Is this clipping or just high SPL?
Yup - "Time"... But the rated power handling of Green Mountain Audio Continuum 1s is around 200-250 watts I think... so I shouldn't even be close to distorting my tweeter or midrange with a Yamaha M-40 (120wpc) at 3/4 volume.. right? Any distortion would be coming from the amp or the room, wouldn't it? Would this cause damage to my GMAs? |
Do you have an SPL meter? How loud was it? If it was above 100 db SPL then you might be "pushing" your speakers too much. See this article Unreasonably large distortion in midrange drivers. You can see that it gets bad above 105 db SPL. The main issue in the midrange and tweeter is excursion outside the non-linear range of the driver rather than amplifier power. This is why many studios use horns and why most speakers for sound reinforcement uses horns. The fact is that most normal speakers (even good ones) compress and distort above 100 db SPL (at the listening position - which can be 110 db SPL for the speaker). |
DJ- To answer your question: YES, reflected sound/loud mush at the listening position. As an experiment: find two or three large, thick comforters and drape them on the wall, behind your listening position. That should let you know if slap echo is the problem. Of course- it's also possible that the side walls can contribute as well, but the front and back walls are generally the main offenders. |
As Linkwitz states, in the article I referred to,"the large low frequency voice coil displacements can cause large amounts of intermodulation distortion products near the high frequency signal due to the large low frequency variation of Le(x)." A bell or chime is percussive and contains loads of low AND high frequencies all at once - just like a Cymbal...so it is a tough to impossible test for most speakers to generate at high SPL levels without some audible distortion or congestion... |
