question about RMS ratings...
here...go to this site...on the right side scroll down to #29 and read it completely.
Basic Car Audio Electronics
Basic Car Audio Electronics
John_Taylor, don't forget about the filter's slope though. If you have a 12 or 24dB slope on a HPF, you wouldn't be amplifing those lower frequencies with a full 150W (or whatever one's amp outputs).
I prefer having less volume and allowing my MB Quart reference to dip into lower frequencies than most people would allow. It sounds better, to me, anyway. Though, with the Alpine deck I have, I'm able to cross-over at 80Hz, and change the slope to one of four options. The slope I use is 2nd least steep, so it doesn't cut the lower frequencies off too fast. The amp's gains are set at about 1/5th of full. HPF on the amp is at 60Hz. Obviously, I'm letting the head-unit do my filtering for me.
I always believed that the RMS range that certain brands apply to their speakers was the range of power that would yield "proper" sound from that particular speaker.
Anything below that range, and I think it's too little power to even get the speaker to "work" to reproduce the signal being sent to the amp, and anything above that range, and you're working the speaker too hard.
Keep in mind that you're rarely sending 600W from a 600W amplifier. And if you do, its only for a very short period of time, unless you're listening to test tones or something similar. So if your sub had an RMS of 500W, a 600W amplifier wouldn't pose too much of a threat if set up properly.
I prefer having less volume and allowing my MB Quart reference to dip into lower frequencies than most people would allow. It sounds better, to me, anyway. Though, with the Alpine deck I have, I'm able to cross-over at 80Hz, and change the slope to one of four options. The slope I use is 2nd least steep, so it doesn't cut the lower frequencies off too fast. The amp's gains are set at about 1/5th of full. HPF on the amp is at 60Hz. Obviously, I'm letting the head-unit do my filtering for me.
I always believed that the RMS range that certain brands apply to their speakers was the range of power that would yield "proper" sound from that particular speaker.
Anything below that range, and I think it's too little power to even get the speaker to "work" to reproduce the signal being sent to the amp, and anything above that range, and you're working the speaker too hard.
Keep in mind that you're rarely sending 600W from a 600W amplifier. And if you do, its only for a very short period of time, unless you're listening to test tones or something similar. So if your sub had an RMS of 500W, a 600W amplifier wouldn't pose too much of a threat if set up properly.
Certainly at "normal" listening levels your amp may be pushing only a few watts with 10X that for the odd peak here and there.
I'm not even disagreeing with you really. I'll just say that when I see a small midbass driver rated (specs) down low like a sub I pretty much fall over laughing.
When my fronts (DLS) are wailing, crossed at 100, I get a surprising amount of bass from them. If I crossed at 63 or something I am sure I would kill them.
We can make this so complicated
John
Basic Car Audio Electronics
Go here ^^^ scroll down to #29 on the right. I am not an expert, but what I have learned is this, the ONLY 2 things that will ever blow a speaker is 1) Exceding the thermal limit 2) Exceding the mechanical limit. Nothing else is the direct cause of speaker failure. Will overpowering a speaker blow it? I guarantee I can hook up a 10,000watt amp to a 100watt speaker and play it for 10 years without ever blowing it. If you run it like that and never reach the thermal or mech limits it will NEVER blow or do any damage whatsoever. Will it be easier to blow it like that then with 100 watts? Absolutely, but it will not be due to overpower. Same with a clipped signal. I can play a clipped signal to a speaker for years and never blow it. Again is it easier? Again yes, but the clipped signal is still not the cause. Also once the thermal or mechanical limit has been reached once it will start to deteriorate and accelerate the problem evry time you reach that limit until total failure is reached and no more output. If anyone else cares to chime in on this I would appreciate the backup.
HTH
Nick
Go here ^^^ scroll down to #29 on the right. I am not an expert, but what I have learned is this, the ONLY 2 things that will ever blow a speaker is 1) Exceding the thermal limit 2) Exceding the mechanical limit. Nothing else is the direct cause of speaker failure. Will overpowering a speaker blow it? I guarantee I can hook up a 10,000watt amp to a 100watt speaker and play it for 10 years without ever blowing it. If you run it like that and never reach the thermal or mech limits it will NEVER blow or do any damage whatsoever. Will it be easier to blow it like that then with 100 watts? Absolutely, but it will not be due to overpower. Same with a clipped signal. I can play a clipped signal to a speaker for years and never blow it. Again is it easier? Again yes, but the clipped signal is still not the cause. Also once the thermal or mechanical limit has been reached once it will start to deteriorate and accelerate the problem evry time you reach that limit until total failure is reached and no more output. If anyone else cares to chime in on this I would appreciate the backup.
