Cursitor Doom wrote:

Phil Allison wrote:


** The are simply no FTC rules for published speaker power ratings. The
rules you seem to be alluding to are for *amplifers* used in home
entertainment.

Clipping does not cause DC, the main effect is to compress the dynamic
range of the music so there is more average power going to the speaker -
which eventually overheats the voice coil.



Makes sense the way you've explained it, Phil. I had a Technics amp one
time that just ate through speakers for some reason; all top quality KEF
units as well. The only thing I could come up with for a cause was
that the amp sound was very 'cold' - typical of Technics amps - so may
have been producing transients the speakers couldn't handle. But that's
no more than a hunch.

** Not much of a one.

People like to blame the amplifier when a speaker fails - but if it still works fine, it is almost certainly blameless.


The other thing the OP seems to be unaware of is that the term 'RMS
power' is really indefinable anyway.

** The term simply refers to "watts rms" which has always meant the power rating is based on the rms value of the sine wave used for the test.

A much clearer term is "continuous sine wave power", but that is inconveniently long.


..... Phil