How bad is it if your HU pushes 22RMS but the speakers need 40RMS?

Post by **IONO_Altima** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 1:07 am

How will it effect the sound quality? Could it possibly damage the speakers? Or should I really just wait until I can afford and amp and stuff to go with it?

Post by **PoorManQ45** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:11 am

Nope.

A rule of thumb is to NEVER turn the HU all the way up so as to cause it to clip

I personally would just go with an amplifier that puts out ~50w RMS per channel at the ohms of your speaker.

An external amp ALWAYS has MUCH better sq then the integrated one

Post by **Fenvy** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:34 am

if you care about sq buy an amp

I am on my 5th head unit, never had an amp in my entire life. It sounds okay, better than stock, but that's all it is. So long that I don't turn it all the way up, it doens't sound bad

Post by **PoorManQ45** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:52 am

Loveless: Why have you had so many HUs?

I currently have two, and I've had both of them for ~5 years now. Both are going strong

Post by **Fenvy** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 8:09 am

this is my 4th car

so it's natural to have one for each... I had the kenwood double din one and it sucked so I had to buy another one, that makes it 5

Post by **IONO_Altima** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:54 pm

Well, what would sound better?

Stock speakers being extra powered by the new HU, or after market speakers not being powered enough? I don't want to drop all that money then have it sound the same, like, now it's new speakers, underpowered by a new HU, instead of old speakers underpowered by the old HU. You know? Or should I just wait until I can get the amp with the speakers?

Post by **base9se** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:59 pm

Stock speakers with an upgraded HU will sound better than stock overall. Your best bet would not to turn the volume way up if you have underpowered speakers by the HU. If you have the money, buy an external amplifier then your HU wouldn't have to work as hard and heat up as much. And if you have an external amplifier w/ a built in cross-over, the sound you will hear will be amazing.

Post by **Fenvy** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 2:29 pm

IONO_Altima wrote:Well, what would sound better?

Stock speakers being extra powered by the new HU, or after market speakers not being powered enough? I don't want to drop all that money then have it sound the same, like, now it's new speakers, underpowered by a new HU, instead of old speakers underpowered by the old HU. You know? Or should I just wait until I can get the amp with the speakers?

the hierarchy:

aftermarket hu + aftermarket speakers + ampaftermarket hu + aftermarket speakersstock hu + stuck speakers

Post by **IONO_Altima** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 2:39 pm

Well, in that hierarchy, where would aftermarket + stock speakers rate?

aftermarket hu + aftermarket speakers + ampaftermarket hu + aftermarket speakers??aftermarket hu + stock speakers??stock hu + stuck speakers

It's just to me, a stock HU underpowering stock speakers, almost seems the same as a aftermarket HU underpowering aftermarket speakers, or am I tripping and it will still be better?

Post by **PoorManQ45** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:49 am

Hold up ya'll.

You're steering him in the wrong direction.

OEM HU with aftermarket speakers is the best option in terms of sound quality if you're only looking to buy either an HU or speakers.

This is due to the fact that the speakers are what are actually producing the sound, the HU is only sending the signal(which BTW is pretty clean below 1/2 volume).

I could never understand why "audiophiles" got the notion into their head that the amplifier has more effect on the SQ then the speakers. It just makes no sense. Hook up an expensive amp to cheap speakers and you get crappy sound. Hook up a cheap amp to expensive speakers and you get good sound

It's not too hard to figure that out.

I always recommend that your first upgrade be speakers, not an HU. To get the most power out of the HU you could go with 2 or even 1ohm speakers.

Post by **IONO_Altima** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:09 pm

Only problem is I have to get a new HU, since my stock one is crapping out, throwing errors at me, or if some how it does play, it plays like the CD is scratched, even when it isn't.

Post by **PoorManQ45** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 4:27 am

Ok, so do you have aftermarket speakers, or the OEM ones?

You'll be fine powering speakers with the HU. Like always, don't turn it above 75% and you'll be fine

Post by **IONO_Altima** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:44 pm

Right now, everything I have is stock.

I need to buy a new HU for sure.

Should I just wait and buy the 4 speakers and amp together, or would getting the 4 speakers now and getting the amp much later be okay? Basically, would it even be worth dropping the money on speakers now since they'll be under powered?

Post by **PoorManQ45** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 5:58 am

Get 4 speakers now and just use the HU to power them. If you want it louder after that then you can get an amp later

Post by **johndabrit** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 5:34 pm

IONO_Altima wrote:How will it effect the sound quality? Could it possibly damage the speakers? Or should I really just wait until I can afford and amp and stuff to go with it?

you can damage the speaker with less power than it requires. It will happen over time. The voice coil quality comes into play. power doesnt destroy speakers, distortion does.. SOOOO having said that.. too little power will distort. You can put 1000 watts rms through it and not have it pop unless you turn it up too loud and have it distort leading to failure. Just trying to give you a better picture of how power in speakers works. It's about efficiency. Just like installing a cap for your amps. You do it for battery life but ALSO because it regulates the power for efficeny in cleaner power and less power drops/spikes.

Post by **PoorManQ45** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:24 am

johndabrit wrote:you can damage the speaker with less power than it requires. It will happen over time. The voice coil quality comes into play. power doesnt destroy speakers, distortion does.. SOOOO having said that.. too little power will distort. You can put 1000 watts rms through it and not have it pop unless you turn it up too loud and have it distort leading to failure.

Wow, what a load of BS.

Distortion does NOT hurt speakers. It's the excess POWER that comes with the distortion that hurts the speaker. Adire Audio tested this out awhile back. They took one of their subs that can handle 1k+ RMS watts and hooked it up to a 200w amp. They drove the amp into clipping. The sub would move in, hold, move out, hold, and so forth, but the driver was not harmed at all.

This proves that distortion does NOT harm speakers, power does. There's no way in HELL that you can push 1k watts through a VC that's only rated at 50w. It's like trying to pull 100amps over a 12gauge wire. You can do it, but only for a second or two and then the insulation melts off from all the heat. Now just apply that to a voice coil which is usually made of 20~22gauge wire. What ends up happening is the spider melts And/Or the VC physically breaks

Post by **audtatious** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 7:51 pm

^^^^ what he said....

If low-power distortion could blow a speaker, then we'd have blown speakers every time we changed radio stations and got static. Distortion/noise, within RMS specs, won't do anything but hurt your ears. High-power clipping, causing over powering and/or overheating of VC's cause speakers to fail.

The thought that a low power amp can blow a high-power VC is a crock of ****.

How bad is it if your HU pushes 22RMS but the speakers need 40RMS?

How bad is it if your HU pushes 22RMS but the speakers need 40RMS?

Re: (PoorManQ45)

Re: (IONO_Altima)

Re: (IONO_Altima)

Re: How bad is it if your HU pushes 22RMS but th ... (IONO_Altima)

Re: How bad is it if your HU pushes 22RMS but th ... (johndabrit)

Re: How bad is it if your HU pushes 22RMS but th ... (PoorManQ45)

Nissan Forums

Infiniti Forums

Datsun Forums

Technical Forums

Classifieds / Marketplace

Nissan Motorsports

General Forums