Can poor audio quality cause tweeter burning out?

[remomoreira]

Guys, is there any possibility of a tweeter burning out because of the reproduction of an audio recorded in flac or mp3 that is said to be "of dubious quality"?
As far as I know, this claim does not succeed. The maximum that can occur is that the component does not render its full potential of sound quality.
As I consider myself almost lay on the subject, I resort to friends here.

 

[Verdinut]

Guys, is there any possibility of a tweeter burning out because of the reproduction of an audio recorded in flac or mp3 that is said to be "of dubious quality"?
As far as I know, this claim does not succeed. The maximum that can occur is that the component does not render its full potential of sound quality.
As I consider myself almost lay on the subject, I resort to friends here.

The right answer is no, unless a source of dubious quality or not, is amplified to the point that the solid state amplifier clips, by being overdriven with resulting harmonic distortion. That could destroy the tweeter.

 

[shadyJ]

The short answer is: no.

The long answer is: no, lesser quality sound files do not pose a danger to the tweeter.

 

[davidscott]

A little off topic here but I did manage to burn out the tweeters on my Polk 7bs back in the day. Never had that happen with any other speakers that I owned.

 

[Gmoney]

A little off topic here but I did manage to burn out the tweeters on my Polk 7bs back in the day. Never had that happen with any other speakers that I owned.

umm Polk tweeters umm on their lower end which isn’t saying much. I’ve burned out a Lot of them 5 buck tweets. Now on their flagships No I haven’t I tried really hard really I did, Polk’s LSi line 4 Ohm speakers. I had hooked up to a Emotiva XPA-2 1st gen that amp at a 4 Ohm load 500 watts X 2. took it up past O up to +5 bds took it like hooker on crack! Them Emo blue light meters never dropped down blow two are three blue dots from maxi out! My Son oldest son that is wanted to see if I had the balls to max out that Emo amp. Told him I’d do it if I blew out any driver that he would pay for replacement, well he has them today in his living room. After that day there wasn’t a day or week that didn’t go by he didn’t ask me to sell those LSi speakers and that XPA-2 amp to him. Still to this day he’ll put “Tool” on his Apple Streamer and crank up to +5 all I can do is smile and shake my head knowing I Created a monster!

 

[davidscott]

umm Polk tweeters umm on their lower end which isn’t saying much. I’ve burned out a Lot of them 5 buck tweets. Now on their flagships No I haven’t I tried really hard really I did, Polk’s LSi line 4 Ohm speakers. I had hooked up to a Emotiva XPA-2 1st gen that amp at a 4 Ohm load 500 watts X 2. took it up past O up to +5 bds took it like hooker on crack! Them Emo blue light meters never dropped down blow two are three blue dots from maxi out! My Son oldest son that is wanted to see if I had the balls to max out that Emo amp. Told him I’d do it if I blew out any driver that he would pay for replacement, well he has them today in his living room. After that day there wasn’t a day or week that didn’t go by he didn’t ask me to sell those LSi speakers and that XPA-2 amp to him. Still to this day he’ll put “Tool” on his Apple Streamer and crank up to +5 all I can do is smile and shake my head knowing I Created a monster!

Good to know but the 7Bs that I owned back in the early - mid 80s were one of their higher end models and considered by some to be the best sounding Polks of the day. Anyway they did sound great when I didn't manage to overload the teeters. I guess even back then they could have been using lower end tweeters.BTW I replaced them with DCM Time Windows in 1986 and never had a tweeter issue again.

 

[slipperybidness]

The right answer is no, unless a source of dubious quality or not, is amplified to the point that the solid state amplifier clips, by being overdriven with resulting harmonic distortion. That could destroy the tweeter.

What if the source quality is so poor that it has already clipped at the pre-amp stage???

 

[highfigh]

What if the source quality is so poor that it has already clipped at the pre-amp stage???

An amp producing distortion is different from an amp that's reproducing distortion. The voice coil becomes warm/hot when the voltage and current are driving it but during reproduction, the level could be anywhere from minimum to maximum without excess.

 

[highfigh]

Guys, is there any possibility of a tweeter burning out because of the reproduction of an audio recorded in flac or mp3 that is said to be "of dubious quality"?
As far as I know, this claim does not succeed. The maximum that can occur is that the component does not render its full potential of sound quality.
As I consider myself almost lay on the subject, I resort to friends here.

What amplifier are you using, what listening level, how much equalization has been done, how long were the speakers being driven....? Many questions need answers.