Posted by Rick Denney on April 13, 2001 at 13:56:53:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Stereo equipment poll posted by Chuck(G) on April 13, 2001 at 13:10:23:
Say, Chuck, don't overanalyze this, heh, heh. (Ducking the lightning bolt that just whizzed past my head.)
Clipping produces a whole collection of high harmonics, and those voice coils overheat trying to reproduce those harmonics more readily than from too high an average power in the audible range. Without clipping, the speakers never see those frequencies at high enough power levels to matter. Most good speakers have plenty of headroom for high average power levels in the audible range, and most listeners will scream in pain before the speaker reaches its overload. But a speaker can be burned out an lower levels by a small amplifier that is clipping. As you say, it is high average power that is creating the heat, but in ultrasonic frequencies resulting from the square waves produced by clipping.
For reproducing tuba, I find that one needs are really powerful amplifier to avoid clipping. Note that "reproducing tuba" is different than "playing tuba music." The former is creating the same sound that would come from the tuba in the same circumstance. If I'm playing synthesized tuba to hear my latest arrangement, and I want to play along and have the synthesized part be balanced with my own playing, then the synthesized (or recorded) part has to be loud. That takes a big amplifier.
For listening to tuba music, however, I'm listening to the tuba, the accompaniment, and the recorded room acoustics as a package, at a similar level to where the microphones were placed--that is--out in the hall. That's not nearly as loud as when sitting next to the player. This is a real issue when selecting sound-system components for synthesized music, if it is to sound real. That's why the amp for my keyboard puts out 250 watts per channel instead of the 75 watts/channel of the Carver.
Rick "who think his neighbors would really complain if he played along with the Prok 5 CD at proper sound levels" Denney