Ok i have a qeustion about Speaker's and Wattage which might be easy to answear. I picked up a cheap second hand technics stereo amp (sa gx350) and also i bought some speakers from a guy now these are 9x5 car stereo speakers and fairly good quality. I have put the speakers into some old Japanese bookshelf cabinets and everything is set up to go but....
As it turns out these speakers are 350 watt which is alot i think for a speaker. Anyway i am listening to them with the volume three quarters or even all the way up but the sound lacks a bit on the midrange and even some bass so i am thinking to add a 6" speaker to the bookshelf to compensate and get a fuller sound.
But ! And here is my qeustion what would happen if i add another speaker that has a much lower wattage ? Say 80 watts ? Or maybe even 60 ? or 120 ? Would there be a huge difference in volume between the speakers ? Suppose the cabinet has one 360 watt speaker and one 80 watt speaker in it. Now if i turn the volume dial would the 80 watt speaker get much louder much quicker ? Because it would need less power ?
Thank's if anyone can help ! I might get to the botom of if myself if i get to experiment a bit.
As it turns out these speakers are 350 watt which is alot i think for a speaker. Anyway i am listening to them with the volume three quarters or even all the way up but the sound lacks a bit on the midrange and even some bass so i am thinking to add a 6" speaker to the bookshelf to compensate and get a fuller sound.
But ! And here is my qeustion what would happen if i add another speaker that has a much lower wattage ? Say 80 watts ? Or maybe even 60 ? or 120 ? Would there be a huge difference in volume between the speakers ? Suppose the cabinet has one 360 watt speaker and one 80 watt speaker in it. Now if i turn the volume dial would the 80 watt speaker get much louder much quicker ? Because it would need less power ?
Thank's if anyone can help ! I might get to the botom of if myself if i get to experiment a bit.
First, you seem to be confusing power handling with efficiency.
Power handling, is how much power you can pump into the driver before you start having bad things happen. This particularly for bass drivers can be quite a bit, since it can take a lot of power to move a lot of air.
Efficiency however is how much output you get for a given input. This is often actually negatively correlated with maximum power. Efficiency is usually described as X db @ 1w. Meaning you will get X db of output if you give the driver 1 w. Your SPL will increase by 3db every time you double the power.
So if you had a driver with an efficiency of 88 db that could take 1000w and another that was 94 db efficient, but that could only take 256w. You would get 6 db more SPL wt the same input from the second and they would both have the same maximum SPL, because the 6db higher efficiency on the second would mean that you would get the same SPL as the other does with 4x the power.
For this reason mismatches in the efficiency is actually much more of an issue than mismatches in power handling. As a higher power handing is one way to make up for a lower efficiency.
Second, you can't just toss speakers in a cabinet, you need a crossover to make the drivers work properly. That's the circuit network that filters the frequencies and helps to compensate for the quirks and limitations of the drivers. You don't want a tweeter to be reproducing 20 hz, nor do you want a subwoofer trying to vibrate at 20khz. A speaker driver also may have a bump or dip in it's output at certain frequencies that will change the desired output in ways you don't want, taking care of those quirks is another thing that crossovers do.
They also handle the merging of the output of the drivers. They don't hit a brick wall at a frequency and completely stop reproducing sound, their output starts to drop past a certain frequency and usually falls off with increasing rapidity past that point. However this does mean that if you have a mid that has significant output above 4khz and your tweeter goes down to 3khz, that you've got a range where they will both be outputting a significant volume and you will get an exaggerated output in that range. Again compensating for this is something that your crossover does.
If these are car speakers, I suppose it's possible they may already have some sort of a crossover built in, especially if they are a co-axial (more than one speaker driver in a unit), but you need to provide more details on exactly what you have and exactly what you are trying to do.
Car speakers are also not generally ideal for home audio, since a car is a pretty noisy environment and there are usually some serious limitations on the size of the drivers and their locations. You will probably be better off just picking up some drivers intended for home audio use. You don't have to spend a lot of money on them, Parts Express has a wide selection for just a couple of bucks. You should also probably consider building an already established design, as there are a LOT of non-obvious factors that go into designing a good speaker.
