big sub, small amp

[PaulD]

Originally Posted by engineer

ive heard something that underpowering a sub can damage it this way.... if it goes into a range the amp cannot handle, and clipping happenings, then the signal turns into pure DC voltage and fries stuff

well, it doesn't exactly turn into pure DC voltage .... essentially, what happens is the area under the curve or average power increases. Remember about efficiency, subs are like 5-10% efficient (percent of electrical power that is turned into mechanical vibration) .... wanna guess what happens to the other 90-95% of the power that is being fed into the speaker. We know that energy canot be created or destroyed - so it goes somewhere. In this case, it is being transformed into HEAT - and if you feed too much power to a speaker, it just can't dissipate all the heat and it typically burns the voice coil out. Overpowering is not a really big issue for people who listen to music .... it becomes a huge problem for people who listen to a lot electronic tones (bass CD's)

[CBFryman]

i thought a watt was one columb of electrons beinge moved through any given point in one seconds (i e one ampere) multiplied by the measure of the foce that is acting upon that flow of electons (ie voltage) oh ya energy can be converted i R the wrongerest...oh yes and i suck at typing because im lazy and dont care what a bunch of people i have/never will meet think of me....