When Distortion Strikes

[unkleybunkley]

What causes distortion?

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[Inferno13 10+ year member]

now theres a newbie question for yah. its when a speaker receives too much power. it cant handle so many watts so it's working over time.

 

[Nolesman 10+ year member]

Can also be wiring. Depends on what kind of distortion you are hearing.

 

[mr4pto 10+ year member]

actually it isnt just too much power. . . distortion can be caused by various things. And I guess it also depends on your definition of distortion. Is clipping and bottoming out considered forms of distortion. Anyways I believe most of the time you will get distortion for one of two reasons. Your sending too much power to a speaker at a frequency it cant handle (ie having your crossovers set incorrectly) The other reason you'd get distortion normally is from under powering. If your trying to get more sound out of your speakers than they were either designed to handle or the amplifier can provide, things start struggling, either the speaker or the amp, to produce clean sounds and you get distortion through that.

 

[Mark_ab 5,000+ posts]

Originally posted by mr4pto Is clipping and bottoming out considered forms of distortion.

Clipping? Yes. It's a distorted signal at both the top and the bottom of the wave.

Originally posted by mr4pto Your sending too much power to a speaker at a frequency it cant handle (ie having your crossovers set incorrectly)

Agreed.

Originally posted by mr4pto The other reason you'd get distortion normally is from under powering. If your trying to get more sound out of your speakers than they were either designed to handle or the amplifier can provide, things start struggling, either the speaker or the amp, to produce clean sounds and you get distortion through that.

Distortion is not a result of underpowering. Generally, it's a result of amplifier saturation where the input exceeds the amplifier's ability for output. If the speaker is struggling, then you are overpowering it with the amplifier. In either case, appropriately set gains will cure this problem.