Clipping

Right, I know an amp driven to clipping can promptly fry your tweeters but can it damage the transistors in the amp itself or are they more robust than we think ? The reason I ask is I decided to crank the volume up well beyond my normal listening levels and during a particulaly bass heavy passage there was a loud crack from the speakers(AE109) considering the amp is rated 95W rms and the speakers 130w (6ohms) would this be clipping or just the speakers hitting the end stops ...everthing sounds fine but more worried about the amp. Thanks

 

Whether driving an amp into clipping will damage the output devices depends on the amp. If it puts them right on the edge of their operating range, it might, but if that means its drawing 8A through a 20A transistor, it won't.

What amp?

If it still sounds ok, I wouldn't worry about it for now.

 

Thanks for reply...its the Marantz PM7200 Yes it still sounds fine but just worried that the sudden surge of current through those low impedence speakers could have degraded the output transistors and cause problems later even though it works ok now..bit irresponsable to whack it up to ridicolous i know but when you live in a detached house sometimes temptation gets the better of you!! shoudn't some sort of protection circuit kick in?

 

Depends on the amplifier... Some designers think that protection schemes spoil the sound and don't implement them.

 

i had some Ae 109's once. they went pretty loud, but i do remember them gong "crack" if you pushed them with some heavy bass a couple of times

propably just the metal cones hitting their end stops as it were, wouldn't worry if it wasnt for long.