Power handling, is how much power you can pump into the driver before you start having bad things happen. This particularly for bass drivers can be quite a bit, since it can take a lot of power to move a lot of air.
Efficiency however is how much output you get for a given input. This is often actually negatively correlated with maximum power. Efficiency is usually described as X db @ 1w. Meaning you will get X db of output if you give the driver 1 w. Your SPL will increase by 3db every time you double the power.
So if you had a driver with an efficiency of 88 db that could take 1000w and another that was 94 db efficient, but that could only take 256w. You would get 6 db more SPL wt the same input from the second and they would both have the same maximum SPL, because the 6db higher efficiency on the second would mean that you would get the same SPL as the other does with 4x the power.
For this reason mismatches in the efficiency is actually much more of an issue than mismatches in power handling. As a higher power handing is one way to make up for a lower efficiency.
Second, you can't just toss speakers in a cabinet, you need a crossover to make the drivers work properly. That's the circuit network that filters the frequencies and helps to compensate for the quirks and limitations of the drivers. You don't want a tweeter to be reproducing 20 hz, nor do you want a subwoofer trying to vibrate at 20khz. A speaker driver also may have a bump or dip in it's output at certain frequencies that will change the desired output in ways you don't want, taking care of those quirks is another thing that crossovers do.
They also handle the merging of the output of the drivers. They don't hit a brick wall at a frequency and completely stop reproducing sound, their output starts to drop past a certain frequency and usually falls off with increasing rapidity past that point. However this does mean that if you have a mid that has significant output above 4khz and your tweeter goes down to 3khz, that you've got a range where they will both be outputting a significant volume and you will get an exaggerated output in that range. Again compensating for this is something that your crossover does.
If these are car speakers, I suppose it's possible they may already have some sort of a crossover built in, especially if they are a co-axial (more than one speaker driver in a unit), but you need to provide more details on exactly what you have and exactly what you are trying to do.
Car speakers are also not generally ideal for home audio, since a car is a pretty noisy environment and there are usually some serious limitations on the size of the drivers and their locations. You will probably be better off just picking up some drivers intended for home audio use. You don't have to spend a lot of money on them, Parts Express has a wide selection for just a couple of bucks. You should also probably consider building an already established design, as there are a LOT of non-obvious factors that go into designing a good speaker.
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First, Car Speaker operate in the worst possible environment, meaning even the best is not all that good. Next, you are not clear about the impedance of each driver, nor how many you put in each cabinet, nor about how you wired them in the cabinet.
Filling the tiny space of a car is much easier than filling the average room.
Second, without the exact power rating specification, the power rating mean nothing. If that is peak-to-peak power, the the real RMS power rating is about 120 watts.
Third, the power rating of the speaker doesn't matter as much as the power rating of the amp. Your amp by a fair and reasonable standard, is about 50w/ch.
Forth, amps have a limit to the speaker load they can handle. The impedance of the final speaker (not the driver) must be in the range of 4 ohms to 16 ohms for the amp to functionally handle it.
Rarely does the impedance get too high. Far more often it gets too low and exceeds the amps ability to tolerate the heat generated by high current, or a failure to be able to deliver the current being demanded.
Next, NO ONE SHOULD NEVER, under any circumstances play a stereo system above about 1 o'clock on the volume dial, or at best 2 o'clock. Above that is nothing but danger and distortion. I would rather have my system sound better than have it sound painfully (in every sense) louder.
Trust me, how loud you can go or how far you can make the bass drivers jump is not even remotely the slightest measure of the quality of a system.
The 9x5 speaker probably have their own crude crossover built in, however, if you add another driver to the cabinet, you absolute will have to add another crossover to handle the blending of the two drivers.
You have not given us a clear enough description of the speaker nor enough detail information on the driver for us to make any kind of determination on what you have and why it sounds the way it does.
