Nice article
http://sound.whsites.net/tweeters.htmSo You Want Huge Power for SQ
This article was shared earlier today and I want to draw attention to the bit at the end. I copied and pasted it below.
http://sound.whsites.net/tweeters.htmThere is a comment about turning it up more, with a bigger amplifier in place(MORE POWER), and still being in the danger zone because with reduced distortion comes lower apparent loudness.
I believe if we can't turn it up loud and keep it there reliably then what is the point?
In this group we have members who have had several hundred watts of power available for single bass-limited drivers. I stopped experimenting with this extra headroom several years ago. It peaked with a maximum of 250W RMS per 6.5" midbass driver, which then was stepped up from 90W RMS.
Nothing melted down but this apparent loudness thing is real to me. I remember feeling like "That's it?". It was loud as sheit for sure but it was loud on less power as well.
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Why Do Tweeters Blow When Amplifiers Distort?
Copyright
2001 - Rod Elliott (ESP)
Page Updated June 2015
6. Bigger Amplifiers
A persistent myth in the audio industry is that clipping damages tweeters, so you should use a bigger amp to ensure more headroom so the amp won't clip. This claim is simply bollocks! Take the 100W amp described above, and replace with an amp big enough to prevent clipping ... even with the additional 12dB input signal as shown in Figure 7. Since a 100W amp was just below clipping with an average output of 16W, if we add 12dB that takes the peak amp power to 1.6kW (near enough) and the average power will be 254W.
Do you imagine for an instant that this amp won't blow the tweeters (and everything else) if the input level is increased by 12dB (until it's just below clipping)? Everything will fail, and usually fairly quickly if the speaker was designed for a 'nominal' 100W input. It is simply nonsense to imagine that the loudspeaker drivers in a 100W speaker can survive an average power of over 250W and peak power of up to 1.6kW.
If a user often turns their amp up to beyond clipping levels, they will do the same with a bigger amp. They might even turn it up more, because it won't have the distortion component which increases apparent loudness until the average power is a great deal higher. Such users will never hear signs of speaker distress if they can't even hear gross clipping. Speaker failure is a certainty, even if their 1.6kW amp only ever clips a few transients. They can expect the tweeter to fail, and the woofer to catch on fire.
So, while it's perfectly alright to allow perhaps 3dB or so of headroom for the power amps, that relies on that fact that it is reserved as headroom! If you use the extra power then there's no headroom any more, and all the effects explained will still happen, but at even higher power levels than described above.
Headroom implies that there is extra power for the occasional transient. If you use the extra power, you no longer have any 'headroom' !
