Why does high volume damage speakers. And why are TVs designed with the option to go so high if it damages them
In: Technology
High volume does not damage speakers. Too high of a power does. Speakers should be rated for more power than the amplifier can put out. If it’s even something modest like 2 times more power handling (speaker) than power output (amplifier) it’s almost impossible to break the speakers. If you have undersized speakers / oversized amplifier, the problem doesn’t show up when the volume is low. Power output goes up with volume, but if the amplifier runs out of power before the speaker reaches its limit, speakers won’t be damaged.
There’s a secondary problem where clipping causes excessive high frequency power. All of that goes to the tweeter, but the tweeter is too small to handle the excess. Using an appropriate sized speaker, and turning it down if you hear anything distorted mostly prevents it from happening. (It sounds bad when there’s risk of damage.)—You can also prevent the problem entirely by using a low power amp. If your 100 W speaker has a 10 W tweeter, it would be impossible for a 10 W power amp to break it. But that’s extremely impractical.
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