If the speakers are flat in the midrange, one must ask, are you absolutely sure beyond any shadow of a doubt, that all the drivers are wired in the proper POLARITY. That in every case, the terminal marked (+) on the driver is connected to the terminal marked (+) on the amp. Nothing will steal the life of a speaker like one driver being wired backwards.
Steve/bluewizard
Filling the tiny space of a car is much easier than filling the average room.
Second, without the exact power rating specification, the power rating mean nothing. If that is peak-to-peak power, the the real RMS power rating is about 120 watts.
Third, the power rating of the speaker doesn't matter as much as the power rating of the amp. Your amp by a fair and reasonable standard, is about 50w/ch.
Forth, amps have a limit to the speaker load they can handle. The impedance of the final speaker (not the driver) must be in the range of 4 ohms to 16 ohms for the amp to functionally handle it.
Rarely does the impedance get too high. Far more often it gets too low and exceeds the amps ability to tolerate the heat generated by high current, or a failure to be able to deliver the current being demanded.
Next, NO ONE SHOULD NEVER, under any circumstances play a stereo system above about 1 o'clock on the volume dial, or at best 2 o'clock. Above that is nothing but danger and distortion. I would rather have my system sound better than have it sound painfully (in every sense) louder.
Trust me, how loud you can go or how far you can make the bass drivers jump is not even remotely the slightest measure of the quality of a system.
The 9x5 speaker probably have their own crude crossover built in, however, if you add another driver to the cabinet, you absolute will have to add another crossover to handle the blending of the two drivers.
You have not given us a clear enough description of the speaker nor enough detail information on the driver for us to make any kind of determination on what you have and why it sounds the way it does.
If the speakers are flat in the midrange, one must ask, are you absolutely sure beyond any shadow of a doubt, that all the drivers are wired in the proper POLARITY. That in every case, the terminal marked (+) on the driver is connected to the terminal marked (+) on the amp. Nothing will steal the life of a speaker like one driver being wired backwards.
Steve/bluewizard
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Hi yes oh well it is not my intention to to drive the speakers to a very high volume for the sake of it i am doing that because i feel i have to to get the whole picture or sound.
At 9 o clock it is almost inaudible ! But you are right i geuss it is almost painfull volume.
Here is some info on the speakers here...Amazon.com: PIONEER TS-D6902R 2 WAY 6X9 360W CAR SPEAKERS ( PAIR ): Car Electronics
It does as Generic George suspected have a crossover.
"The built-in -12dB/Octave HPF and LPF crossover improves the transition from mid to high frequency, for a smoother mid-range to tweeter response"
Also i beleive i understand or grasp now the difference between power handling with efficiency. Actually i never really noticed the Sensitivity rateing's before.
But the difference in sensitivity rateing's in speakers would seem really minimal to me would there really be noticable difference between two to three decibels ?
I have seen parts express on line and i was thinking of adding this or another Dayton woofer speaker...
Dayton Audio RS150T-8 6" Reference Woofer Truncated Frame 295-342
Dayton Audio DC160-8 6-1/2" Classic Woofer 295-305
I think that if i can add more low end and some mid it might work out all right the sound although it is detailed has just to much high end on it.
Also I am very far from being an expert or haveing the very correct knowledge on how these systems work and probably doing it all wrong and there is maybe a much easier way.
I atach some images of my efforts !
At 9 o clock it is almost inaudible ! But you are right i geuss it is almost painfull volume.
Here is some info on the speakers here...Amazon.com: PIONEER TS-D6902R 2 WAY 6X9 360W CAR SPEAKERS ( PAIR ): Car Electronics
It does as Generic George suspected have a crossover.
"The built-in -12dB/Octave HPF and LPF crossover improves the transition from mid to high frequency, for a smoother mid-range to tweeter response"
Also i beleive i understand or grasp now the difference between power handling with efficiency. Actually i never really noticed the Sensitivity rateing's before.
But the difference in sensitivity rateing's in speakers would seem really minimal to me would there really be noticable difference between two to three decibels ?
