Let's try to end this debate!

[Wonderbread 5,000+ posts]

All right, I ahve heard both sides of this one on various posts -

Which is worse for subs/speakers, UNDERpowering, ro OVERpowering?

I was told today that there is no such thing as OVERpowering, but I ahve read posts to the contrary and supporting that theorey for the past few months, any body ahve an opinion??

Click to read more...

 

[zane 10+ year member]

Basically to sum it up-

Underpowering CAN NOT damage speakers in any way shape or form. What damages the speakers is the person attached to the volume, gain, and bass/treble controls. This is commmonly reffered to as user error, and can be harmful to speakers regaurdless of power.

Overpowering is more likely to cause damage, however, this does take a bit of work to do. Most speakers a conservatively rated by thier manufacturers, and will handle more power than they are rated at. However, once the mechanical limits of the speaker are reached- obviously it has no more capacity for the power; at this point is when damage occurs.

take it easy,

-zane

 

[Unregistered]

eh...

Overpowering is not likely to occur couz if you really want to overpower something you should have something to overpower with and a normal car battery is hardly capable of giving you overpower (normal speakers "overpower" when getting more then 57 amps).

But i dont really get the picture couz (atleast i have) my xplods (and all other speakers actually) run through a safety block (Sorry! just a dutch dewd who doesnt know the exact word in english, insurance is a exact translation but wrong in this context) just to prevent overpower actions.

The only reason i did this is because i have two battery's in front of my car and an additional battery tube in my trunk. These are all precautions and are not really needed, if you blow up your speakers (or melt them) you probally have something else very badly connected because normally you ruin speakers by (like the guy above me already stated) gain, treb. bass or high lo pass filters that are wrongly connected and not by actual power flows...

Guy above: you seem to know what you'r talking about, would you be so kind to check out my post under amplifiers? I got a turbo sound when pumpin gass which i cant seem to get ridd off

 

[ramos 5,000+ posts]

9 times out of 10 distortion is what kills speakers. Distortion caused by the listener cranking the volume to a level that distorts the audio signal. In no way shape or form will simply underpowering speakers harm them. Over powering them can. But as zane said previously it takes some work. if you overpower insanley for long periods of time you will run the risk of frying voice coils. but if you use common sense you can actually get away with either. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[zane 10+ year member]

Overpowering can occur off of any standard car electrical system. Sending the full output capability of a Earthquake PHD-2 to even an Eclipse 88120 or Infinity Perfect 12.1- would very likely cause each woofer to fail despite thier excellent construction.

Any speaker will fail once its mechanical limit has been reached, this can only occur by 2 ways- clipping/distortion- as ramos and I have allready mentioned, and also by overpowering. If this does not hold true, then what meaning do BL, Cms, L, Mms, Re, Rms, Sd, Xmag, Xsus, and Xmax really have. Did Mr Thiele and Mr Small mis-calculate something somewhere???

take it easy,

-zane

 

[ramos 5,000+ posts]

There are many comp vehicles on the dbdrag circuit with well over 10,000w RMS. I Believe that amount of power could do some damage to a driver. Maybe ?

 

[carrion 10+ year member]

when you turn the volume down does it blow your system NO so underpowering also does not blow the system but why not take the subs or speakers to there peak RMS (note i didnt say peak watts)

 

[RangerMan Premium Member]

Overpoweing, turning the gains up, and then cranking it up is the most common thing that ruins anything in a system.