How to blow up your system?

[dave_k]

Evening Folks,

I have a daft question, but i am curious.

What does it take to wreck a hifi, either amp or speakers, and besides the obvious dropping etc? I mean, if i have an amp rated at 50W/channel and speakers at 25-125 watts each, if i have my amp cranked up is there any danger to either of the speaker drivers? Even at half way round the volume the mid/bass driver is fairly kicking in and out.

Not that i have any desire to wreck my hifi

 

[MattSPL]

dave_k:

Evening Folks,

I have a daft question, but i am curious.

What does it take to wreck a hifi, either amp or speakers, and besides the obvious dropping etc? I mean, if i have an amp rated at 50W/channel and speakers at 25-125 watts each, if i have my amp cranked up is there any danger to either of the speaker drivers? Even at half way round the volume the mid/bass driver is fairly kicking in and out.

Not that i have any desire to wreck my hifi

The biggest danger is the amplifier clipping. Where it cannot supply the demanded power to the speakers.

This creates high power, high frequency signals into the speakers and will generally fry the tweeters.

On the other hand, i have a 150w/ch amp that melted the bass driver voice coils on my 150w PMC DB1i speakers from playing bass heavy music too loud.

 

[dave_k]

How can you tell if the amp is clipping then?

 

[MattSPL]

dave_k:How can you tell if the amp is clipping then?

I think you will notice distortion and horrible, harsh high frequencies and a lack of bass like compression.

 

[Anonymous]

dave_k:
Evening Folks,

I have a daft question, but i am curious.

What does it take to wreck a hifi, either amp or speakers, and besides the obvious dropping etc? I mean, if i have an amp rated at 50W/channel and speakers at 25-125 watts each, if i have my amp cranked up is there any danger to either of the speaker drivers? Even at half way round the volume the mid/bass driver is fairly kicking in and out.

Not that i have any desire to wreck my hifi

At 'half way round' your amp will be close to being at 100%. Most amps are not designed to be listened to beyond 12 o'clock.

 

[dave_k]

GForce1:dave_k:
Evening Folks,

I have a daft question, but i am curious.

What does it take to wreck a hifi, either amp or speakers, and besides the obvious dropping etc? I mean, if i have an amp rated at 50W/channel and speakers at 25-125 watts each, if i have my amp cranked up is there any danger to either of the speaker drivers? Even at half way round the volume the mid/bass driver is fairly kicking in and out.

Not that i have any desire to wreck my hifi

At 'half way round' your amp will be close to being at 100%. Most amps are not designed to be listened to beyond 12 o'clock.

Hmm, i see. 12 o'clock is still antisocial, but the neighbours are out so i'm just seeing what my system can actually do...

 

[Tonestar1]

Ingredients

A Technics SU-A900DM2 (SU-C800UM2 pre and SE-A900SM2 power) 120WPC.

A pair of B&W 601 S3s

The Chemical Brothers "We are the Night"

Any CD player, preferably Marantz but not 100% necessary to achieve desired results.

A party, preferably Hogmanay but again not entirely necessary to achieve desired results.

Lots of alcohol

A stupid desire to show off

Instructions

Insert Chemical Brothers "We are the Night" into CD player

Turn volume up to window shaking levels (Around 1 or 2 o'clock)

Dance about like an aR$e insisting that everyone should "feel the bass"

ignore friends warnings that you may collapse the building

Look dismayed when a loud pop is followed by a horrible burning smell

Wake up the next day around midday and have a worrying flashback that the music was being played through the surround sound system towards the end of the occasion.

Check your hi-fi the next morning and find you have blown up your speakers.

Feel gutted inside

Look very sheepish when your girlfriend tells you "I told you to turn it down"

 

[dave_k]

Tonestar1:
Ingredients

A Technics SU-A900DM2 (SU-C800UM2 pre and SE-A900SM2 power) 120WPC.

A pair of B&W 601 S3s

The Chemical Brothers "We are the Night"

Any CD player, preferably Marantz but not 100% necessary to achieve desired results.

A party, preferably Hogmanay but again not entirely necessary to achieve desired results.

Lots of alcohol

A stupid desire to show off

Instructions

Insert Chemical Brothers "We are the Night" into CD player

Turn volume up to window shaking levels (Around 1 or 2 o'clock)

Dance about like an aR$e insisting that everyone should "feel the bass"

ignore friends warnings that you may collapse the building

Look dismayed when a loud pop is followed by a horrible burning smell

Wake up the next day around midday and have a worrying flashback that the music was being played through the surround sound system towards the end of the occasion.

Check your hi-fi the next morning and find you have blown up your speakers.

Feel gutted inside

Look very sheepish when your girlfriend tells you "I told you to turn it down"

LOL

i like informative step by step 'how to guides!'

 

[Anonymous]

GForce1:dave_k:
Evening Folks,

I have a daft question, but i am curious.

What does it take to wreck a hifi, either amp or speakers, and besides the obvious dropping etc? I mean, if i have an amp rated at 50W/channel and speakers at 25-125 watts each, if i have my amp cranked up is there any danger to either of the speaker drivers? Even at half way round the volume the mid/bass driver is fairly kicking in and out.

Not that i have any desire to wreck my hifi

At 'half way round' your amp will be close to being at 100%. Most amps are not designed to be listened to beyond 12 o'clock.

I agree with GForce1 above, exploring the dark side of Midnight is a good starting place to fry speakers.

I see you have the PM66 KI Sig and Mission 752s so it's not like I can recommend you get bigger speakers as they're pretty big already and the amp is very nice but not a powerhouse. I think you should look at a bigger amp that may not run out of juice quite so quickly, or play it safe (possibly add a Subwoofer)?

 

[Anonymous]

This is a true story:

I passive biamped my prior speaks (b&w 683) which were situated beside the door. Someone opened the door violently while I was playing music. The banana plugs got hit by the door, was bent, and shorted.

It sparked quite a bit, then the opposite speaker made a loud buzzing noise. Within seconds, there was smoke. The power amps then shutoff shortly after.

This killed one of my power amps (burned finals, the other one only blew its fuse), my preamp (turns on, but no longer responds), and amazingly even my dac (the active input when this happened no longer worked). It was a day that would live in infamy.

Moral of the story: Keep your hifi away from other people.