How to Blow a Speaker?

[CharlieBravo]

Question: If you have a subwoofer rated to handle 400Wrms and is powered by an amp supplying 300Wrms, is it possible to blow the woofer? Or is there not enough power?

Items in question are: MTX Blue Thunder 1502 amp and a Rockford Fosgate P2D415 15" subwoofer in a vented enclosure.

[derickveliz2]

Yes! it's possible.

D.

[_S7V7N_]

Distortion / Signal clipping. Look those terms up.


If your amp is set properly and you don't set your radio to where it sends a clipped signal, it wont blow. Same as if you put 1000 watts to that 400 watt speaker it will be fine as long as the signal is clean.

[sqcomp]

I'm a perfect example of the ability to have a crap ton of power and not blow speakers up. I'm running two ID8 woofers off an amp that is pushing 1350 Watts to them which is way more than they can handle and a lot less power than the amplifier has the potential to put out. Heck, I'm feeding my rather pricey tweeters 120 Watts at 4 Ohms. They maybe need a 10th of that power at most. I'm also providing two measures of protection. I've got proper active crossover points and slopes AND a passive failsafe just in case an octave below my lowest crossover point.

Another example of proper amplifier setup is Scott Buwalda's G35. He's running 750 Watts of D class mono power to every speaker in his car. From the subs to the tweeters. How can he do that? Proper setup.

Another thing to think about:

"Subwoofers typically will become unloaded (act as if it is not in a box) at frequencies of ½ octave below the enclosure tuning frequency. Using a high pass filter/subsonic filter will help prevent the subwoofer from unloading or exceeding its excursion capabilities."

Play safe and protect your investment.

Hey CB, where in Florida are you? I could probably set you up to have one of my SQ team mates in Florida show you how to properly gain your amps.

[CharlieBravo]

Wow. I thought I was playing it safe by using a smaller powered amp for the sub. Thanks for all the replies so far. I've got so much more to learn.

I'm in Cocoa Beach, FL.

[sqcomp]

...Just south of Daytona Beach...

I was in Daytona during spring break.

Both my contacts are in the Tampa area. You could take a trip up to Soundcrafters in Daytona Beach though. They should be able to spend a few minutes to educate you on proper level settings. You might also be able to find Paul or Moe from IASCA and talk to them for a little bit.