Possible damage to amplifier or speakers

[Guest126]

It shouldn't hurt anything if it was only a second and if you have excellent and durable speakers. Sometimes little things happen. Quality units make provisions for minor abuse. That's one good reason that I usually buy speakers rated comfortably over the amp/receiver's power rating. It provides a cushion for moments when the music really cranks. I've found that even with your system's ratings, you can have peaks in your media that will spike it over a certain wattage.

Just take precaution to double check your settings when turning on/off your system. I've been guilty of little oops in the past as well. I survived!

 

[shelly_d]

OK:

Original Poster: If you don't hear any issues, there are none. Be careful in the future.

IBIS1: Buying speakers with a power rating more then the amp is not the way to protect them from damage. More tweeters are damaged from amps with too little power then with too much power. Here is why: What usually damages the tweeters is too much power in them, heating and melting the thin wires in the voice coils. Generally, undistorted music played at high volume does not deliver that much power to the tweeters because most music puts most of the power demands on the woofer in the low frequencies. The killer is when you demand high volume from low powered amps. The amp will do it's best to provide the power required. Along comes a loud spot in the music and the amp just does not have enough power to put out, so the output waveform goes up in voltage to the max and then just flattens out until the demand passes and the voltage drops again. This is called clipping because the top of the waveform is simply lopped or clipped off. Because of the way physics actually works, clipping produces a very great deal of high frequency, high power harmonics that are not part of the music, which is the distortion you will hear when you drive an amp into clipping. In the speaker, the crossover sees those distortion products and recognizes their high frequency nature and very obediently sends them where all high frequency belongs, the tweeter. The tweeter can't handle this much power (because it is not normally present in most music) and gives up the ghost, the voice coil heats up and either melts the wire or the insulation causing either an open or a short. Either fault puts paid the speaker. The fastest way to damage a pair of 100 watt rated speakers is to use then with a 12 watt per channel amp. They will probably last forever on a 200 watt per channel or higher amp.

Hope this all helps understand what is going on and provides some clarity as to the bullit the original poster dodged when he got the volume down as fast as he did. If all is well, the voice coils did not have time to get hot enough to melt down.

Shelly_D

 

[Guest126]

OK:

Original Poster: If you don't hear any issues, there are none. Be careful in the future.

IBIS1: Buying speakers with a power rating more then the amp is not the way to protect them from damage. More tweeters are damaged from amps with too little power then with too much power. Here is why: What usually damages the tweeters is too much power in them, heating and melting the thin wires in the voice coils. Generally, undistorted music played at high volume does not deliver that much power to the tweeters because most music puts most of the power demands on the woofer in the low frequencies. The killer is when you demand high volume from low powered amps. The amp will do it's best to provide the power required. Along comes a loud spot in the music and the amp just does not have enough power to put out, so the output waveform goes up in voltage to the max and then just flattens out until the demand passes and the voltage drops again. This is called clipping because the top of the waveform is simply lopped or clipped off. Because of the way physics actually works, clipping produces a very great deal of high frequency, high power harmonics that are not part of the music, which is the distortion you will hear when you drive an amp into clipping. In the speaker, the crossover sees those distortion products and recognizes their high frequency nature and very obediently sends them where all high frequency belongs, the tweeter. The tweeter can't handle this much power (because it is not normally present in most music) and gives up the ghost, the voice coil heats up and either melts the wire or the insulation causing either an open or a short. Either fault puts paid the speaker. The fastest way to damage a pair of 100 watt rated speakers is to use then with a 12 watt per channel amp. They will probably last forever on a 200 watt per channel or higher amp.

Hope this all helps understand what is going on and provides some clarity as to the bullit the original poster dodged when he got the volume down as fast as he did. If all is well, the voice coils did not have time to get hot enough to melt down.

Shelly_D

Good explanation; However I've blown speakers in the past that were lower rated than my amplifier.. Having the higher rated (or perhaps a better analogy would be better quality) speakers were able to handle the output from my amplifier without the dreaded "pop" from a fried woofer, or common "bottoming out" when a cone has reached its maximum flex. Tweeters have always been a mystery with me; I've never blown tweeters on a lower rated set of speakers, but I tell you, this same culprit amp blew a pair of tweeters on my good up-rated speakers back in the day. I wasn't a happy camper with my cousin (learned another lesson that day as well....don't let others handle your equipment).

I can definitely see your point, however.

 

[Mihai14]

My amp has twice the power of the speakers and i m not turning the volume more than 1 o'clock. The tweeters aren t blown, the only question i had was if it s possible that this incident would cause a decrease in quality of the sound.

 

[Mihai14]

From the amp or speakers

 

[toxcrusadr]

I count 11 "No's" so far in this thread.

 

[JoeESP9]

Make it 12.

 

[ev13wt]

i don t know if it is in my mind or not. i was wondering if they could get some damage.

yes, you can do damage like that.
Also for example by pulling out a 3.5mm while music is playing (3.5mm is a really shitty standard in regard to ground. Ground should always make contact first.).

Anyhow. Either you get lucky or the tweeter (or something else) doesn't work anymore. You will notice and hear it if something is wrong. It will not lose performance.

 

[the skipper]

Make that 13 "NO's"

Of course, if you really, really want to believe you did damage, just keep listening. I'm sure you can convince yourself that you hear something amiss and that you really did screw it up.

Or, you can simply thank the audio gods that you dodged a bullet, learn from this experience, continue to enjoy your system, and move on.

Your call.

