up too loud you stop getting music and start getting clips. These clips act like DC, so you're pumping power through the speaker, but the coil isn't moving, heat builds up and it melts.

baboon

thanks

dorokusai

It's about distortion, not power. I've run almost every speaker I've owned over "rated power" and have yet to damage anything.

If you blow up a speaker....you shouldn't own a stereo.

baboon

I remember a long time ago when I was in jr high, this is over 15 years ago, i stole my brothers jensen car speaker (5-1/4") laying in the garage and hooked it up to my parents fisher stereo amp/tunner and it blew out.

i was young back then so i just assumed i over powered it. but now i think aobut it, the speaker was probably either underpowered or not supposed to be hooked up to a home system.

riglehart

A cheap underpowered amp will blow your speaker quicker than a high power amp. The reason is because the cheap lower power amp will start distorting (ie throwing uncontrolled current) your speaker and blow it.

50 watts of dirty power is much worse than 100 watts of CLEAN power.

Spend money on your amplifier 1st, your speakers 2nd.

dudeinaroom

Back in the day when I was still young and dumb,(no longer young, not to sure of the dumb) I had this 4" woofer out of a tiny 3 way system that was rated for ten watts. The magnet was almost as big around as the cone, and at least 3/4" thick, any ways I pushed it off one channel of a 100X2ch amp, (clean amp nice sounding) and the 4"er took it with out sweating one bit ran it that way for about 3 months, then my friend wanted his amp back, I then hooked the same 4"incher up to a 25 watt sparcomatic eq, I think the speaker lasted 5 days. clean power is noting to worry about, stay away from clipping and you will be fine. the 100 watt amp was an alphasonic which had a thd rating around .005% and the sparcomatic was rated 1% thd. well that just my 12.5 cents worth

AndyGwis

Along these same lines, I'm having issues with my Polk Monitor 60's this evening. I just re-ran the EZEQ on my HK 635 to try to re-calibrate some changes I made regarding my surround speaker positions a couple days ago.

Sounded great watching a movie yesterday. Today, I came home and popped in some music. . . and not at a very loud volume. May have had it up to -25 on the HK for a minute or two, but I've had it higher with no problems. I switched from 5.1 to 2 channel stereo, and all of a sudden, I had just about no sound coming from the high end.

Any troubleshooting techniques? The speaker wires are fine, the low end is fine. I wasn't getting any distortion before I switched to 2-channel that I could tell. Popped in several more cds, and even connected speaker wire to just the high end (taking off bridges). Sounds very, very weak, and I hear some distortion when turning volume up, even at low levels now.

Thanks for any help you can offer. No way I could've fried my 60s' tweeters, right? Not at a reasonable level with HK635's clean power.

AndyGwis

dorokusai wrote:

If you blow up a speaker....you shouldn't own a stereo.

In that case, maybe I should sell my gear. I think I blew both front tweeters tonight. . .

Tour2ma

AndyGwis wrote:

I switched from 5.1 to 2 channel stereo, and all of a sudden, I had just about no sound coming from the high end.

Any troubleshooting techniques?

Thanks for any help you can offer. No way I could've fried my 60s' tweeters, right? Not at a reasonable level with HK635's clean power.

First, switching modes at high volume is a bad idea. As is switching inputs...

You've basically done the troubleshooting and have the results. Call Polk CS and see if you have a warranty replacement coming. Chances are good that you do.

EDIT: To confirm its not the crossover, remove one or both tweeters and apply a low volume signal to it/ them directly.

As for the general jist of this thread, do a search on "clipping". Theories abound on its true nature and why it impacts tweeters, but all agree its not a good thing.

As for speaker power handling ratings, they are for continuous power. Any speaker worth its salt can handle transients that are double its continuous rating. Many can handle four times its rating. Some can handle even more. I ran 60 watt rated Yammie speakers on a Carrver M-1.5t (375 wpc continous, with reserves to 600 wpc) for years without issue.

AndyGwis

Thanks, Tour. I called Polk customer service, and they were very helpful. Didn't blow the tweeters. . . I actually had my towers running directly off my new Carver separate amps in bridged mode for a couple weeks and got used to it. Sounded great in 2-channel, but overpowered the rest of my set-up when I tried to integrate into HT setup.

I hooked them up on the lows of my tower and surrounds with HK635 powering highs. Apparently, there was some major tonal imbalance which was very obvious in stereo without the center channel taking care of most the vocals.

Decided to go back to basic 5.1 setup with HK. . . no carvers. Will either be storing/selling carvers until I find use for them or buy some better speakers for a 2-channel rig.

Tour2ma

AndyGwis wrote:

Sounded great in 2-channel, but overpowered the rest of my set-up when I tried to integrate into HT setup.

You're welcome, but I would not give up on the Carvers just yet. Sounds like you are in need of a calibration disk and an SPL meter.

Here's a link to a great old thread with tips from out now sadly, scarcely posting, Dr. Spec.
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showpost.php?p=92656&postcount=6

And here's a later one on the various calibration disks available:
http://clubpolk.polkaudio.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=22238

jeffwalter

You can damage a speaker with too much power but your ears will bleed from the static just before they go. The only real issue is if you mistakenly crank the volume.

dorokusai

Static = Distortion.