Can you blow out your speakers/sub on your computer?

[lschmidt]

With my old altec lansing series 100 speakers from the 90s or something, I would turn the volume all the way up in windows media player, the windows volume bar all the way up, plus the speaker volume all the way up.

I recently bought a Creative Audigy 4 sound card and some Logitech Z-2300 2.1 speakers.

The sub is 120W, and the satellites are 40W each. This is RMS.

I want to see how loud this can get, but the bass is really heavy and I don't want to blow the sub out or anything!

Is there any way I can make sure not to do this besides just not turning up the volume really loud?

 

[Doughbuy]

I doubt you can blow your sub, but go ahead and try. Your amplifier should be built into your sub, and I doubt the Logitech amp would provide more power than the sub can handle. Your not running 1000W car speakers... so you can turn it up as loud as you want.

Then again, I run a 500W THX home theater system coupled to a receiver, so I never turn mine all the way up or my dormates would shizzle me alive.

 

[lschmidt]

I'm just hesitant because if I keep the bass volume in the middle, then turn the main volume dial up even half way (highest its gone)...

it's INSANELY loud and booming like it's going to blow my desk up.

 

[Doughbuy]

Your speakers have a warranty right? Which means, if you push it to the limit of what they gave you (I doubt you fiddled around inside it anyways) then if it breaks, they would have to get you a new one... shrug... so I doubt they would design it so that just by turning the volume all the way up you'll start blowing parts inside.

 

[mesarectifier]

It'll distort and sound shit before it blows. You'll be able to tell that you're pushing it too hard because it'll distort and sound shit.

 

[jap0nes]

Your speakers have a warranty right? Which means, if you push it to the limit of what they gave you (I doubt you fiddled around inside it anyways) then if it breaks, they would have to get you a new one... shrug... so I doubt they would design it so that just by turning the volume all the way up you'll start blowing parts inside.

agree with you
for the OP, you can set bass to minimum and squeeze the volume up, the increase the bass gradually until it can handle.. or your ears can handle

 

[gm0n3y]

I'm just hesitant because if I keep the bass volume in the middle, then turn the main volume dial up even half way (highest its gone)...

it's INSANELY loud and booming like it's going to blow my desk up.

I am suprised that your speakers would even go that loud. I have the logitech z5500 series and its sub is 190W RMS and I haven't found it to be INSANELY LOUD. Then again, I don't usually try to turn mine up to crazy volumes (I live in an apartment).

 

[AddictiveHerring]

There are two ways speakers blow out.

1)A speaker is an electromagnet essentially, so it is a piece of copperwire wound around metal, the smaller the driver aka "tweeters" the smaller the diameter of the wire wound around. When too much power is run through the wire it heats up and melts together, detroying the driver.

2)Physically tears, on something like a sub, which would have a very thick wire, the actuall force of the speaker cone moving in and out can physically damage it, while the copper wire would most likely never melt together.

SO, I would doubt that your sub will break, listen for distortion, when it starts to sound like farting, turn it down. If not because it may break, but because it sounds like farting.

You could ptentially damage your satellites however, I am unsure of wheather or not the internal amplifier can provide more power than they can take, but I do know that as amplifiers aproach there max power output the start to put out "bad sound" they will be driving the signal to the point of distortion of the actual signal before it een hits the speaker cones. THAT is what can cause damage to your satellites, a sin wave spike or something could attempt to reproduce sounds that are too high to hear or something and kill your speaker cones.

Listen for distortion, and when things start to sound "blurry" turn it down adn you will be fine.

Hope this helps

 

[rubberjohnson]

Excess power doesn't usually kill speakers, distortion does, and no warranty will cover damage done by distortion. As AddictiveHerring said in 1) "...the wire it heats up and melts together..." alot of heat is produced in this "voicecoil" when amplifiers "clip" i.e. distort.

Another way of looking at it is if you had a 30watts rms amplifier that has been turned up so loud that thats its trying to produce 40watts rms, it could damage a sub woofer that is rated to handle 200watts or any other speaker for that matter.

 

[AddictiveHerring]

EXACTLY!

 

[clue69less]

I'm just hesitant because if I keep the bass volume in the middle, then turn the main volume dial up even half way (highest its gone)...

it's INSANELY loud and booming like it's going to blow my desk up.

