After reading another post about a chap (AMPEG) who had blown a driver, I thought I'd have a wee read about & came across this...
[quote]
Some famous US speaker makers (e.g. Bose and JBL) have discovered how to prevent speaker failures and dramatically improve the input power ratings at the same time. Impossible you say? Actually, it is dead easy.
All you need to do is fit a low voltage halogen light bulb in series with your woofer - chosen so it has almost no effect at the 1 watt level where efficiency figures (dB per watt) are always measured and quoted but [i]lights up[/i] brightly and limits current flow when the power input is enough to threaten the woofer. This works because the resistance of the filament typically varies by around 1:10 from cold for full brightness, so when hot, the series resistance is high enough to protect the speaker.
If higher than rated system power is ever applied, the bulb simply burns out rather than the woofer!!!
Using this approach, a 4 inch 20 watt, 2 ohm wide range driver becomes rated at 80 watts in the Bose 101.
Similarly, a 6.5 inch, 30 watt, 4 ohm woofer accepts 160 watts of "nominal" input in the JBL Control 5. [[url="http://sound.westhost.com/articles/speaker-failure.html#ref"]3[/url]]
Pure genius or a dishonest but cunning dodge? Seems all is fair in a game where reality has been rendered meaningless.[/quote]
Anyone know if it works & if so, why don't more cab manufacturers do this?