# Does blasting speakers damage them?



## nicknameless

My friend says nothing happens if you put your speakers full blast. Is that true or will it damage the sound quality?

 Also my brother said there is such thing as the brown note that when you hear it, it makes you release the waste in your pants.


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## bundee1

I remember reading somewhere (probably popular science) that the government was experimenting with soundwave weapons. I think there are subsonic frequencies that can disrupt your balance and maybe your nervous system. The problem with them was deploying them without hurting yourself.


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## AlanY

They tested the brown note theory on MythBusters and determined that it's a myth. There's a bit of a writeup here, but it leaves out the ending (nothing happened):
http://www.meyersound.com.au/brownnote.shtm


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## zeppelin2

Nicknameless, I don't see how it could be good for them.. (re: blasting your speakers).

 Take for example me playing my computer speakers REALLY loud today. Now sound comes out of them even when I turn the digital volume controls on the speaker all the way down. Conclusion: not good.


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## cmirza

I wouldnt want to push any device further then necessary. A sports car may be designed to go fast, but if you drive it fast all the time, you'll put alot more wear and tear on it than necessary. If you push speakers to their limit all the time, its going to have adverse effects on them in the long run. I doubt the engineers designed them to run at full capacity all the time.


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## bg4533

If the amp is clipping you will probably fry the tweeters. If there is no distortion and you are not significantly exceeding the speakers power recommendation you should be fine.


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## Romanee

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *bg4533* 
_If the amp is clipping you will probably fry the tweeters. If there is no distortion and you are not significantly exceeding the speakers power recommendation you should be fine._

 

I've fried some. Some can be re-coned, but often you'll have to get new drivers (whatever... tweeter, mid/bass, woofer, subwoofer...), and as the speakers gain age it's harder and harder to find matching drivers... which do go "out of production". I've had that annoying experience ... took a long time to find one with close enough specs, even as a compromise.

 If you have subwoofers and they often make ugly flapping sounds... they're in trouble.

 Also..... you're not blasting them with ballistics or explosives, are you? Just checking.


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## Dreamslacker

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *AlanY* 
_They tested the brown note theory on MythBusters and determined that it's a myth. There's a bit of a writeup here, but it leaves out the ending (nothing happened):
http://www.meyersound.com.au/brownnote.shtm_

 

Yep... But it's scientifically proven that certain low-frequencies do cause you to get the shivers... The kind of feeling you get when you feel a presence.. Slight tingling & chilly sensation..


  Quote:


 nfrasound is not always inaudible: though on the cusp of what the human ear can detect, some people find it easy to pick up and others cannot hear it at all. Those who can detect it, however, do not listen to it in the conventional sense. It is best described as a kind of “chugging” or “whooshing” hum, that is felt through the whole body.

 “It is that shiver-down-the-spine effect,” said Sarah Angliss, a composer and sound engineer who is leading the project and who has written two pieces for the concert. “It’s often seen as quite an annoying effect, and has been used to explain why people living near factories, which often produce infrasound, can report an unpleasant ambience. It can feel a bit like tinnitus, and it’s associated with hauntings. But it’s not all negative. It’s been used in music for 500 years, in the deep organ pipes that give that wow effect to sacred music. You’d use it to add feeling to the last few bars of the Wedding March.”


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## Romanee

Hey fellas... I thought the thread was about damage to the speakers... not to the listener!?!?!?


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## bhd812

hey nick..

 if there is aboulstly no distortion then it wont do nothing but give the speaker a good burn in...

 the probelm is getting no distortion..causes somewhere along the chain something will give it.


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## Ticky

One of my friends once hooked up a small cone woofer to a 200 watts (i think it's 200) amp, turned up the volume knob to max, and then pressed play on the CDP. 

 The woofer "flew" out of its enclosure. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Needless to say that was way back in "Hi" school when we got bored easily...

 So, I guess it is possible to damage the speakers. But, you might have to push the envelope to get it damaged instantly. 

 But in the more "realistic" side, I wonder if rubber sealing of the woofer deteriorates if we frequently blast the speakers to the point where I can see the woofer moving back and forth a bit too dramatically. I know the tweeters might fry, but not sure about the woofers.


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## Jose Perez

The short answer is YES it will definitely harm your speakers to play them full blast.

 Its like this, when a speaker is playing within its optimal range, the voice coil is well centered and the power sent to it can be easily dissipated because it has more sink area to allow it to cool. Now if you start pushing it harder and harder it spends more and more time outside of the gap and has less and less time for the heat to dissipate. As a result the coil gets hotter and hotter and the damage done to it increases until you fry the voice coil and need new speakers. The other thing that happens is that all that heat expands the frame of the speaker as well as the wire in the coil itself and decreases the magnetic gap the coil travels in. If this gets too small then the violent movement of the coil will force it to grind along into the pole piece, frame, or front plate of the speakeruntil it tears itself apart.


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## Glod

I take it that amp technology has developed. 

 I remember blowing a pair of Audio-Pro 25-2 (100W) with a Luxman 105W amp (L-410?) three times, 25 years ago. I suppose it clipped the whole time...6 Ohm speakers with an int. amp designed for 2x 8 Ohm speakers.


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## taymat

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *cmirza* 
_I wouldnt want to push any device further then necessary. A sports car may be designed to go fast, but if you drive it fast all the time, you'll put alot more wear and tear on it than necessary. If you push speakers to their limit all the time, its going to have adverse effects on them in the long run. I doubt the engineers designed them to run at full capacity all the time._

 

Fast driving doesn't kill engines, clutches and gearboxes, fast bad driving does.
 Modern speaker surrounds last for years and you can push a speaker as hard as you want as long as the amp doesn't clip, or you over power the speakers. If you do that you'll melt the voicecoils which is not good. First you'll hear a grating sound then worse over time.


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## SunByrne

I've fried a few tweeters in my day, but it'll depend on the equipment. Most consumer-grade receivers will indeed clip when turned up "all the way" and this can indeed fry your speakers. 

 .


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