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  1. #1

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    I remember reading way back when i was really into in the home hi-fi world, that feeding distortion into some speakers harms them. Can I use a high-gain distortion preamp in front on my Henriksen Bud? Will it destroy the speakers?

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  3. #2

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    If it is a pre-amp, why would it hurt the speakers? How else would you amplify the sound? Without speakers?

  4. #3

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    I think there are big differences between PA speakers (like the speaker in the Bud) and home audio HiFi speakers. But I'm curios, is it harmful to the HiFi speakers to listen to heavy metal?

  5. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Woody Sound;[URL="tel:1136158"
    1136158[/URL]]I remember reading way back when i was really into in the home hi-fi world, that feeding distortion into some speakers harms them. Can I use a high-gain distortion preamp in front on my Henriksen Bud? Will it destroy the speakers?
    no it’s fine to do that

  6. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tal_175
    But I'm curios, is it harmful to the HiFi speakers to listen to heavy metal?
    Yes it is. I once made the mistake of playing my Judas Priest records backwards and from then on, my speakers whispered demonic curses whenever I entered the room...

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    Yes it is. I once made the mistake of playing my Judas Priest records backwards and from then on, my speakers whispered demonic curses whenever I entered the room...
    C'mon guys, I'm serous. I want to put a high-gain metal preamp in front of my Bud. Will it hurt the tweeter?

  8. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Woody Sound
    C'mon guys, I'm serous. I want to put a high-gain metal preamp in front of my Bud. Will it hurt the tweeter?
    High gain with the tweeter will probably sound very fizzy. Tweeter is outside of the frequency range of guitar speakers. Distortion pedals sort of rely on those frequencies not existing. Wouldn't you want to disable the tweeter when using high gain?

  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by Woody Sound
    C'mon guys, I'm serous. I want to put a high-gain metal preamp in front of my Bud. Will it hurt the tweeter?
    Very possible. Be prepared to expect it not to last very long. Some anomalous response in the main driver may allow excess power to reach the tweeter through the crossover. Tweeters are subject to over heating their voice coils and must rely on the protection of a crossover network, because even industrial tweeters can handle only a few watts. High gain metal is going to be full of additional generated high frequency overtones and the nature of Metal is likely going to force a more severe duty service overall.

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Woody Sound
    I want to put a high-gain metal preamp in front of my Bud.
    Why would you want to do that?

  11. #10

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    It will depend on the type of tweeter, It can harm a dome tweeter but not a horn tweeter. You could change the crossover to one that has lower frequency like for a mid speaker. Or put a resistor on the tweeter line to drop the signal going to it. Or a cap of the value you want for the frequency you want going to the tweeter.

  12. #11

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    sorry I don’t buy any of that ....

    if if you could harm a tweeter by putting
    distorted sounds into it , then how could
    Mettalica go on tour or sell any CDs or downloads ?

  13. #12

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    distorted guitar into a tweeter does sound
    fairly horrible tho !

    (hence speaker emulation , low pass filters etc etc)

  14. #13

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    Maybe the original article you are remembering was advising against feeding a signal to a speaker that is distorted from high gain at the power amp stage? I’m having trouble wrapping my head around how a high gain pedal could damage the speakers just by virtue of the signal having a distorted sound. The overall signal level sent to the speaker will be determined by the power amp of the Bud. You could distort the hell out of the signal in the pedal, but keep the sound pressure level at literal whisper levels using the Bud’s volume controls and I’d wager the risk to the speaker would be nil.

  15. #14

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    I've been using a Tube Screamer for soloing with my Bud 6 (Channel 2, Bright Switch on, Tweeter off; Gain at 12, Volume at about 10:30) for living room rock band rehearsals with no ill effects for a while. The speaker is a high-power PA speaker. I don't think you'll have a problem at all. Just leave the tweeter off.

  16. #15

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    If the amp itself is clipping/distorting, there's a risk of blowing a speaker driver (see here for an explanation as to why), but a distortion pedal is not driving the amp's circuitry into clipping*. It's doing its own clipping of a very low level signal, and your amp is just making that clipped (and compressed) waveform loud. All that said, an OD pedal into an amp with a hi-fi frequency response usually sounds pretty bad.

    * Within reason. If you dime all the knobs on a distortion pedal that has a lot of gain, you might push the amp into clipping, even if the amp is not cranked all the way up and thereby cook a driver. But as a practical matter, it takes a cranked amp to blow a speaker driver, unless there's a huge mismatch between the speaker's and amp's power handling capabilities.

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by John A.;[URL="[URL
    tel:1136702[/URL]"]1136702[/URL]]If the amp itself is clipping/distorting, there's a risk of blowing a speaker driver (see here for an explanation as to why)
    ok I read that Mackie link ....

    wow somebody better tell Marshall quick !

