Can you overpower a speaker

To Elevick's suggestion, it's great if you are using speakers with high-order crossovers and it will certainly give you the impression of more horsepower and protect your primary speakers, but if you are running speakers with simple first-order crossovers, then using an outboard crossover is going to kill all of the benefits that first-order crossovers bring.

Also, getting back to power generally, you ideally want an amp with a lower continuous power rating (darTZeel, Ayre, the new Rowland 625) as I explained above, but also an amp with a very stiff power supply that can deliver huge amounts of instantaneous power. Such amps, such as the big Naim amp and the CAT JL1 monos, seemingly have the power of a 500 watt Krell, but without the drawbacks.

A person is in far more danger in using a low to medium powered amp that clips a lot and at high volume can definitely damage tweeters and sometimes other drivers. I have rarely seen high powered amps kill drivers, unless the power handling capacity of the speakers are not up to the job. Basically, don't buy an amp with more than the power capacity of the speaker, or at least keep the volume knob under control. Or, if you have very high powered amplification, buy speakers with high current and power capacity.

Greg

A speakers ability to absorb power decreases as it gets hot....and the Electrical characteristics change. Mostly for the worse.
In short (no pun intended) too much power is for sure possible. Even perhaps, when no audible distortion is present, you can get a VC pretty darn hot and damage it.

I have had a fair amount of experience trying to achieve my ideal sound using a pair of Legacy Focus (original speakers) so I will share my findings so far. Originally I had them powered with an Aloia Inductive Power amplifier that is rated at only 30 WPC into 8 ohms but tested at more like 120 into 4 ohms. It was good but not great. I didn’t feel the speakers had the kind of current they needed and dynamics and bass control were lacking.

So then I sold the expensive Aloia unit and bought a Harmon Kardon Citation 7.1 four channel amp. Bridged it into 2 channels and ran it that way into the 4 ohm Focus speakers with a single speaker cable pair to each speaker. The 7.1 claims 2 x 450 WPC into 8 ohms and does not state a 4 ohm rating while bridged. Then I found out why. I was advised that the bidged amps are basically seeing 2 ohm loads against each half of the bridged amps and that this could be a problem. I had run the speakers this way for maybe 5-7 years at least with never an issue. The power from the Citation was awesome and so was the bass control etc. I loved it.

So to play it safe I then unbridged the amplifier and ran it in 4 channel mode which yields 4 x 240 WPC into the 4 ohm load but instantly I could tell I had lost a lot of dynamic range. At that point I was of course bi amping and bi wiring with 2 sets of stereo pair wires running to each speaker. I had DH labs silver and one other mid-Fi speaker copper wire and even tried changing wire around etc to no avail. I was not happy but left them that way for another year or so.

Then just recently I bought a used Legacy High Current Stereo Amp that claims 250 WPC into 2 channels at 8 ohms. First I ran it full range into the Focus single wired. I noted that the mid to high range (sweeter smoother) was better to me than running the 7.1 amplifier alone in 2 or 4 channel mode. But the bass was gone. No control or dynamics in the low end. I traded wires around a few times and swapped the amp back and forth between it and the 7.1 and still was not able to get a combo that worked for me.

The next step was to run both amps into the Focus biwired. First I put the Legacy amp on the bottom end with the Citation 7.1 up top still in 4 channel mode (to avoid the 2 ohm load problem mentioned earlier) but of course only using 2 channels of the amp. So then I had the Legacy amp running into the bottom half of the legacys at 4 ohms pushing unknown wattage due to the 4 ohm, with the Citation up top delivering 240wpc to the top half X 2. I didn’t like that at all. The Citation was harsh up top no matter which wire pair I used and the Legacy was still very SOFT on the bottom octaves. I didn’t like that at all.

Then I switched and put the citation 7.1 on the woofers (still in 4 channel mode) with the Legacy amp up top. That was way better but the bass was still not where it was in the beginning. Again I switched speaker wires etc. Still the bass was soft and lacking power and control.

Finally I then put the Citation back in bridged mode with 2 channels feeding into the Focus woofers and the Legacy amp up top. That to me was the best I had heard yet. I was running the DH labs silver wires on top and some big heavy copper stranded wires (can’t remember the brand) on bottom and there I seem to have everything. Dynamics, sweet top end, good sound stage etc and now I can loaf along with the volume knob safely below “reference levels” and enjoy anything at any volume level I care to listen at. The problem of course is that I am back to having the 7.1 amp in 2 channel mode into a 4 ohm speaker with each bridged half amp seeing 2 ohms (or less)

But I figure on the positive side I am not pushing either amp very hard at all despite having 600-700+ watts rated feeding into each cabinet but I doubt I am anywhere near using all of that. So in my case even with the highly efficient Focus speakers I find with more power from high current SS amps is where I get the best sound.

Now I am waiting on an electrician to come wire in two dedicated 20 amp circuits with 12 g wire . Coda (maker of the Legacy amp) tells me that a good AC circuit makes a big difference in the amp output so if I gain some noticeable headroom I may be able to put the Citation back into 4 channel mode and start the experimenting all over again.

I just found out that everything in the system including the 61” DLP TV was being fed off one 15a circuit including all the other gear such as CD,DVD, AV receiver, Direct TV box, and the Citation amp. So hopefully with some real AC power coming I will see some headroom restored to the dynamics. I have noticed dimming of lights when playing at high volume but I have never tripped a circuit.

More updates after the long new years weekend I hope.

Yes and quite easily as most consumer speakers use cheap drivers and opt for an expensive finish instead, as this is what matters most to customers.