I have seen parts express on line and i was thinking of adding this or another Dayton woofer speaker...
Dayton Audio RS150T-8 6" Reference Woofer Truncated Frame 295-342
Dayton Audio DC160-8 6-1/2" Classic Woofer 295-305
I think that if i can add more low end and some mid it might work out all right the sound although it is detailed has just to much high end on it.
Also I am very far from being an expert or haveing the very correct knowledge on how these systems work and probably doing it all wrong and there is maybe a much easier way.
I atach some images of my efforts !
Attachments
Hi,
Just buy some half decent used used speakers compared to the garbage
you have. Adding a driver won't help. Ignore utterly stupid power ratings.
Your Technics will be be fine with any half decent used hifi speakers.
rgds, sreten.
Put the car speakers back in a car, where they belong.
TBH, for car speakers they look quite good.
Just buy some half decent used used speakers compared to the garbage
you have. Adding a driver won't help. Ignore utterly stupid power ratings.
Your Technics will be be fine with any half decent used hifi speakers.
rgds, sreten.
Put the car speakers back in a car, where they belong.
TBH, for car speakers they look quite good.
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Hi yes oh well it is not my intention to to drive the speakers to a very high volume for the sake of it i am doing that because i feel i have to to get the whole picture or sound.
At 9 o clock it is almost inaudible ! But you are right i geuss it is almost painfull volume.
Here is some info on the speakers here...Amazon.com: PIONEER TS-D6902R 2 WAY 6X9 360W CAR SPEAKERS ( PAIR ): Car Electronics
It does as Generic George suspected have a crossover.
"The built-in -12dB/Octave HPF and LPF crossover improves the transition from mid to high frequency, for a smoother mid-range to tweeter response"
Also i beleive i understand or grasp now the difference between power handling with efficiency. Actually i never really noticed the Sensitivity rateing's before.
But the difference in sensitivity rateing's in speakers would seem really minimal to me would there really be noticable difference between two to three decibels ?
I have seen parts express on line and i was thinking of adding this or another Dayton woofer speaker...
Dayton Audio RS150T-8 6" Reference Woofer Truncated Frame 295-342
Dayton Audio DC160-8 6-1/2" Classic Woofer 295-305
I think that if i can add more low end and some mid it might work out all right the sound although it is detailed has just to much high end on it.
Also I am very far from being an expert or haveing the very correct knowledge on how these systems work and probably doing it all wrong and there is maybe a much easier way.
I atach some images of my efforts !
At 9 o clock it is almost inaudible ! But you are right i geuss it is almost painfull volume.
Here is some info on the speakers here...Amazon.com: PIONEER TS-D6902R 2 WAY 6X9 360W CAR SPEAKERS ( PAIR ): Car Electronics
It does as Generic George suspected have a crossover.
"The built-in -12dB/Octave HPF and LPF crossover improves the transition from mid to high frequency, for a smoother mid-range to tweeter response"
Also i beleive i understand or grasp now the difference between power handling with efficiency. Actually i never really noticed the Sensitivity rateing's before.
But the difference in sensitivity rateing's in speakers would seem really minimal to me would there really be noticable difference between two to three decibels ?
I have seen parts express on line and i was thinking of adding this or another Dayton woofer speaker...
Dayton Audio RS150T-8 6" Reference Woofer Truncated Frame 295-342
Dayton Audio DC160-8 6-1/2" Classic Woofer 295-305
I think that if i can add more low end and some mid it might work out all right the sound although it is detailed has just to much high end on it.
Also I am very far from being an expert or haveing the very correct knowledge on how these systems work and probably doing it all wrong and there is maybe a much easier way.
I atach some images of my efforts !
I'm curious if you are testing the speakers using the Turntable. Does this have a radio, if so, listen to the radio and see if the speakers are still quiet.
Make sure the Turntable is connected to the INPUT Socket labeled PHONO. It won't work right with any other input connection. The gain on the PHONO input 100 times what it is on any other input.
