Maybe you’ve observed that after prolonged use, your speakers start to get warm. Can speakers overheat, though? Simply said, absolutely. Speakers can get too hot. Loudly playing a distorted audio signal via the speakers runs the risk of overheating and damaging the speaker’s voice coils. Connecting your speakers to an amplifier that is too powerful may also cause it to overheat and eventually fail.
Table of Contents
What Causes Speakers to Overheat?
Distorted signal
Speakers are not expected to emit any observable heat under normal circumstances. This, however, is not always the case. A speaker will heat up more than usual under several circumstances. It is crucial that you are aware of them in order to prevent harm to your pricey equipment. The voice coils are a sensitive part found in speakers. The most crucial part of a speaker is this. The voice coil converts electrical signals into sound waves by taking input from the amplifier.
Depending on the electrical signal’s amplitude, it moves back and forth at various distances to accomplish this. Excursion is the term for this alternating back and forth motion of the voice coil. The speaker cones push air while the voice coil oscillates, creating the sound waves we hear. Although this oversimplified explanation of how a speaker functions is appropriate for our situation,
The power amp sends a very strong, distorted electrical current to the voice coils when you play a very loud, distorted signal. And this forces the voice coil to oscillate excessively and much beyond its capacity. Over-excursion is the term for this excessive movement of the voice coil. The power amp’s high and erratic electrical current overheats the speaker’s voice coil, which eventually breaks. Your speakers will be harmed by this, and you might need to replace or repair them.
Overpowered amp
An amplifier that is overpowered is simply one that is too powerful for the speakers that will be attached to it, for those who are unfamiliar with the term. Every speaker has a power rating that indicates how much power is needed to drive it. Finding a power amp with the same power rating as the speaker is the suggested course of action. However, you can still utilize a power amp if you already have one if it has a considerably higher power rating than the speaker’s rating.
The speaker voice coil will overheat and burn if it is connected to an amp that is too powerful and the gain is not adjusted for the speakers. When a speaker with a lower RMS power rating is appropriately paired with an amp that is overpowering, the amp will provide less electrical current to the speakers. However, if the amp and speaker are not properly matched, the amp will deliver more electrical current to the speakers than they can manage.
As a result of the amp’s high current output, the speaker voice coils will move excessively and past their maximum capacity. That will quickly lead to the speakers overheating and maybe burning.
Sunlight
You might enjoy bringing your Bluetooth speakers to the park or the beach, or you might be a sound engineer who does a lot of live events over the summer. In any case, direct light exposure might cause your speakers to overheat.
Sunlight won’t harm the speaker components permanently, despite the fact that heat can harm the electronics in speakers. However, it will unquestionably have some impact on the speakers’ performance.
How to Prevent Speakers from Overheating
Don’t overdrive
When you play a loud, distorted/overdriven signal through speakers, this is the most frequent method that they get hot. Make sure not to raise the level over what the speakers can handle to avoid this. You are overdriving the speakers when you start to hear audible distortion in the speakers’ output. And as a result, the speakers will become too hot. Simply maintain the speaker volume at a tolerable level to avoid this.
No direct sunlight
When utilizing electronics outside, such as speakers, it is a good idea to keep them all beneath a shed. This will stop the speaker and its parts from getting too hot from the sun. If you use your speakers indoors, make sure the windows are closed so the sunlight doesn’t reach the speakers.