Speakers distort at high volumes?

When I crank my front speakers they distort, but when I turn the volume down they sound fine again. Have I blown my speakers??? Or is there another explanation for this phenomenon??

 

How loud are you turning it up? A lot of recievers and amplifiers (mainly recievers) will push the volume into a '+' range, exceeding the output of the unit and 'clipping' and distorting much of the information in the process.

 

We need more details about the speakers and the amp driving them.

 

Blind_melon1

+1 Clipping most likely

 

If you are trying to push your speakers to over 106 db SPL, then you are probably clipping them.

 

Power doesnt usually blow speakers (within reason) but distortion does. It could well be that your amp is distorting (clipping) please supply details of amp and speakers etc

 

Speakers are Monitor Audio BR2s which ive had about 18 months from new and the amp is a Yamaha As500. Wouldnt say i was playing them mega load. i'll get a proper Db reading when I get home from work

 

Speakers Need an Amp from 30-100W
Your amp outs out 85W PC into 8 Ohms. I am going to hazard a guess that your amp is distorting when you push it too hard. Dont do it your speakers will suffer. Better to get an Amp of 150W PC.

 

or I could change my speakers?

 

You could do that but would probably have the same problem.

 

Could the amp cause the distortion if the psu wasn't giving it enough power?

 

laughalot hit the nail on the head. OP, if you want to crank it, get a more powerful amp. Otherwise you will blow your speakers out.

 

Sounds like you are clipping your amp by turning the volume up too loud. This can damage your tweeters. Don't do that.

Keep the volume lower, or look into a beastly amp.

 

Or use headphones.

 

You can blow headphones too if an headphone amp distorts when trying to play when the volume knob is near full volume. I've done it. Some amps just don't play clean when the volume it cranked, even if the actual listening volume isn't that loud.

 

Twice, I have had people ask me to look at the stereo system for this same reason and both times, the cause was that the person wasn't careful wiring in their speakers and had one single strand of copper from the speaker wire cross over and slightly short their amp. This kind of connection doesn't kill most amps until you crank it a bit.

Check your speaker connections at the amp and the speaker terminals and make sure the speaker wires are not frayed and making this connection.

 

Baker's half-dozen

Or get more efficient speakers. 6 of one . . .

 

"Cranking the volume" is not the same for everyone: For me this means hitting 85dB peaks, but I know people that will just turn the volume all the way up after a few (many) beers.

You need to kow which category you belong in: If you fall in the latter group, you should probably get a couple of PA speakers, and maybe a couple of resistors between your source and amplifier that allow you to safely "max out" the volume on your amplifier without clipping. Monitor Audio (and 99% of other "home" speakers) simply aren't designed to take that kind of abuse. Getting a more powerful amplifier will only make matters worse in ths case.

If you fall in the first category, and are not exeeding, say 90-95 (peaks) something is probably wrong.

 

How can you tell from the speaker specifications that it is an easy speaker to drive or that it's a speaker which requires such and such a powered amp?

 

Efficiency. A rateing of (just say) 92 db@1 watt is pretty efficient. 84 db@1 watt is not too efficient. These are just examples of a specification that you might look for to find easy too drive speakers.

 

I have a pair of Dali 5000, basic floor standing, with an 8" woofer.
I find them very easy to drive.
The sensitivity is rated @2.83v/1min 90db, nominal 6 ohm, recommended amp 30w - 120w
Whereas if I use the same amp with a pair of Orb speakers (little dome speakers) the size of a decent grapefruit (advanced high-excursion 3" full range*polypropylene driver cone), I can have the volume knob turned full before I'd consider them loud. Yet recommended amp is 15w -120w, efficiency is 89db 8ohm

Does that make sense?

 

I have my volume knob at 11 oclock and have recorded the volume at 100db is this pushing it to far?

 

100dB is loud, very loud , if you have measured ths on the listening spot, you are probably putting out a few dB more in reality, depending on distance.
You are certainly pushing those monitor audio's to (or over) their limits.
There is also the possibility that 11 o-clock on your amplifier is actually pushing it close to it's limit: Most amplifiers have input sensitivities of between 250 and 350 mV , while most CD players put out 2V. Long story short: In a lot of cases an amplifier will reach it's maximum power long before you reach 5 o clock on the volume dial, usually it's around 12 or 1 oclock, but it could easily be sooner if your CD player has even higher voltage output, or there is even more voltage gain in the chain, usually between a pre and poweramplifier.

If there is no audible distortion at lower volumes , there's probably nothing wrong with your speakers, but if you want to play this loud it would not harm to shop for a different pair of speakers and , depending on their sensitivity, a bigger amp.

 

Can someone explain this, my amp outputs 85w per channel and my speakers output 30w-100w, so the power of the amp is less than the speakers can output by 15 watts, does this not mean that no matter how loud I play my amp it will not blow the speakers?