Something clearly doesn't add up. These speaker probably aren't great, but they should function. So, either something is wrong with the speaker, or something is wrong with the amp, or something in not plugged in properly.
Check the PHONO connection, my instinct tells me that is the most likely problem.
Steve/bluewizard
Make sure the Turntable is connected to the INPUT Socket labeled PHONO. It won't work right with any other input connection. The gain on the PHONO input 100 times what it is on any other input.
Something clearly doesn't add up. These speaker probably aren't great, but they should function. So, either something is wrong with the speaker, or something is wrong with the amp, or something in not plugged in properly.
Check the PHONO connection, my instinct tells me that is the most likely problem.
Steve/bluewizard
Not sharing the same cavity. Then they will modulate each other (push on each other, with poor results since they are not identical).
You can:
1) Just live with what you have.
2) Take your existing cabinets, coat the insides with anti-vibration goop (auto body undercoat might do, though I'm sure others can suggest better materials), and stuff the cabinets to make them seem a bit bigger to the woofers and absorb midrange frequencies so they don't reflect back out through the woofer cone (1 pound of fiberglass per cubic foot is good. Forget about pillow stuffing. And again, others may have no doubt better suggestions. You can find a BUNCH more information about this and other topics here:
Loudspeaker Design Cookbook 7th Edition Book 500-035
3) Buy some real hifi drivers and follow an existing kit design. Quite true you can get some pretty inexpensive stuff which is very good.
Don't spend much time with the 6x9 car speakers. As an automotive speaker designer, I'll categorically state the every 6x9 ever produced had flawed sound. Well, maybe excepting the Alpine "Juba" 6x9:
which had low power handling but pretty neutral sound. And excepting a pair of Alfa Romeo prototypes a buddy of mine built by hand 😎
Ah Blue Wizard you have hit the proverbial nail squarely on the head there. I had it in the CD area as i thought there would be no difference.
There is a huge change in sound now. It might just have been eaiser to buy some secound hand speakers.
But the sound i think is certainly a step up from my previous old junk !
I am almost gone crazy because i havent been able to listen to a record in a year and a half or even longer !
Thanks to everyone for there help and advice much appreciated !
In the bigger picture, power handling is not one of the more useful specifications even when it is reported honestly... when it comes to car speakers I make it a point not to pay attention.
Two or three dB is not a large difference but it can be heard. If you were going to use them as is, it would be less likely to be an issue if the lower frequency driver wer the more sensitive.
The sound you describe for these speakers seems plausible. Many car two ways use pod style tweeters that seem to cause issues in the lower treble due to their shape, have small voice coils, and cheap plastic cones that sound that way. They are displaced in time from the woofer cone which also often seems to forget about the upper midrange.
OR, on Pioneer's site, it says the above but also says "High-Quality Passive Crossover Network (Woofer, LPF: -6 dB; Tweeter, HPF: -12 dB)"
Personally, without seeing an external crossover box anywhere, I don't believe any of this, especially at this price. Likelier a marketing mistake. I'd bet $10 there is just a capacitor stuck under the tweeter housing.
And, -6 dB does not work on woofers-the inductor's impedance is partly offset by the rising impedance of the woofer and you get more like -3 dB.
-12 dB on tweeters often doesn't work perfectly either, since the resonance of these tiny tweeters is high up, and the resonance impedance peak interferes with the crossover.
Certainly a -6 dB capacitor NEVER works as it should due to the impedances of the tweeters. Plus, yes, the tweeter housing does interfere and cause peaking. Just a cap on the tweeter always made a phase interference with the woofer, resulting in a peak and dip that moved around with different cap sizes but didn't go away. This was with many coaxes of various sizes from different factories that I tested over the years. An off-tuned 12 dB network could get things much better, but car speakers are just far from perfect until you get to very expensive ones. That doesn't mean they are bad, just that you can get better results with home drivers of a similar expense.
So, the problem is resolved and everything is working fine within reasonable limits of the equipment to work fine?
