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Distortion kills speakers espessially ones with tiny coils almost as fast as an amp thats too big. I've worked in enough venues to know that despite even circuit protections, limiters, proper amp matching etc.. That there is always one DJ who can manage to blow a few speakers by redlining everything for a short while. . . .
I've never see a live system where the speakers and amps have been correctly matched. It is just not done. Big amps are bought to get the headroom without distortion (because that is easy to get for cheap these days) and speakers are bought to get the lowest possible price while still hopefully handling the power peaks (or small enough to be able to lug around). Full power, full excursion, speakers are expensive and take up a lot of room.
Speaker specs are often inflated and if one is not really experienced its easy to be fooled.
Distortion kills the cone, not the coil. The coil is only destroyed when over powered. Power is combination of time and energy. A blown coil makes no sound. The coil is an electrical wire, it does not melt until too much power is delivered. Like the wiring in a house, it does not melt by going from 0 to full voltage instantaneously (the worst kind of distortion).
A speaker with a blown cone can usually still be heard, but it is distorted and much much much lower volume. If not careful, it can seem like a blown coil, but it's not. A damaged cone occurs when the acceleration of the cone exceeds the ability of the cone media to react causing the cone to deform past its ability to recover. This causes distortion to be heard.
Both can be prevented by proper design; cone failures by limiting slew rates and coil failures by limiting absolute power. But proper design by the manufacturers means that their products will be expensive and may not get replaced as often. That is why you don't often get bulletproof designs in live audio systems. Performers or venues can't afford the proper design and the manufacturers don't want the proper design.
We know this because loud speakers do NOT have to distort, period. I have a pair that go well above 120 db (rock concert level) in a normal size listening room without noticeable distortion. But live venues almost always have excessive distortion. Even my speakers in live venue would distort if driven hard enough to produce 120 db in a club or outdoors. This is because correct speaker selection has to consider the air volume of the room.
Almost always live speakers are being driven harder than they were designed for (being overpowered). Sometimes, but much less often, its because the amplifiers are being overdriven.
In any case, blown speakers and usually distortion are the canonical definition of mismatched speakers, amps and room size.
