Hey Guys,
I didn’t mean to forget
Bill from
Response Audio.
Hey Bob,
Very nice facts by the way. Could you do us all a favor and jot down some info in regard to "over powering" a speaker. In other words, when we have to worry about voice-coil burnout and how to prevent it.
Well, this one’s pretty deep. Since most woofers will let you know when they’re being pushed too hard by making audible popping noises or obvious distortion, it’s not too hard to know when to back off on the volume. There are a couple of exceptions to that rule though. One is if you are playing loud and there’s a lot of upper bass/lower midrange content. The woofer won’t move far enough to let you know in that case. The other is our
Timepiece 2.1 & Continuum A.D. They’re not excursion limited at any frequency above 30Hz. That’s exceptional from a performance standpoint, as you get the most power handling possible but…they don’t distort enough in the bass to let you know they’re reaching their thermal limits. In lieu of the above, I think the main problem most folks will have is with blown tweeters. Here’s why:
http://www.rane.com/note128.htmlRane’s solution is to use peak limiters. No good for Hi-Fi.
If you want to see what different waveforms actually sound like, try this link:
http://www.physics.umd.edu/lecdem/services/demos/demosh4/h4-01.htmJust click on the pictures of the waveforms. You can see and hear what happens to a sine wave when it’s turning into a square wave. You get that same thing when you clip your amplifier. The triangle and saw-tooth waveforms are interesting as well but they don’t really apply.
You can do the same thing here
http://www.teachnet.ie/amhiggins/lesson4.html but you can change frequencies and even make your own waveform. You can also see how the harmonics change to produce the different waveforms. Pretty cool. Just push the “Play” or “Stop” buttons and in the drop-down box, you can change the type of waveform.
You can also change the frequency on the left. If you do this you’ll find that as you raise the fundamental frequency, the difference between the sine and square waves becomes a little harder to tell apart from one another. Maybe this is why there’s so much debate about amplifiers and/or speakers. These differences can be subtle and some speakers may not be able to resolve them. You can bet SP Tech speakers can though!
Here’s a little more info:
http://csunix1.lvc.edu/~snyder/1ch5.htmlNot a lot there but it’s pretty easy to understand.
Have fun!
-Bob