Originally Posted By: Gardemark
Hi folks.
ElectroVoice has designed their own power amplifier inside the speaker so it must be capable to run at 100% setting, or maybe I'm wrong.
The stage monitor signal we sent into these are ways below the level to get any amp to be fried!


You are indeed wrong in making such an assumption.

There can be TRANSIENTS in the audio signal that easily exceed the amplifier and/or driver ratings, there can also be a condition where the input signal is CLIPPING -- a condition that means more "ON" time for the soundwave -- and this can blow drivers and even amplifiers, especially tweeters because the clipped wave looks like DC to the voice coils, which means that the extra time the coil is ON means the coil will have to dissipate more heat and heat can take its toll, eventually damaging the driver. If the Voice Coil shorts from this heat damage, rather than fail as an open circuit, that can create a condition where the amplifier is now having to drive a lower Impedance than it is designed to handle, which means that the amplifier will try to deliver more Current than its output devices can handle and they will eventually be destroyed.

The power ratings for such systems are not to be viewed as absolute values due to the nature of sound. There are average values, but along with the average values there are also Peaks inherent in reproducing audio and those peaks must be accounted for as well.

On top of all that, audio power in Watts is not a linear translation. In other words, a few more Watts, or even twice as many watts, does not directly translate as being "twice as loud". The Decibel scale shows us mathematically that small differences in amplifier power are meaningless in the real world. Thus a 200 Watt amplifier is not going to be able to be twice as loud as a 100 Watt amplifier. Matter of fact, it would be very hard for the human ear to detect any difference in loudness between the two if both are operated properly. Makes no difference if the amplifier is built into the speaker cabinet or separate, the situation remains the same.

A good analogy would be your automobile.

Just because you CAN put your foot onto the accelerator of your automobile when in Neutral and hold it down to the floor does not mean that you SHOULD do such a thing, for it would be a recipe for mechanical disaster.


--Mac

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