So, do you NEED them to play that loud? If not, just turn them down.

Tweeters tend to blow most often and it's caused more by overloading the amp, which then distorts and puts out a big wad of HF current that fries the driver.

 

[AesikNaos]

Yes you can blow them.
Especially with PC speakers.
Plug your speakers into a cd player and turn it up and see how high it goes.
Then plug them into your PC turn all the volume up in the PC and I bet it will get alot louder than on your CD player.
I have Logitech 5300e's and I have a bass control on my remote for it and if I were to turn that all the way up then turn the bass on the PC all the way up...if I turn it up too much it will start to distort because its trying to produce frequencies(sp?) lower than its rated to produce.
I blew my first pair this way....err actually it was my little cousin joking around and cranked it while I had it with the bass up on both and the volume low....he did this while I was gone...freaked out ran out of the room he said they distorted for about 25mins before they blew and my step dad opened them up and the voice coils had melted togethet.(bummer)
I had a warranty and they were replaced and all is fine now.
But, the point is yes you can blow them its possible to blow any set of speakers there are with the right settings volume and/or equipment.
I work at a music store and we get 15's 12's and 10's every day with blone horns and woofers it just happens.
Hope it helps and take it easy on those speakers.
Only good thing is you got Logitech brand speakers and they are high quality so you should have alot harder of a time blowing them.

 

[AddictiveHerring]

How can someone who works in a store selling speakers call logitech computer speakers "high-quality" lol I suppose relatively speaking.

 

[AddictiveHerring]

I can DEFINENTLY agree that logitech keyboards and Mice are The best out there, I am a logitech fanboi for sure. I wouldn't give up my g5 for 1000 bowls of ben and jerry's why? Because I could still use it ot kick counter strike ass afterwords, since it even works with greasy/wet/sweaty hands.

 

[AesikNaos]

I meant for PC speakers, obviously I wouldnt use a Logitech brand speaker for a show or any other sound job.
For Audio Purposes in a stage enviorment I'm partial to JBL's Cerwins and Celestian but, thats just me everyone has there favorites.
Though our store sells the JBLS and Celestians like hot cakes.
Sorry for the off topic.

 

[AddictiveHerring]

I know, I was kinda bein a cock. Sorry Bro, lol

I kinda don't like all the midrange brands like Jbl and Cerwin Vega, they are always ok but never incredible, cept Polk Audio, sometimes they shine. MY personal Drugs are more along the lines of Paradigm, B&O, B&W, magneplanar. That kind of thing, although I think Paradigm hits the price performance sweetspot I have a pair of titans in Cherry and a Pair of Phantoms also in cherry.

It's always cool to meet someone interested in fidelity!

 

[computertech82]

Yes, you can blow the speakers. RMS means nothing at all really. It's more like a guide for peak power in 1/2 second only. The real wattage would be the key. a 199w RMS is more likely only a 40watt speaker (or less). If the amplifier can push more power than the speaker is rated at, it will blow the speaker. It's how they build it. Some do push the limit with 50 watts of output on a 50watt speaker, very close to the limit.

Like this is actually part of a description of a logitech speakers.
- Satellites: 199 watts RMS (2 x 38W front, 2 x 40.5W rear, 42W center)

As you can see, the speakers are really only 38 watts / 40.5 watts and 42 watts NOT 199 watts. So if the amplifier pushes 42watts per speaker, it will blow out the front and rear speakers in this example.

 

[AddictiveHerring]

Mathematically that makes sense, but you are forgetting the fact that a crappy amplifier (like a built in logitech) will start spitting out speaker destroying sin waves at about 60-80 percent I would estimate. So the speaker wattage rating isn't the only thing that matters. IF the amplifier was pushing 200 watts and the speakers could only go to 45 then it would probably be safe to run them at 45 ish (if the rating is truly correct, they usually are not) If the amplifier is a 50 watt amplifier, running them at 45 watts would most likely be overdriving the amp, and amplifier distortion could ruin them, melt em like the insides of a peperoni pizza hot-pocket

 

[AesikNaos]

I know, I was kinda bein a ****. Sorry Bro, lol

I kinda don't like all the midrange brands like Jbl and Cerwin Vega, they are always ok but never incredible, cept Polk Audio, sometimes they shine. MY personal Drugs are more along the lines of Paradigm, B&O, B&W, magneplanar. That kind of thing, although I think Paradigm hits the price performance sweetspot I have a pair of titans in Cherry and a Pair of Phantoms also in cherry.

