Non OS Dac and AMT tweeter: any harm?

[Andypairo]

I've heard that using a non-OS DAC with speakers like ribbons can be dangerous for the increased power that the driver receives.

Since my next speakers are employing a pair of AMT tweeters (and these are not cheap!) I would like to know if this risk is real and what to do to prevent economically catastrophic failures

Cheers

Andrea

[Peter Daniel]

I've been using TDA1543 non oversampling DAC (without any filtering at the output) with Ravens ribbons and didn't noticed any ubnormal behaviour.

[Leeuwarden]

I'm also considering to build a Non-Os dac and I have the same question.

This is what Wim de Haan says:

http://www.homestead.com/whaan/files/44k1_dac.html

Cons : Sakura Audio Systems mentions the following about their oversampling-free DAC : "Since it does not have any digital/analog filters, there is an energy concentration of about 1/3 of the operating musical power at around 22 kHz where the return noise situates. In case your speaker has exotic tweeters (ribbon, piezzo, etc.) which extend far beyond 20 kHz, check the tweeter's power handling capacity and the amplifier's power rating. If your amplifier's power rating exceeds far more than tweeter's power handling capacity, there is a possibility that the tweeters can be damaged at certain sound level. Please contact your dealer or Sakura Systems before you connect Progression into your system if you have any concerns on this matter."
Other thing is that this DAC just can't reproduce a 5kHz or higher sinewave, even a 1 kHz sinewave is doubtful and a 20 kHz sinewave is really @^*%. Though the sound is great, must say this is all very strange to me.

Doede Douma ( www.dddac.de) says the same as Peter: no problem as long as you are not going to use at (very) high volume levels...

Fedde also has a warning on his website.

I've been talking about this with a friend who has a lot more experience with electronics. He says: If you are going to use it with ribbons, measure them first. If necessery put a passive filter at the output and you will be save. In his opinion this is a good solution. Maybe someone has another solution....

By the way, I only hear warnings about the matter. Are there any people out there who actually encountered problems?

Jan

[Andypairo]

These considerations are quite OK, but since the spectral energy of the non-OS signal is independent from the kind of driver even a cone or dome tweeter should be driven with the same signal.

The damage that might occour is due to the fragility of the drivers or to the fact that these drivers don't have a "impedance" filter bilt-in (Le increases impedance at higher frequencies)?

I'm waiting for other opinions

Cheers

Andrea

[Andypairo]

Originally posted by Andypairo

The damage that might occour is due to the fragility of the drivers or to the fact that these drivers don't have a "impedance" filter bilt-in (Le increases impedance at higher frequencies)?

Of course I was meaning "built-in"...

I think I should add a explaination for what I was meaning with "impedance" filter (well probably I wasn't that clear ) : the increased impedance at higher frequencies (in dome tweeters) lowers the power delivered to the driver (and thus the damage risk)

Cheers

Andrea / who in these days has problems expressing