Will a pair of 500 watt speakers damage a 1000 watt amp?

well i use 2 pairs of 250watt speakers on a 1200watt amp.
No problems....

You should have your amp rated at a higher value than your speakers really, but as long as you dont drive your sound hard there will not no problems.

Using higher rated Amplifers than your speaker rating is not to be advised for the novice, or those who frequently run their exisiting systems into clipping.

True, that from a quality point of view, the distortion level will be lower and hence the quality slightly better. However, should you try to force 1200W into a 500W speaker, then problems will develop!. If that wasn't the case, then 1000W speaker's wouldn't exist - we would all be using 100W speakers on our 1000W amps! .

Overdriving a speaker is the equivalent of trying to force 10 gallons of water into a 5 gallon container and hence NOT recommended unless you know what you are doing and can excercise care over your sound levels.

Modern amplifiers are very difficult to damage thanks to the several protection systems built into them, in fact most Amplifiers will today usually recover from being shorted out at full power. Speakers, on the other hand are a little more delicate, and the sensitive drivers in HF Horns are usually the first to go. Severe Clipping or distortion from overdriving your Amp will often burn out your Bass Drivers.

The best system to have is a well balanced system, where both Amp & Speakers are matched and neither are being abused. Don't skimp on your Sound System, the Audience will not miss that extra lighting effect, but they will notice if your sound system is Crap!. It is pointless spending £1000 on an Amp, only to buy a Pair of Speakers for £300, Basically your sound system is only as good as the lowest priced component, so don't skimp on either.

I'm with Chris on this one... Over the years (Crumbly Alert!)..I've heard from DJ's who have "validated" the act of pushing 600watts into a 400watt cab, by saying things like the speakers run better when they're warm...or that the manufacturers deliberately mark down the wattages on their speakers, compared to what the speaker will "really" handle...blah blah blah...

Indeed on another DJ forum on the net, I noted with interest that a couple of guys on there, who regular promote the idea of overdriving speakers over their ratings, are also the same guys posting on those forums about "Anyone know any cheap places to get speakers re-coned?" and "Whats this rattling/"frapping" noise?"

Personally, I've run the same pair of 250watts( max @8ohms) mid/high speakers off of a 200watts per side (max @ 8ohms) amp, and a pair of 400watts (max @ 8ohms) bass cabs off of another 250watts per side amp, for about 12 years now...with both amps attenuators (volume controls) turned to about 80% of max output...and never had any blown drivers, frapping noises, or complaints about sound quality. Many of you will be in the same boat as me...I cant afford to hear a blown driver on a Thursday nite, when I've got Friday and Saturday gigs looming....

If someone really wanted to "overdrive" their speakers, I'd recommend them to AT LEAST get a limiter/compressor to sort out any sudden or accidental peaks from the mixer...you never know when those headphones that you've balanced over the headphone plug/wire on the mixer are gonna slump and knock your mixers master output fader from 60% to MAX, or when the slightly boozed up Groom is gonna either drop the mic with a THWUD! that takes out your bass bins, or else he'll freeze for seconds infront of your tweeters, wondering where the feedback noise is coming from...until it suddenly stops...(coz the tweeters have burnt out).

To be fair, some speakers have built in protection circuits against feedback and POP(thwud!) peaks and surges....but not all that many...Mine do, they're RAMSA ("who?" = they're made by Technics/Panasonic Pro-audio). Care to guess if your speakers have this protection...thought not

Also...I do think that SOME (not this one ) sites and adverts are not as clear as they could be when showing speaker and amp ratings...You really need to get the same "type" of measurement for both the speakers and the amps, to find safe, and compatible matches... EG: Dont read the Watts RMS of an amplifier, then the Watts MAX of a speaker....Impedance, or Ohms is another rating to pay close attention to.

EG:

Speaker: 200watts MAX @ 8ohms, run on.....
Amplifier: 200watts RMS @ 8ohms

The impedances match (Ohms), but for an amp to offer 200watts RMS, its probably capable of putting out 260~300watts MAX. Which could mean bye-bye speaker...

Similarly:

Speaker: 200watts MAX@8 Ohms, run (on its own) on....
Amplifier: 400watts MAX@4 Ohms...

Both ratings are Watts MAX this time, so watts...sorry... I mean WHATS the problem? The Impedance rating... An amp capable of putting 400watts into a 4ohm speaker, can put almost double that (800watts ish) into an 8ohm speaker....

Thats not to say that you musn't use 4ohm amps with 8ohm speakers...you can...daisy-chaining speakers together...eg: Lead from Amp to first 8ohm speaker on the left, then lead from that speaker to second 8ohm speaker on left, presents the amp with a 4ohm load...

Remember though that amps are made to work alot harder at 4ohms (or even 2ohms) than they are at 8ohms, so if you regularly daisy chain 2 or more speakers on each side (of a stereo amp) give the amp plenty of ventilation....

Phew!

Anyone still awake?...

QUOTE (Gary @ May 10 2003, 12:36 AM)

An amp capable of putting 200watts into a 4ohm speaker, can put almost double that (400watts ish) into an 8ohm speaker....

I thought it was the other way around ??

I KNEW I shouldnt have had that packet of Wine Gums earlier....

Thanks, yes...I did err TYPE...the wrong thing on that example.... I've corrected it now...

My mentals powers are bad at this time of night...and I've got a short memory...and my mentals powers are bad at this time of night, and I've got a short memory...

Yes, N.L is correct - Amplifiers will deliver MORE wattage into a 4ohm load than an 8 ohm.

For instance:-

An Amp Rated at 400 Watts RMS into 4 ohms (2 x 8 ohm speakers) and around 280 Watts in an 8 ohm load (1x 8 ohm speaker). This is why that connecting two speakers to each channel of the Amp will increase its output.

What you do have to concern yourself with, is the RMS and Max or PMPO outputs on both Amps and speakers. PMPO Ratings are Totally misleading, Max Ratings are the absolute maximum that the unit will cope with before it dies, and the accurate RMS figure is the CONTINUOUS rating that the speaker will handle without any stress or damage.

A Speaker may be indicated as being:- 300 Watts RMS, 600 Watts Max, 1200 Watts PMPO. This speaker is actually 300 Watt - the RMS rating is the one that you should consider,

Most of this is actually covered elsewhere in the forum!.

Did a two day gig last weekend on the seafront, using 3 x 1300w amps and x 1 1000w amp running 10 speaker, on the Sunday one of the amps died, managed to run the HZ amp at 1 ohm !!

QUOTE

managed to run the HZ amp at 1 ohm

This is not usually advisable, lol since this is very close to short circuiting the output stage of the amp. Damage to the Amp would be rare, but you may get the Thermal / General protecton circuits kicking in at some point during the gig!, although some modern amps will handle this, providing that the are not running at full power, or into clipping.

I have a local customer, who is actually running on old Cloud GF150 Slave Amp (One of the old mono Bi-Polars from the 70's!) into 2 ohms at each gig . Quite a feat considering how old the amp is, that it only has the most basic of protection, and that should the channel fail, there isn't another one to use!, and the idiot has no back up. Talk about asking for trouble.

Well thanks for all that! But to technical for me, i have no idea what all that was about.
I take it, all that meant No then?

QUOTE

managed to run the HZ amp at 1 ohm

Correct but when needs must, and all that !! plus it was nowhere near running hard, kept an eye on the heat though, lasted the 6 hours requested of it. Another reason why I only buy HZ amps/speakers etc. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR !!