Eli5 why do speakers blow at a high setting

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As the tittle says why do speakers blow when you turn them up to the highest setting why would manufacturers make it so that they could reach a setting that it would damage the speaker?

In: Technology

Anonymous 0 Comments

There are several different things you could be referring to when you say ‘speakers’. If you mean something like a boombox where everything is put together all in one unit, then there is no way that a manufacturer would make the highest volume damage the speakers, imagine all the terrible reviews it would get!

If you’re talking about the kind of speakers you use with a computer, where you plug them in with a 3.5mm jack and they have their own volume control, then the same applies since that cable only carries the audio signal and the speakers themselves will make sure they can’t go loud enough to damage themselves.

If you’re talking about the kind of speakers you use in a hi-fi audio system, where the box contains only the transducer and filtering components and you wire them up with thick copper cables and screw terminals, then these can be damaged when you go to too high of a volume because the external system is deciding how much power to give them. Big, expensive speakers like the ones used in rock concerts need big, powerful drivers, whereas small ones in a home system will need much less power. If you plug in a small home speaker designed for a 100W output into a concert audio system capable of pumping out 10kW then crank up the volume to full then the speaker will probably break very quickly, since it just isn’t designed to handle 100x its rated power