Car speakers are not terrible (with in a certain context), but neither are the great unless you have spent a King's Ransom on them. As always, in a car or in a house, you get what you pay for. But ...then... they are speakers.
I saw a YouTube video where a guy built some oval car speakers into a floorstanding cabinets, and to the extent I could tell from the YouTube video they sounded OK. He was certainly happy with the result for the price. But then, the price wasn't all that high.
Now a couple of general information points that have been touched on, and while they don't need to be known to solve your problem, which now seems to be solved, but it is good to know and good to understand.
When you change the volume by 3dB you DOUBLE or half the power. That is right - DOUBLE THE POWER.
But what is 3dB? When you turn the volume control on your amp, the smallest change in sound you can hear is about 3dB. Simply gently turn the amp up until you perceive a change in the sound level, and that is 3dB.
If you have a modern AV amp, they have a read out in dB, so you can simply change that ±3dB and get a sense of what that means.
As you are about to see, this is one of the reasons you do not want to go above 2 o'clock on your volume dial.
Regarding the Sensitivity rating. Sensitivity is rated at 1 watt. In a sense how loud is the speaker, when I am 1 Meter away and putting 1 Watt of signal into it. The range is typically 85dB to 95dB with 85dB to 90dB being the most common.
The Reference Level for Movie sound tracks is 85dB, that makes for a pretty loud exciting movie, and pleasantly loud music. Occasionally I get up around 90dB with peaks up into the 100dB range for Action Movies.
Give what I have told you, what does this all mean? It means that during those pleasantly loud movies, my amp is averaging ONE WATT. My speakers are rated at a Sensitivity of 90dB, which means with only ONE Watt, I am able to reach Action Movie sound levels. On my amp, a stereo amp, that is with the volume control at about 12 o'clock. That gives you some perspective.
So, let's say I am at 1 watt, and start increasing the volume control. Each slight increase in noticeable sound level DOUBLES the average Power.
So, I start at 1 watt, raise the volume just the smallest possible amount, and I am at 2 watts, the I do it again, and I am at 4 watts, then 8 watts, then 16 watts, then 32 watts, then 64w, then 128w.
Do you see what is happening when you are on the high side of the volume dial. The Power output is cascading, it is jumping up by leaps and bounds. One tiny turn of the volume control can cause the amp to jump from 32 watts to 64watts to 128w.
But, what if you only have a 50w amp? Well all those watts you are demanding but aren't there are clipped off the top. Something know as ...that's right... clipping. Because you are demanding more, you reach the limit of the amp, and everything above the limit simply gets chopped off.
Clipping can be very bad. I cause a sustained full power supply voltage to be placed on the speakers. It can create a DC offset on the speaker terminals, always a bad thing.
This is precisely how people blow speakers - Cascading power levels and Clipping. When you get on the high side of the Volume dial, one tiny tweak of the dial can cause a HUGE jump in power levels, and that can blow speakers.
If you have a 50 watt amp, you might get by with running at 32w, but that next tweak upward causes the power to jump to 64w which is more than you amp can deliver. Then if you are foolish enough to tweak the volume up once more, there is a massive jump from 64w to 128w, and smoke and flames are probably coming from your speakers.
So, the slightest change in the Volume Control means a DOUBLING of the average power. On the low side of the Volume Control, this is not a problem because you are dealing in fractions of a watt. But on the high side of the Volume Control each change cause a HUGE jump in the average power levels.
With my system using my turntable as a source, these are the volume levels I get for a given position of the Volume Control -
9 o'clock = 75dB
10 o'clock = 85db
11 o'clock = 90db
12 o'clock = 94db
1 o'clock = 98db
At 1 o'clock on the Dial, I am AVERAGING 100dB (roughly). That is LOUD, really LOUD and peaks are jumping up much higher. Beyond this, metaphorically speaking, is nothing but Pain and Death. Pain for your ears and Death for your speakers.
More than you needed or wanted to know, but ...none the less... good information to have.
For what it is worth.
