DANG, You trying to make toast?I recently measured 50Vpk across my 4 Ω (nominal) speakers.
DANG, You trying to make toast?I recently measured 50Vpk across my 4 Ω (nominal) speakers.
You trying to make toast?
As an aside, for this reason you actually want high voltage rated speaker wires!I recently measured 50Vpk across my 4 Ω (nominal) speakers during a period of loudness.
View attachment 5795
Were that level continuous, the RMS calculation would be
View attachment 5797
The specification for the amplifiers provides a maximum of 138Vpk across the speakers
View attachment 5798
... which shall forever remain unexplored
You need to measure the voltage on the grids of your MLs. That is fun.
As an aside, for this reason you actually want high voltage rated speaker wires!
As long as they are not low voltage wire rated to 30 volts and such, you are good.They're 600V rated, if laid parallel, does that give 1200V between them? 138V would be the unlikely to be seen max on my little amps, 240V on the big boys of the series.
Well, electrostats can power compress drastically, due to the hard excursion limits imposed by the fixed stators on the membrane vibrating in between. In old, 'stats like original Quads, that meant arcing. Newer stats usually have protection against that, sometimes in an electronic limiting circuit.I like sensitive speakers, I put the extra dynamics down to power compression. Electrostatics shouldn't power compress either.
In my case though it was mostly because I liked to build low powered amplifiers, and I like what CD horns can do.
A while back, I did a compression test up to reasonable (too loud for single frequency) levels on my panels, and saw nothing to hint of compression.
Lower left contaminated by ambient noise.
Levels were bumped 2dB on each pass, result is pretty much +/- .1dB, measured at the listening position. Crossover to cone woofer at 180Hz
View attachment 5981
Ill be honest its not something I have thought about that much. I did mean they don't compress within their range, and small panels can be spl limited by the excursion limit.
All things being equal a larger driver needs less excursion, thus typically lower distortion to higher spl, these day drivers are getting much better with ever increasing linear xmax, but like I said all things being equal.
More power means more heat, which will cause power compression, big PA drivers rated for 800w tend to dissipate heat better, they are more sensitive you are using much less power, win win.
I'm not sure all dynamics simply occur in the bass, but yes, I'm a proponent of subwoofers, wouldn't be without out one.
When I say horns, I like CD waveguides, I like the even dispersion over a controlled area, Geddes stuff. Most "normal" horns don't do much for me.
It boils down to the recording a lot too. If it has 6db of dynamic range, its never going to be dynamic. I have some Flim and the BBs cds with 20db+, they sound pretty punchy on most things, on dynamic systems, it makes you blink.
Id never noticed the SPL logging in REW before, Ill have to drag various speaks out to compare.