Arena 180

There are two ways to blow speakers. The first is the one we all know and understand. If you pump 500 watts into a speaker that is only rated at 100 watts, kaboom, it blows up. As a result, very few of us do this. So then why are all of these poor, helpless speakers blowing up? Because of the second reason, under-powering. It's really a misleading term, but let's try to explain. First let's take it to the maximum. Example: You have a 1000 watt speaker and a 100 watt amplifier. The way you like to listen to music requires 300 watts. Typically, you will ask your amp to put out that 300 watts that you want to hear. The amp will do it, but it will clip and distort. Unfortunately, the human ear can't hear distortion until it reaches almost 10%. By that time it's usually too late. The speaker keeps trying to reproduce this distortion that it's not capable or reproducing and eventually it blows (usually the tweeter fails first). If you are blowing speakers with an amp that has a power rating lower than your speakers, you are pushing your amp too far, causing it to clip, and blowing speakers. If you are pushing your system too hard, it is suggested that you realize your systems limitations or recommend that you get a more powerful amplifier. Please realize, if you only buy speakers that will handle more power and not a more powerful amplifier, you won't solve the problem. The speakers will still blow, because it is distortion that is blowing them, not too much power.