Steve/bluewizard
Car speakers are not terrible (with in a certain context), but neither are the great unless you have spent a King's Ransom on them. As always, in a car or in a house, you get what you pay for. But ...then... they are speakers.
I saw a YouTube video where a guy built some oval car speakers into a floorstanding cabinets, and to the extent I could tell from the YouTube video they sounded OK. He was certainly happy with the result for the price. But then, the price wasn't all that high.
Now a couple of general information points that have been touched on, and while they don't need to be known to solve your problem, which now seems to be solved, but it is good to know and good to understand.
When you change the volume by 3dB you DOUBLE or half the power. That is right - DOUBLE THE POWER.
But what is 3dB? When you turn the volume control on your amp, the smallest change in sound you can hear is about 3dB. Simply gently turn the amp up until you perceive a change in the sound level, and that is 3dB.
If you have a modern AV amp, they have a read out in dB, so you can simply change that ±3dB and get a sense of what that means.
As you are about to see, this is one of the reasons you do not want to go above 2 o'clock on your volume dial.
Regarding the Sensitivity rating. Sensitivity is rated at 1 watt. In a sense how loud is the speaker, when I am 1 Meter away and putting 1 Watt of signal into it. The range is typically 85dB to 95dB with 85dB to 90dB being the most common.
The Reference Level for Movie sound tracks is 85dB, that makes for a pretty loud exciting movie, and pleasantly loud music. Occasionally I get up around 90dB with peaks up into the 100dB range for Action Movies.
Give what I have told you, what does this all mean? It means that during those pleasantly loud movies, my amp is averaging ONE WATT. My speakers are rated at a Sensitivity of 90dB, which means with only ONE Watt, I am able to reach Action Movie sound levels. On my amp, a stereo amp, that is with the volume control at about 12 o'clock. That gives you some perspective.
So, let's say I am at 1 watt, and start increasing the volume control. Each slight increase in noticeable sound level DOUBLES the average Power.
So, I start at 1 watt, raise the volume just the smallest possible amount, and I am at 2 watts, the I do it again, and I am at 4 watts, then 8 watts, then 16 watts, then 32 watts, then 64w, then 128w.
Do you see what is happening when you are on the high side of the volume dial. The Power output is cascading, it is jumping up by leaps and bounds. One tiny turn of the volume control can cause the amp to jump from 32 watts to 64watts to 128w.
But, what if you only have a 50w amp? Well all those watts you are demanding but aren't there are clipped off the top. Something know as ...that's right... clipping. Because you are demanding more, you reach the limit of the amp, and everything above the limit simply gets chopped off.
Clipping can be very bad. I cause a sustained full power supply voltage to be placed on the speakers. It can create a DC offset on the speaker terminals, always a bad thing.
This is precisely how people blow speakers - Cascading power levels and Clipping. When you get on the high side of the Volume dial, one tiny tweak of the dial can cause a HUGE jump in power levels, and that can blow speakers.
If you have a 50 watt amp, you might get by with running at 32w, but that next tweak upward causes the power to jump to 64w which is more than you amp can deliver. Then if you are foolish enough to tweak the volume up once more, there is a massive jump from 64w to 128w, and smoke and flames are probably coming from your speakers.
So, the slightest change in the Volume Control means a DOUBLING of the average power. On the low side of the Volume Control, this is not a problem because you are dealing in fractions of a watt. But on the high side of the Volume Control each change cause a HUGE jump in the average power levels.
With my system using my turntable as a source, these are the volume levels I get for a given position of the Volume Control -
9 o'clock = 75dB
10 o'clock = 85db
11 o'clock = 90db
12 o'clock = 94db
1 o'clock = 98db
At 1 o'clock on the Dial, I am AVERAGING 100dB (roughly). That is LOUD, really LOUD and peaks are jumping up much higher. Beyond this, metaphorically speaking, is nothing but Pain and Death. Pain for your ears and Death for your speakers.
More than you needed or wanted to know, but ...none the less... good information to have.
For what it is worth.
Steve/bluewizard
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