Originally Posted by
Zilch
Let's not immediately presume this is of any major consequence at typical home listening levels.
The voice coil temperature is at equilibrium with the average power and the thermal dissipation capabilities of the motor.
When a transient comes through, the temperature rise is not instantaneous, as the voice coil, unlike the above cited light bulb filament, has thermal mass, apart from the dissipation path. Additional power compression does not come into play significantly on transients.
How hot does my woofer's voice coil actually get when I'm listening at 90 dB average from 4 M away, which is pretty damn loud?
Well, hotter, of course, when playing an inefficient driver, but enough so to compress the dynamics of the program.