Hello. I've seen quite a few posts on other forums and facebook groups where people are claiming that under powering a speaker is very dangerous and can damage the speaker more than overpowering it. The explanation is added that under powering leads to clipping the amp and that will create a square wave that basically destroys the speaker. Something doesn't sound right to me, so I came here to ask the experts. Is this true? What's the whole story? What really destroys the speaker? I've personally under powered speakers before and haven't experienced any problems, but I've also kept things out of the red.
Clarify the point
- Thread starter Carlos Doyle
- Start date
Hi Carlos,
Underpowering a speaker is not dangerous at all so long as you avoid excessive clipping. Different amplifiers have varying degrees of how well they handle clipping. This was more of an issue with older amps that had no internal DSP, in which case you needed to use your ears (hear the distortion) or see with your eyes (via the limit light). Modern amps with DSP typically have limiters which you can set which will significantly reduce the risk even further.
The short version of this is: don't abuse your system and you'll be just fine underpowered.
My main reason for wanting to provide lots of power has nothing to do with speaker damage, it has to do with having the headroom to cleanly reproduce transient peaks. This can be a factor in the perceived sound quality in live band mixes. It's less of a factor for DJ and track playback purposes, as that content is highly compressed.
Underpowering a speaker is not dangerous at all so long as you avoid excessive clipping. Different amplifiers have varying degrees of how well they handle clipping. This was more of an issue with older amps that had no internal DSP, in which case you needed to use your ears (hear the distortion) or see with your eyes (via the limit light). Modern amps with DSP typically have limiters which you can set which will significantly reduce the risk even further.
The short version of this is: don't abuse your system and you'll be just fine underpowered.
My main reason for wanting to provide lots of power has nothing to do with speaker damage, it has to do with having the headroom to cleanly reproduce transient peaks. This can be a factor in the perceived sound quality in live band mixes. It's less of a factor for DJ and track playback purposes, as that content is highly compressed.