Just gotta ask
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Outstanding HDF Member
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Just gotta ask
Camp A says the wattage of the speakers should be less than the output wattage of the amp to give you headroom. because, under powering the speakers is what causes clipping and damage to your speakers. ex: speakers = 70 watts, amp = 100 watts (RMS)
Camp B says the wattage of the speakers should match the wattage of the amp so you don't over power the speakers and blow them. ex: speakers = 100 watts, amp = 100 watts.
What is the truth?
Camp B says the wattage of the speakers should match the wattage of the amp so you don't over power the speakers and blow them. ex: speakers = 100 watts, amp = 100 watts.
What is the truth?
Extreme HDF Member
Joined: Sep 2010
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From: Phoenix '53, '88, '09 Big Twins
watt rating for speakers is "how much electricity can they take before being damaged"- usually thought of as how much heat can they shed.*
watts for an amp, is how much electricity can they provide to the speakers in a clean sine wave...a "squared" off sine wave ( or "clipped") more sounds bad than breaks things.
( ac voltage is a sine wave- music is frequencies, so all sine wave AC voltage- DC voltage is a straight line, we make AC into DC by chopping off the tops and bottoms of the sine wave [this is how the voltage regulator works]- DC power applied to a speaker makes it go straight out [ or back depending on polarity applied] and stick there, until the coil burns up
in your first example the amp can blow the speakers- it will provide more electricity than the speakers can handle.
It would be better to have speaker which will easily handle the power from the amps.
should a speaker blow/fail the impedance of the load on the amp will change, possibly causing damage to the amp
* watt rating of a speaker has nothing to do with how much sound they produce from that electricity- that spec would be "sensitivity" usually expressed as
X dB at 1 watt power measured at 1 meter- the bigger the number X the better
however the frequency response also needs to be taken into account, the flatter the line of the graph the better
I deal with amps and speakers and tubes all day every day. The world of car audio is full of snake oil and misrepresentations.
the best sound you will get on your bike is from a set of ear buds.
mike
watts for an amp, is how much electricity can they provide to the speakers in a clean sine wave...a "squared" off sine wave ( or "clipped") more sounds bad than breaks things.
( ac voltage is a sine wave- music is frequencies, so all sine wave AC voltage- DC voltage is a straight line, we make AC into DC by chopping off the tops and bottoms of the sine wave [this is how the voltage regulator works]- DC power applied to a speaker makes it go straight out [ or back depending on polarity applied] and stick there, until the coil burns up
in your first example the amp can blow the speakers- it will provide more electricity than the speakers can handle.
It would be better to have speaker which will easily handle the power from the amps.
should a speaker blow/fail the impedance of the load on the amp will change, possibly causing damage to the amp
* watt rating of a speaker has nothing to do with how much sound they produce from that electricity- that spec would be "sensitivity" usually expressed as
X dB at 1 watt power measured at 1 meter- the bigger the number X the better
however the frequency response also needs to be taken into account, the flatter the line of the graph the better
I deal with amps and speakers and tubes all day every day. The world of car audio is full of snake oil and misrepresentations.
the best sound you will get on your bike is from a set of ear buds.
mike
Last edited by mkguitar; May 30, 2012 at 09:15 PM.
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Joined: Aug 2010
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From: East Coast
Camp A says the wattage of the speakers should be less than the output wattage of the amp to give you headroom. because, under powering the speakers is what causes clipping and damage to your speakers. ex: speakers = 70 watts, amp = 100 watts (RMS)
Camp B says the wattage of the speakers should match the wattage of the amp so you don't over power the speakers and blow them. ex: speakers = 100 watts, amp = 100 watts.
What is the truth?
Camp B says the wattage of the speakers should match the wattage of the amp so you don't over power the speakers and blow them. ex: speakers = 100 watts, amp = 100 watts.
What is the truth?
Typically, it is far preferable to feed a speaker system a bit too much clean, undistorted power from an amplifier than it is to drive an underpowered amplifier into such bad clipping distortion that it is virtually producing square waves. Forgetting for a moment speaker efficiency, trying to play woofers at high decibels, etc., one will not normally melt voice coils due to a bit too much power. In my case with home audio, I have thousands of watts to drive woofers, and hundreds of watts (mostly vacuum tube amps here) to drive moderate capacity speakers. In this instance, the amps are so unstressed that they loaf during their operation. Normally, I turn it down as it begins to get too loud. I have had several systems in this configuration for years., and it was the same way back in the day when selling both home and car audio.
The tricky part is being able to hear speakers in distress on some Harley with the typical Vance & Hines pipes while wearing a helmet and cruising at 2,800 rpm, alone or in a group. Things get worse when the bass is cranked up, and much more so in the case of the underpowered amp.
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