Speaker information sources for musicians?

[Rhodesplyr]

Though they rely on them on a daily basis, I'm finding that many musicians know very little about choosing the right speaker for the right application, and I'm not having much luck finding a resource where someone presents this information in a clear and organized fashion for people with limited technical knowledge.

Is there an existing information source, be it a book or a website, or does someone need to write one? I'm constantly giving out the same advice such as, "If you try to get deep bass from an open-backed cabinet, you'll just blow your speakers." Or, "Yes, this is a 12" speaker, but we can't use it in your guitar amp because it's a Hi-Fi woofer, not a full-range musical instrument speaker."

The analogy I usually start with is that speakers are like car tires: the best sports car in the world won't handle well with monster truck tires--and vice versa.

[Jazz P Bass]

Try this.
Link: Shavano Music Online - Speaker Design and your choices

[Rhodesplyr]

That page contains a lot of useful information and good humor, but I think that the sarcasm might be somewhat confusing to an uninformed reader. It did make me think of people I know who keep buying random, older, "vintage" speakers, the result of which is that they have a huge stack of speakers they've blown up :-)

[J M Fahey]

People who buy real, original "vintage" speakers olympically ignore their safe power rating, which basically depends on the voice coil size:
Maximum safe power:
25mm/1" voice coils = 10W RMS (P10R and similar)
32mm/1-1/4" v.c. = 12W RMS (P10Q or similar)
38mm/ 1-1/2" v.c.= 15/18 W RMS (P10N)
44mm/1-3/4" v.c. = 20W RMS (most Celestions except the Blue which is 15W RMS because of the lighter coil)
Period.
Yes, many were used , even in the origin, with higher power rated amps, but they were meant to be used clean (or at most, with slight crunch).
Forget hooking a modern firebreathing head into them, unless, say, it's a Tiny Terror or similar low power job.
Reconing them with modern materials (say, kapton and epoxy instead of plain paper and cellulose lacquer) is a definite no-no, since it absolutely kills the original sparkle and makes the exercise futile.

[Jazz P Bass]

Those old Alnico speakers have a very distinct odor when they start to bake!
When you stop to think about it, the maximum power out of the 1960 era stereo consoles was almost never more than 25 watts.