Why does high volume damage speakers. And why are TVs designed with the option to go so high if it damages them
In: Technology
Every conventional speaker has three parts: a frame, a voice coil, and a cone. The coil is essentially an electromagnet with a permanent magnet at its core. Passing current through the voice coil sets up magnetic fields in it that are either amplified by the permanent magnet, or oppose to the permanent magnet. These magnetic forces move the voice coil in and out at the same frequencies as the audio signal applied.
Regardless, the design of the speaker sets firm, physical limitations for how far in or out the voice coil is allowed to move. If it moves father, the cone, which is attached to the voice coil as well as the frame, will be torn. The cone is made of thin material, like paper or polymer, and so too much force, or force in the wrong directions, will tear it.
Once the speaker cone tears, that’s it. It’s trash. There’s no meaningful way to repair a torn speaker cone in a way that will have it regain its former ability to reproduce sounds from the audio signal input to the voice coil.
Much like the adage, everything is air-droppable at least once, every speaker is capable of a voice coil excursion of three feet… at least once. However, whether it’s material dropped out of an airplane or a speaker after the voice coil has been propelled three feet from its resting position, there is no guarantee that it will still be functional.
As to TVs with audio amplifiers capable of blowing out their own dinky little excuses for speakers, most TVs also have provision for attaching a so-called soundbar along their lower edge. The speakers in these soundbars are more robust than the built-in speakers. Poor design choices lead to passive soundbars, which do not have their own amplifiers built in. Therefore, the audio amps in the display itself must be powerful enough to drive these larger, external speakers, even if it means having to implement software limits to try to restrict their output when relegated to only driving its own internal speakers.
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