It's always cool to meet someone interested in fidelity!

All is forgiven.
Nice to see someone else around here thats interested in it as well.
I see you mentioned Cerwin Vega...we just got a brand new pair in from them...cant remember the model name but, I can find out....but, we tested them out today in our studio...I have to say they were the best most clearest speakers Cerwin has to date.

And the big reason that I mentioned the Midrange stuff is becuase most of what I handle on a daily basis are those brands cause etiher A: not everyone has the money to spend on Paradigm's or B: there rentals and we would never rent some idiot Paradigm's for his wedding party or w/e.

 

[AddictiveHerring]

lol, cool. I like that "we would never rent some idiot paradigms for his wedding" lol

Out of the midranges I actually do like the cerwin's for loudpeakers, they do do a great job with that, and I suppose renting for weddings etc. would be more like that so that makes sense.

I suppose paradigms are more like enjoy some coffee and jazz. Not really hard rock and a beer lol But the performance series is really cheapy, you can get a small bookshelf pair for about 200, would make fantastic computer speakers. Sounds like you have a cool job. I think I would enjoy working in the audio business, but I'll have to stick to my guns; Puters!

 

[kamel5547]

I doubt you can blow your sub, but go ahead and try. Your amplifier should be built into your sub, and I doubt the Logitech amp would provide more power than the sub can handle. Your not running 1000W car speakers... so you can turn it up as loud as you want.

Then again, I run a 500W THX home theater system coupled to a receiver, so I never turn mine all the way up or my dormates would shizzle me alive.

YOu can blow a sub easily by clipping an amp... running at full volume (on the speaker) can blow the amp even if it is under-powered. I've blown car speakers that handled gigher RMS than the amp could put out before...

 

[AesikNaos]

lol, cool. I like that "we would never rent some idiot paradigms for his wedding" lol

Out of the midranges I actually do like the cerwin's for loudpeakers, they do do a great job with that, and I suppose renting for weddings etc. would be more like that so that makes sense.

I suppose paradigms are more like enjoy some coffee and jazz. Not really hard rock and a beer lol But the performance series is really cheapy, you can get a small bookshelf pair for about 200, would make fantastic computer speakers. Sounds like you have a cool job. I think I would enjoy working in the audio business, but I'll have to stick to my guns; Puters!

Haha I'm only 18 doing this as a side job to pay for school and guess what I'm going for?

Puter's.

I like the audio deal but, I wouldnt do it forever...and trust me there isnt alot of money in it so dont bother...its something you should do only if thats like what you really enjoy doing.

That aside its badass playing with the recording studio equipment and all the new drums speakers amps synth's guitars and bass's before anyone else.

 

[AesikNaos]

lol, cool. I like that "we would never rent some idiot paradigms for his wedding" lol

Out of the midranges I actually do like the cerwin's for loudpeakers, they do do a great job with that, and I suppose renting for weddings etc. would be more like that so that makes sense.

I suppose paradigms are more like enjoy some coffee and jazz. Not really hard rock and a beer lol But the performance series is really cheapy, you can get a small bookshelf pair for about 200, would make fantastic computer speakers. Sounds like you have a cool job. I think I would enjoy working in the audio business, but I'll have to stick to my guns; Puters!

Haha I'm only 18 doing this as a side job to pay for school and guess what I'm going for?

Puter's.

I like the audio deal but, I wouldnt do it forever...and trust me there isnt alot of money in it so dont bother...its something you should do only if thats like what you really enjoy doing.

That aside its badass playing with the recording studio equipment and all the new drums speakers amps synth's guitars and bass's before anyone else.

 

[AddictiveHerring]

well I meant more like working at a paradigm dealership or something. That would be fun and pay well, as a side job for a college student.

 

[simonb]

i connected a 1000 watt sound system on my computer... is there any chance it could blow? i always crank it to the max in my room lmao. i also have a nice 4 years of extended warranty