Clipping does not blow speakers

[Slayerx 10+ year member]

Sorry if this has been posted before, but thought this would be good to bring up for discussion anyways.

http://www.stekaudio.com/%60Speakers%20and%20clipping.pdf

Thoughts?

Click to read more...

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

tl;dr

 

[Slayerx 10+ year member]

tl;dr

saw this coming lol

 

[wickedwitt 10+ year member]

Heat (and to a small extent true mechanical failure ie. binding of materials) are the only reasons for speakers to fail. This guy just spent 4 pages and lots of maths saying this in a way to confuse anyone who doesn't have a good college education or visual learning ability and some common sense.

The point is, clipping is the number one cause of heat buildup in speaker failure incidents.

 

[ahole-ic]

What is there to discuss? Clipping applies the maximum amount of power the amplifier can deliver for much longer periods of time, disallowing the voice coil proper cool down time between peaks. Heat is what kills speakers. Clipping just increases the heat. A small amount of clipping can increase the amount of time the amplifier stays at max rail voltage by SEVERAL TIMES. Are they one in the same? (clipping and heat?) No but one comes with the other. Clipping causes heat, so it will result in blown speakers in most scenarios.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

Clearly, that writup is contradictory. The author titles the paper "Clipping Does not Blow Speakers." However, in the paper, he references how clipping causes the amplifier to RMS higher voltages than what it is capable of doing when not clipping. These higher voltages are the direct cause of clipping the amplifier and they are transferred to the speakers. The increased voltage, sometimes with a rather large DC component, blows the speaker. I guess clipping does not directly blow the speakers, but the voltage increase is a direct effect of clipping and it blows speakers.

 

[Phoenix Risen 10+ year member]

the only reason that clipping is said to kill speakers is so that some who cant understand what was in that link will know what not to do with out getting overly confused.

 

[Slayerx 10+ year member]

But if the thermal limits of the speaker are not reached, you can send a clipped signal to a speaker pretty much all day, no?

 

[ahole-ic]

But if the thermal limits of the speaker are not reached, you can send a clipped signal to a speaker pretty much all day, no?

Sure but what I think you're not understanding is, the thermal limits are reached MUCH MUCH sooner when clipping.

 

[chillin 10+ year member]

Every three months

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/general-discussion/493927-can-you-blow-speaker-too-little-power-only-smart-people-please.html

 

[Slayerx 10+ year member]

Sure but what I think you're not understanding is, the thermal limits are reached MUCH MUCH sooner when clipping.

No, i get it, but am I really gonna blow a 1,000 watt sub if i clip a 200w amp?

How much much sooner is sooner? lol

Every three months
http://www.caraudio.com/forums/general-discussion/493927-can-you-blow-speaker-too-little-power-only-smart-people-please.html

it's a fun topic lol

especially when people get emotional over it haha

 

[MONSONwarrior Premium Member]

Extremely Disappointed - SSA Car Audio Forum

 

[ahole-ic]

No, i get it, but am I really gonna blow a 1,000 watt sub if i clip a 200w amp? How much much sooner is sooner? lol

I would say you're more likely to blow the amp in that scenario. Usually people try to make up for the deficit somehow. They turn that gain way up and the next thing you know... magic smoke time. BUT, remember it's not the power that blows the speaker either. It's the heat. So, significantly less power but more constant = more power less constant.

 

[Villeza1 10+ year member]

I would say you're more likely to blow the amp in that scenario. Usually people try to make up for the deficit somehow. They turn that gain way up and the next thing you know... magic smoke time. BUT, remember it's not the power that blows the speaker either. It's the heat. So, significantly less power but more constant = more power less constant.

Word. I figured that out when I tried to fry an old kicker cvx