Fact or crap, "under powering a sub will destroy it"?

Question

CRAP!!!!

Yes, I'm bringing this up agian, but for a good reason. Education.
After all knowedge is power!!!

ANYONE who says "under powering a sub will destroy it" is holding on to a myth.

If I turn my volume down, I'm actually "underpowering" my subs!!! Low volume, low power!! Understand!!!!

Prove me wrong!!!!

Tell me again how this will blow them?!?!?!?

People are confusing "clipping" with "underpowering". THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING!!!! Clipping and over powering is what hurt subs.

Any further questions, see what this wrote, he explains it VERY well.
http://www.bcae1.com/2ltlpwr.htm

Clipping is when someone tries to over compensate a low powered amp by increasing the sensitivity level (adjust the gain to a lower voltage) to get more power out of it. This is one way to damage a subwoofer. Over powering is another.

The gain control is a device used to "match" the volts RMS coming from the source.

The gain control is a device used to "match" the volts RMS coming from the source.

I can drive speakers with a 100% clipped square wave signal all day long with no problems as long as the thermal and mechanical limits of the speaker are not exceeded.

I can feed a speaker 100% distortion all day long with no damage as long as the thermal and mechanical limits of the speaker are not exceeded.

I can exceed the thermal and/or mechanical limits of a speaker and watch it fail in short order.

These are electrical and physical truths and anything else is a myth.

daringdave,

You say, "...under powering a system can damage high end speakers and sub-woofers because the wire will emit a signal at lower amperage that is a type of electromagnetic energy and that energy can actually cause the magnets in your sub woofers or speakers to get weaker."

How is this possible when "high-end" speakers don't use cheap magnets. Rare earth magnets, like Neodymium magnets, are very hard to "weaken", I know I've tried.

MLJ,

Oh yeah, well :P

ha ha

Answer 1

False, its all false. WHY? Because sparky just made it up. :)lol
j/k

I'm just playing. This is good stuff and so is BCAE. Read and learn, yay

Answer 2

I bet the place sells amplifiers. If you were to power your subwoofer, without a cross-over, with high frequency high power, you could over-heat the voice coil as he describes. But using too low power, won't do that. With a severely clipped signal, the speaker still moves air.
Even with a pure square wave, the speaker would still move air. The voice coil can not possibly move to match the up (or down) stroke of the square wave, thus the pressure wave produced is more like a sine wave anyway. (clipping the corners).
In a inductive circuit, like the coil, the true square wave would trigger an instantaneous high impedance (infinite frequency on the upstroke). Little current would occur, then as the voltage is flat, (zero frequency) the impedance would be very low. and high current (based on resistance) would occur. In a normally protected circuit, this should not hurt the voice coils.
What I hear on my streets is not amplifiers sending clipped signals but inadequate sub woofer speakers clipping high power signals.
When a high power signal is sent to an inadequate speaker, the speaker cone reaches the end of its travel and bounces back vibrating at the frequency of the system of cone / magnet not the music. Hence the same frequency buzz is heard all the time.
When the same system is connected to a more powerful speaker, the buzz disappears and a more garbled sound appears as the power is increased to a "clipped" signal.

Answer 3

i agree 100%, my sister bought her 2001 neon in 2002 and she put in one eclipse 12", its like 500 rms..we put a little 150 watt amp to it and still to this day it shakes my house from the drive way, that myth is bs. power is power.

Answer 4

I'm a girl, and blonde, and I know this. *there's no way I could be as stupid as I look, right?*
It drives me mad when guys in my car club *midnight motorsports* act like I don't know what I'm talking about just because I'm pretty haha! and then I install thier systems and they can kiss it.

Answer 5

I agree