voice coils and the voltages they can take

[synSthEtE]

can i drive a voice coil with these specs with a headphone or line level signal?

Coil resistance-------------32 ohms
Power consumption--------- 200 milliwatts typical at 100% duty cycle
Nominal voltage drive-------2.5 volts rms

what's the max voltage i can use?

 

[mkmelt]

Yes, and you've answered your own second question. 2.5 volts.

 

[synSthEtE]

ok i just dont know much about amplification, and i thought that maybe there was a maximum that was above the nominal voltage drive.

 

[mkmelt]

It would depend on the application. Note that the 200mw spec is for 100% duty cycle (this would be the condition when feeding a 1Khz sine wave from a signal generator through an amplifier capable of delivering 200mw to the voice coil. If you applied more than 2.5 volts (equivalent to 200mw with a 32 ohm impedance coil) on a continuous basis for very long, the voice coil would overheat and soon fail. For a music signal you could safely assume a somewhat higher peak voltage. For example, 500mw (1/2 watt) of peak power would require 4 volts @ 32 ohms. That would be a reasonable safe maximum peak voltage because with a music signal this power level is typically required for only a fraction of a second with long enough periods in between peak levels to dissipate any heat build up.