Kevin Murray wrote:
If a speaker
bottoms out it will sound like crap and the listener will turn down the volume.
This inherent "built-in protection" protects the speaker from mechanical damage
resulting from excessive V-A.

You would think, anyway. What most often happens is the listener ignores
it, thinks its part of the source, or because the subs are in the trunk
they don't even notice. Thats why as an installer I was such a fan of
Alpine's (or was it JBL's?)old soft-clip design. The speaker never
bottomed out per-se, it just got harder to push.

It's also worth pointing out that IME 75% of the time a speaker blows,
its not the voice coil that went bad, but the mechanical portion of the
speaker which couldn't handle the abuse. Spiders and surrounds come
unglued, get worn out, or the cone itself becomes warped. I've even seen
some speakers where the leads get ripped out of the speaker terminal in
subs that have high Xmax, but don't cut the leads long enough. Power
handling in a voice coil is rarely a problem. Thats why I tell people
not to worry about an amp thats too big, you can always turn it down
when things start to go "thwack!".

--
thelizman "I didn't steal the FAQ either"

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