Power Handling - Gradient 1.4 Owner's Manual

POWER HANDLING

The efficiencies of Hi-Fi loudspeakers are well under 1%
(typically under 0,2%). This means that over 99 percentage
of all power produced by the amplifier will be converted into
heat in the loudspeaker. Excessive heat may give rise to the
over heating of crossover components and driver voice coils.
When the power handling capability of the speaker is
exceeded it is likely that the tweeter voice coil wound of a
very thin wire will be burnt first.
Gradient loudspeakers can handle high powered peaks of
short duration. Music of varying dynamics (even huge) can
be listened to at a high volume level. If the music sounds
continuously loud and it is played for a long time, it is highly
probable that the heat builds up faster than the drivers can
dissipate it. The result of this may be damaged drivers.
A loudspeaker can be damaged also by low powered
amplifier when over-driven. In this case amplifier will clip
and cause high ordered distortion components which easily
burn the treble driver voice coil.
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