 

[DaveVoorhis]

From the amp or speakers

Reading between the lines, I can see that the 13 or so "no" answers -- to which I could have added a 14th -- might not be what you wanted to hear, so I'll offer this instead:

Yes, subtle but serious damage has been done to your system. It may sound fine, but it isn't. Continuing to listen to it will, over time, cause hearing loss, irritation, haemorrhoids or other sources of anal itching and/or leakage, halitosis, ants in your pantry, ants in your pants, and excessive flatulence in you and/or your cat.

Therefore, you need a new system, and not just a replacement for what you had -- you need a brand-new system of rare quality and capability; one that kicks more audio ass than an ass-kicking thing, and that is truly exceptional in both aesthetics and sound quality.

That last paragraph and appropriate parts of the second paragraph are what I presume your wife and/or significant other needs to see in order to justify the purchase.

You're welcome.

 

[Mihai14]

Reading between the lines, I can see that the 13 or so "no" answers -- to which I could have added a 14th -- might not be what you wanted to hear, so I'll offer this instead:

Yes, subtle but serious damage has been done to your system. It may sound fine, but it isn't. Continuing to listen to it will, over time, cause hearing loss, irritation, haemorrhoids or other sources of anal itching and/or leakage, halitosis, ants in your pantry, ants in your pants, and excessive flatulence in you and/or your cat.

Therefore, you need a new system, and not just a replacement for what you had -- you need a brand-new system of rare quality and capability; one that kicks more audio ass than an ass-kicking thing, and that is truly exceptional in both aesthetics and sound quality.

That last paragraph and appropriate parts of the second paragraph are what I presume your wife and/or significant other needs to see in order to justify the purchase.

You're welcome.

i would really really like an explanation. not to explain what you said, but why u did so.

 

[DaveVoorhis]

i would really really like an explanation. not to explain what you said, but why u did so.

It's a joke. Sometimes jokes or humour are used to add levity to a situation or discussion in order to cause laughter, because humans often find laughter to be enjoyable.

 

[Vintagecheap]

Last time that happened to me the only thing damaged was my hearing. I was actually worried a little. Ears rang for like a day...

 

[shelly_d]

Reading between the lines, I can see that the 13 or so "no" answers -- to which I could have added a 14th -- might not be what you wanted to hear, so I'll offer this instead:

Yes, subtle but serious damage has been done to your system. It may sound fine, but it isn't. Continuing to listen to it will, over time, cause hearing loss, irritation, haemorrhoids or other sources of anal itching and/or leakage, halitosis, ants in your pantry, ants in your pants, and excessive flatulence in you and/or your cat.

Therefore, you need a new system, and not just a replacement for what you had -- you need a brand-new system of rare quality and capability; one that kicks more audio ass than an ass-kicking thing, and that is truly exceptional in both aesthetics and sound quality.

That last paragraph and appropriate parts of the second paragraph are what I presume your wife and/or significant other needs to see in order to justify the purchase.

You're welcome.

Thanks! I needed a good laugh.

 

[toxcrusadr]

 

[Dave_1962]

 

[the skipper]

 

[Dave_1962]

 

[BilboBaggins]

In other words, don’t worry about it.

Carry on!

 

[OMGCat!]

Reading between the lines, I can see that the 13 or so "no" answers -- to which I could have added a 14th -- might not be what you wanted to hear, so I'll offer this instead:

Yes, subtle but serious damage has been done to your system. It may sound fine, but it isn't. Continuing to listen to it will, over time, cause hearing loss, irritation, haemorrhoids or other sources of anal itching and/or leakage, halitosis, ants in your pantry, ants in your pants, and excessive flatulence in you and/or your cat.

Therefore, you need a new system, and not just a replacement for what you had -- you need a brand-new system of rare quality and capability; one that kicks more audio ass than an ass-kicking thing, and that is truly exceptional in both aesthetics and sound quality.

That last paragraph and appropriate parts of the second paragraph are what I presume your wife and/or significant other needs to see in order to justify the purchase.

You're welcome.

This is mean but it sounds like the op is still worried even though there's been a lot of "don't worry about it's" in the thread so far.

As mean as it is to get under someones skin I've indulged in the past as well.

I had a completely anal customer who used to completely go through his car every time I worked on it to make sure there wasn't an errant smudge or grease mark on it. He'd even crawl under it after getting a service to make sure there wasn't an residual oil anywhere or that nothing was left loose.
Even if everything was perfect he'd still hem and haw and make a big deal about how important his limited edition Boxster RS60 blah blah was.

One time he came in with a cracked headlight and scuffed bumper because he's dumb and backed his truck into it.
He was saying how it's fine and just to replace the headlight and touch up the bumper since no one will know it's ever been in an accident.

Our conversation went like this:

Him: Yeah, I'll get this headlight fixed and no one will ever know it's been damaged

Me: But it has been in an accident, that's why we are replacing the headlight and getting the bumper touched up.

Him: No one will know

Me: Joe, you will know.

Him: But, but it doesn't matter. No one will know

Me: But it's not original anymore because of the accident. It doesn't matter who else knows it's just not original anymore. I don't know that I'd even want it anymore if it was my car.

Him: Really, you wouldn't want it? No one will know...

Me: I would know and it would eat me up every time I looked at it you know what I mean? Never mind, you're right. It probably doesn't matter as long as you are ok with driving a car that's been in a wreck.


He started to tear up and walked away. Thankfully he started taking his car to a different dealership after this.

Seriously though, your system is fine. Speakers and amps can typically take far more abuse than we give them credit for.