i've got a little Philips MCB240 micro 'hifi' for the kitchen with weedy little speakers.



i've also got a large pair of floor standing cerwin vega speakers, similar to these



if i want to plug these in to the philips to crank it up a bit, at a party for instance, can i do any damage? i realise that the amplifier of the philips is only very weedy, so what will happen? will they just not go loud, or will it be distorted at even low volume levels?

don't want to even try it if there's a risk of damage to either component, so any advice would be much appreciated.

thanks,
nick

 

if the impedance of the speakers are the same, it will play fine

 

Nick, I dont advise it.

The Phillips MCB240 (I am guessing) is quite low power, and the Cerwin Vega's are quite efficient BUT like most USA loudspeakers they like lots of power.

Problem is, at a party with the high background noise you will be running the Phillips amp very hard - prob into clipping for most of the evening.

The clipping (or distorted waveform) can actually do a lot more damage to the Vega's than a more powerfull amplifer that is used with care.............So the Phillips unit is quite likely to damage/blow-up the Vega's tweeters.

Try and borrow an amplifier that will drive the Vega's properly, and feed it's input from the Phillips units TAPE OUT sockets (if it has these).......Or, better still borrow a CD player to use with the more powerfull amp & Vega's combo for the party

 

all true of cause doug

remember you can use most dvd players are a input for a tidy amp

 

thanks doug and gareth

i knew that driving an amp too hard could cause distortion that could damage speakers in a way that more powerful amps don't. didn't know it was called clipping though

not a problem, i have a rather powerful sony amp that i used to use with the cerwin vega's. even on 4 out 10 it's way too loud for indoor use with no distortion whatsoever. who needs marshall's 11?

i will use that instead of the philips to amplify the output of my wifi squeezebox

 

its called clipping, as thats what its called in electronics! when the inlet x gain is more than maximum output

 

long time since i've had much to do with electronics - probably more than 12 years

 

Just get one of these





Then start cutting more shapes than Play Doh

 

Big G that takes us all back to the school yard in 1984

'wog box' as it used to be called back then in norfolk and lino on the floor. could do the caterpillar, but that was about it

 

Mosside Music Centre

Rumour has it i still 'attempt' the odd move after a few Vodka's, to horrendous consecuences

 

we called 'em 'Rasta Blasters'

 

i hadn't even seen a genuine real life non white person as a kid growing up in norfolk - except visits to family friends in leicester when apart from them we saw nobody but