[mustgroove]

I overdrove some headphones very briefly on some bass-heavy material that was a bit louder than I thought it was. It would have been maybe 4 or 5 seconds max, but I could hear the driver on one side physically hitting the housing or something along those lines.

Is a brief overdrive episode like that gonna cause any lasting damage to the headphones?

 

[PointyFox]

A "bit louder" isn't going to do anything. Typical power levels to harm headphones are something like 30x the regular amount of power you'd give them.

 

[mustgroove]

It was loud enough that I could hear the driver physically hitting the housing - like it wasn't just "hey this is loud", the right-hand driver was distorting.

They sound fine now though, it's not like the right-hand side sounds off now. But has the driver been damaged by being loud enough to physically "clip" like that?

 

[PointyFox]

Were you wearing them when they clipped?

 

[mustgroove]

Yep I was wearing them, it wasn't so loud that it blew my head off or left me feeling like my hearing had been damaged. But it was loud, and the right-hand driver sounded "clipped" for the 4 or 5 seconds it took to turn the volume down

 

[PointyFox]

Definitely not damaged. Could have just been your source clipping.

 

[nhoclesnar]

Your headphones shouldn't have any damage. If they were plugged to a desktop or a small amp, there wouldn't be enough power to do any harm. If anything, I would be more worried about your eardrums.

 

[mustgroove]

It definitely wasn't the source clipping. Focal Clear Professional running off a Benchmark DAC2 HGC. Searching on here I see other people have commented they do "overdrive" easily from bassy material so I figure that's what it was, in any case glad to have avoided any damage.

 

[Rwit]

If you were wearing them when it happened and it was loud enough to be damaging I'd be more worried about your ears than the driver