This is something I can't wrap my head around so I figured I should finally just ask.
Why do some people talk about making hundreds of watts available to tweeters to improve sound quality? Often times they're talking about speakers with 92db or 94db of sensitivity. I'm not that educated on the technical\engineering aspects of this stuff, so I'm genuinely curious as to how this could possibly work. Are there any actual recorded measurements online showing a tweeter pulling hundreds of watts? I don't mean that it's simply hooked up to a 400 watt per channel amplifier... I mean that amount of power measured with a meter, or oscilloscope or something, being passed through a tweeter. Preferably done at actual listening levels.
An example discussion:
https://www.diymobileaudio.com/threa....391026/page-2
Specifically this post:
https://www.diymobileaudio.com/threa...2#post-5386930
This is in reference to these tweeters:I originally bought the sb 29s because of the advertised sensitivity and on axis frequency response chart thinking it would be a decent upgrade over the CT-2s but in a clear direct swap comparison, they definitely are not. They are far less sensitive than the massives. I even bridged one of my spare 4 channels to give them 450 watts each just to see if they wake up from that. No avail but they did sound A LOT better than being on 150 watts however the CT-2s even on 150 watts sounded overall better. It can also go way louder if i needed it to.
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.co...-dome-tweeter/
Even the manufacturer rated 100W power handling of that tweeter seems completely crazy to me.
I built a set of large Dayton 8" MTM speakers for my living room several years ago and they're connected to an old late 90's JVC RX-817VTN receiver rated for 105 watts per channel at 8 ohms in stereo mode (20hz-20khz, 0.007% THD). I can make stuff in the house rattle, and I get fantastic low frequency effects in movies with no subwoofer. The tweeters sound very clear to me, and if you crank it up you can fill the entire downstairs of my house with sound (while making the area in front of them uninhabitable due to the volume). This is with 105 watts x 2 channels into 41" tall floor standing full range speakers. I know that a car is a far less ideal listening environment, but how can a tweeter possibly pull (and dissipate) that same amount of power, while only playing frequencies above 3khz and being far more efficient? Where does all of that energy "go"? And how on earth could going from 150 to 450 watts improve sound quality noticeably?
Part of me feels like I wont be satisfied until I see the lights dimming on some dinky car with 2x500W RMS running exclusively to tweeters... but I have a feeling there's some complicated audiophile-technobabble answer to explain why tweeter watts are different or something.
'splain it to me guys. 'splain it like I'm five.