Clipping Damages Speakers?

well, a sound is a sound... not like speaker knows what is a sound and what is distortion... If these sounds fall outside of the speaker's FR limits, then it would be another matter but otherwise, a sound is a sound is a sound...

 

I spit this

to awnser your Question 2 thing damage speakers,

1> Thermal Over Load (heat and power)
2> Mechaincal Overload ( physical Damage or Over Extension)

Clipping or Distortion by themselves will not cuase either.

Where the Problem comes in is that a clipped sound wave can hold more "power" than a normal sound wave so if you were all ready pushing the limits of the sub and then turned the gain up more causing a clipped signal it could damage it..

Example

a 300W sub on a 400W amp running with alot of Clipping could Blow the Sub

a 1200w sub on a 200w amp with the same abount of clipping will be fine

 

Great answer, Michael..

but here's more the point, directly:

A 300w sub running on a 200w amp...
...if clipped heavily enough, you'll cause enough heat energy (it grows disproportionally to the dB increase, once you begin clipping ) to be equivalent to a 400w amp.
You'll thermaly damage the sub from the heat - just as if you actually HAD a 400w amp running cleanly.

A 1000w sub running on a 200w amp...
...even if clipped massively heavily - you still wouldn't harm the speaker, since it's capable of so much thermal dissipation.
Sure - you'd send 400w worth of heat through the speaker - that's still nowhere near the 1000w worth of heat that it can dissipate.

Now - the amp would also be getting warmer - so thermal damage might be an issue for some componentry in the amp, as well... something to consider.

Bottom line is - it's not good to clip your amp.
Yes, you'll notice it getting somewhat louder.
But what you won't notice is the disproportionate increase in heat energy, because the waveform is maxxing out for longer and longer time periods every single wave that it amplifies... and that's a lot per second! B)

 

that is car audio god to you :bag: :bash: :ban:

 

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