HTH
Nick
500 Watt CAFz'r
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 952
The idea behind providing a more powerful amplifier to the speakers than they are "rated" for, is to avoid situations where dynamic music passages may cause the amplifier to exhaust it's dynamic reserve of power (usually 10% of amp's rated power), which will drive it into distortion and damage a voice coil, regardless of it's power handling.
Tweeters are usually first to suffer the consequences, depending on frequency played.
Generally if u have a speaker that is rated at 100W and and amplifier rated for 150W. the speaker will only use what it needs from the amplifier whose power output will vary in accordance to musical signal, and LEVEL recorded by the artist.
Another note* amplifiers are generally 90% inefficient, meaning that 90% of the power(watts=heat) is lost in heat dissipation, by resistance of the crossover, and cables.
Equalizers and crossover do NOT eliminate a given frequency, only mute it down by X dB's by adding more resistance.
Tweeters are usually first to suffer the consequences, depending on frequency played.
Generally if u have a speaker that is rated at 100W and and amplifier rated for 150W. the speaker will only use what it needs from the amplifier whose power output will vary in accordance to musical signal, and LEVEL recorded by the artist.
Another note* amplifiers are generally 90% inefficient, meaning that 90% of the power(watts=heat) is lost in heat dissipation, by resistance of the crossover, and cables.
Equalizers and crossover do NOT eliminate a given frequency, only mute it down by X dB's by adding more resistance.
Power ratings for midrange speakrs and tweeters is the least important specification. Anything in excess of 40Wrms is ear damaging with MOST speakers anyways. And if acutally used to full potential will mechanically over extend a speaker anyhow. It all goes down to dynamics.
For subwoofers, those ratings are simply a guideline.. power handling can change drastically depending on the enclosure. Putting a sub in an a tiny saled enclosure will greatly limit the cones travel, which in turn will move less air around the voice coil which will educe the subs cooling effect so power handling can drastically drop. The power handling differences betwee most subs with 2.5" voice coils isn;t the wiring size in the windings, it's the speakers cooling mechanisms. A Basic sub with a sealed backplate will offer very little air movement around the coil and won't cool it much so power handling will be low.
Power handling has got to be the least understood and most unimportant rating out there and unfortunately thanks to uneducated sales staff has become the most focused on rating.
for my SQ car I'm running nearly 3X the power ratings for my components and my sub. To be more accurate, 3x the potential amplifier power that the speakers can handle. My gains are set extremely conservatively and I just like that my amps are never ever starved for power to really it those dynamic notes.
for SPL competitions way back in my hayday I used to run almost 10X the power ratings of my subs and over the years only blew 3 of the 20+ various subs I've gone through.
One of the biggest problems I seem to face daily is customers that really don't want to learn anything different and think that the flea market 600W 6x9's are way better than the 80Watt rated Focal Polyglass 6x9's ...wattage seems to be the only rating that 90% of the populations knows about..yet completely fails to understand.
For subwoofers, those ratings are simply a guideline.. power handling can change drastically depending on the enclosure. Putting a sub in an a tiny saled enclosure will greatly limit the cones travel, which in turn will move less air around the voice coil which will educe the subs cooling effect so power handling can drastically drop. The power handling differences betwee most subs with 2.5" voice coils isn;t the wiring size in the windings, it's the speakers cooling mechanisms. A Basic sub with a sealed backplate will offer very little air movement around the coil and won't cool it much so power handling will be low.
Power handling has got to be the least understood and most unimportant rating out there and unfortunately thanks to uneducated sales staff has become the most focused on rating.
for my SQ car I'm running nearly 3X the power ratings for my components and my sub. To be more accurate, 3x the potential amplifier power that the speakers can handle. My gains are set extremely conservatively and I just like that my amps are never ever starved for power to really it those dynamic notes.
for SPL competitions way back in my hayday I used to run almost 10X the power ratings of my subs and over the years only blew 3 of the 20+ various subs I've gone through.
One of the biggest problems I seem to face daily is customers that really don't want to learn anything different and think that the flea market 600W 6x9's are way better than the 80Watt rated Focal Polyglass 6x9's ...wattage seems to be the only rating that 90% of the populations knows about..yet completely fails to understand.
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