What happens if speakers are underpowered

At high levels, when driven by a high-powered amplifier, these coils must handle a significant amount of current. As the current flows through these coils, it dissipates in the form of heat. The speaker cone vibrates, which then helps to cool the coils based on the airflow created by the vibration. Clipped waveforms often lead to less vibration of the cone, preventing the creation of that airflow. Even if your speakers are able to support three to four times the power being provided, a signal clipped from low amplifier power will not damage them.

There are plenty of myths regarding power, speakers, and other home theater components. However, there are a couple that can be hard to find the answers to when performing a simple search.

The two biggest myths I find when trying to evaluate power levels relate to sudden, intense cone vibrations and high-frequency content. When the waveform becomes clipped, it creates sharp corners at the edges where the clipping occurred. For a long time, audiophiles believed these edges caused a harsh redirection to the cone within the speaker.

This myth is busted, though, because the clipped soundwave produced does not correlate to the actual cone movement. In looking at suitable speakers for my amp and doing a LOT of research on the subject of speaker-amp matching, I was surprised to learn just how low-powered they need to be. If its 90w, then using the above table would mean the most powerful speaker I can use is 60w.

If its the w I should take note of, then a 75w speaker is the highest I can go for. I'm also limited on space. My old speakers are narrow, tall and long - about the same height as my 32" TV. I only have about 24cm width of space either side. Most of the speakers I've looked at are too wide. The only w 50w RMS speakers that can fit, are quite small - about 12cm wide and only 18cm tall. Very curious indeed, considering how big my amplifier is. I bought that amp back in after I had previously helped a friend set his identical one up, with some very large speakers and an equally large sub.

Can't help thinking they must have burnt out long ago. Speakers are commonly rated from the minimum power required to the maximum power they can handle, 15 - 70 watts for example indicates that the speaker needs at least 15 watts in order to power it and can handle up to 70 watts of power before it becomes damaged.

This is termed the powwr handling. Speakers are not rated with a target wattage, but rather rated with a range that covers the power they need up to the power they can handle. Speakers are powered by the amp and wattage relates to that power. The wattage is not an indication of volume. When people do refer to speaker power then the wattage they refer to is usually the maximum power that speaker can handle befor the speaker is damaged.

If your receiver can output watts 8 ohm if the speakers have an impedance of 8ohm? Don't pair speakers with a lower power handling rating than the amplifier's power output. Us an amp that meets the speaker's minimum power requirements, but doesn't exceed the speaker's max handling. Note that the actually power output will depend upon the impedance of the speakers in question.

Last edited: Feb 18, The amp is rated at 8 ohms. I'm not looking to replace it, just need new speakers. So what would you say is the lowest and highest rated speaker I can buy, in RMS? Would a w RMS speaker be fine?

An amplifier supplies power so cannot impose resistance. Impedance is the resistance imposed by the speaker so only speakers have an impedance on the amp and an impedance rating. The 8ohm in reference to the amp is an indication of the available power if an 8 ohm load is imposed upon the amp.

I'd suggest you look at 8ohm speakers with a power handling range of 20 - watts. You must log in or register to reply here. Similar threads. Advertisement Advertisement. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.

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The snapping is the speaker reproducing an improperly formed sine wave, The snapping or consistent clipping can and likely will damage your speakers!!

Assuming you're referring to a system with a SS amplifier: Slowly increase your listening volume and focus your attention on the middle especially vocals and higher frequencies. Don't leave the volume there, as most tweeters can't take much of that abuse without voicecoil damage. Crossovers see the high freq distortion as DC and pass it right to the tweeters.

Tube amps clip much more gently rounding off the waveform, rather than chopping it off and are somewhat harder to gauge, when being overdriven. I think the real question is what if you don't have an amplifier capable of producing enough current. Running out of power, you'll find that your amplifier is going into clipping and producing higher distortion levels when it gets at its limits, if this happens before you get loud enough, you don't have enough power.

Current on the other hand in what you hear is dynamics, flow etc. I think the reason that we relate current with power is that more powerful amplifiers typically have a better or heftier built power supply that can deliver the current needed. I recall years back at Marcof Electronics. We were testing a watt power amp, It was ok, played loud enough, but just didn't have any life.

We had a mock up of a 40 watt amp that had 3 times the power supply that the watt amp had and bam, the differences were not subtle. These amps have the current to drive just about anything and if you have speakers that stay within their volume capabilities, these amps are examples of high current lower powered amplifiers. I Hope this helps.