  18. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by John A.
    If the amp itself is clipping/distorting, there's a risk of blowing a speaker driver (see here for an explanation as to why), but a distortion pedal is not driving the amp's circuitry into clipping*. It's doing its own clipping of a very low level signal, and your amp is just making that clipped (and compressed) waveform loud. All that said, an OD pedal into an amp with a hi-fi frequency response usually sounds pretty bad.

    * Within reason. If you dime all the knobs on a distortion pedal that has a lot of gain, you might push the amp into clipping, even if the amp is not cranked all the way up and thereby cook a driver. But as a practical matter, it takes a cranked amp to blow a speaker driver, unless there's a huge mismatch between the speaker's and amp's power handling capabilities.
    The distortion effects that add square &/or triangle waves to the signal, and those that push the signal level so high relative to “normal” levels for that stage of amplification that the power stage is getting mostly a spectral splash of high order distortion products, can easily overheat or otherwise damage a voice coil even at less than full volume.

    Tube clipping is “soft” and relatively free of odd order harmonics because the peaks don’t get flattened once the signal reaches maximum clean gain for the tube(s) in use. The peaks get squashed and spread out, and the slopes on either side get fatter - but there’s little or no sharp cutoff. This is why “tube distortion” (especially output tube) is smoother in character and comes on gradually with little or no further increase in volume. It’s also why tube amps (and a few modern SS designs) clean up with lighter picking with the gain control(s) set at the sweet spot.

    Low power SS amps pushed too hard blow far more speakers than amps that can put out more power than the speaker is rated to handle. When in doubt, more power is safer than less.

  19. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Tal_175
    I think there are big differences between PA speakers (like the speaker in the Bud) and home audio HiFi speakers. But I'm curios, is it harmful to the HiFi speakers to listen to heavy metal?
    I think there's a difference between a recorded distorted sound, and a distorted *signal* going into the speaker.

  20. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by Woody Sound
    I think there's a difference between a recorded distorted sound, and a distorted *signal* going into the speaker.
    You seem to be making a distinction between "distorted sound" vs "distorted signal".

    If we accept the following definitions:
    Signal is encoding of sound as voltage changes.
    Signal gets amplified, then the speakers turn the amplified signal to pressure changes and we get the sound.

    So the difference here is the original signal coming from the guitar pickups vs that very same signal first recorded and then replayed. Right?

    What am I missing?

    EDIT:
    After reading what I posted, I realize it's not exactly accurate.

    The difference is the original signal which is the output of a, say, pedal board, vs that signal first played through a guitar (amp and) speaker and then recorded.

    So the signal obtained by mic'ing the guitar amp is then somehow a more tamed version of the original signal. I guess that's a possibility.

  21. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by Woody Sound
    I think there's a difference between a recorded distorted sound, and a distorted *signal* going into the speaker.
    If the distortion is identical in spectral content and amplitude when it hits the speaker and the amplitude of the signals is the same, there’s no difference in its interaction with the speaker regardless of the source.

    So if we’re talking about the signal from a guitar that’s processed through distortion pedals / devices or DSP program, it doesn’t matter to the reproduction system whether that signal was recorded through a guitar amplifier with a microphone or from a DI on the output of the last effect in the chain. If the DSP includes amp & cab sims identical to the amp & cab used for the mic’ed recording, both should sound the same, break down into identical FFT plots, and have the same effect on the speaker.

  22. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
    If the distortion is identical in spectral content and amplitude when it hits the speaker and the amplitude of the signals is the same, there’s no difference in its interaction with the speaker regardless of the source.

    So if we’re talking about the signal from a guitar that’s processed through distortion pedals / devices or DSP program, it doesn’t matter to the reproduction system whether that signal was recorded through a guitar amplifier with a microphone or from a DI on the output of the last effect in the chain. If the DSP includes amp & cab sims identical to the amp & cab used for the mic’ed recording, both should sound the same, break down into identical FFT plots, and have the same effect on the speaker.
    Technically there is a difference between the original signal coming from the pedal board and the signal produced by recording the speakers of an amp. Guitar amps and speakers roll off the high end of the original "harsher" signal. So what you get is not the exact reproduction of the signal from the pedal board but a more "musical" version that the amp, speaker (guitar speaker) combination produces.

    Whether that difference is the make or break for PA type speakers is a different question. I find that very hard to believe.

  23. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tal_175
    Technically there is a difference between the original signal coming from the pedal board and the signal produced by recording the speakers of an amp. Guitar amps and speakers roll off the high end of the original "harsher" signal.
    That's why I included the disclaimer that it's only exactly the same if the signal processing on the guitar's output "...includes amp & cab sims identical to the amp & cab used for the mic’ed recording".