Damaging Speakers (1 Viewer)

[Cory A]

the other day i was curious how loud my stereo would go. so i put it to two channel setup and turned it up. i must of turned it up too loud bc my receiver shut off.. i was wondering if this would put damage on my speakers.. im running E90s as mains, EC25 as my center, and E20s as my rears. and my reciever is a yamaha 5740. im fairly new to this.. still learning but i always thought your speakers could handle anything as long as the amp doenst push more power than what your speaker can handle? bc the reciever puts out 85 watts per channel and the speakers are "Power Handling (Continuous/Peak): 110 Watts/440 Watts" which is a bit confusing.. is this fair enought to say i ruined my speakers? What should i be turning my reciever to so im not damaging my speakers... starts from -80 to +15dbm i believe

One more question.. playing mp3s ruin speakers?
Thanks in advance Cory

 

[EdwinK]

If your Speakers and Amp perform like before chances are nothing is damaged. From my experience tweeters run the most risk when an Amp is run beyond its limits, because clipping introduces extremely loud high frequency harmonics. Tweeters are typically not built to handle tens of Watts of harmonics and will fry quickly.

If the Receiver shuts off that in itself should not be damaging to the Speakers.

No, in fact it is the other way around because of what I mentioned before. As long as the Amp doesn't distort too much Speakers can be run quite loud, usually letting you know when you reach their limits.

 

[Eddie Horton]

Edwin's right. You run a greater risk of damaging the speaker by overdriving the amp (clipping) than you do from running too much power into a speaker.

 

[Cory A]

thanks guys for your posts!

Can someone confirm the mp3 question?

Thanks again

 

[Phil Iturralde]

Nope - I do it all the time! No problems turning it up to above AVG levels (FAST SPL bass peaks = 90 dBc), sounds great!

FYI: For your leisurely reading, from JBL Professional Technical Library Website:

Danger: Low Power: Information on one of the most common causes of speaker failure

Speaker Power Requirements FAQ

Phil