"unblowable" speakers

Post by **Phax** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:14 am

Alright, I know that unblowable is not a real word.

Here's the deal. I have an Alpine 9807 along with a 1000watt (250x4) amp in the trunk. The current setup is putting 500 watts to the sub (2 10's), 250 to each of the rear speakers, and 100 to each of the front speakers. I got what I thought were some pretty decent Kenwood speakers for inside the car, but they are already blown.

I need some speakers that will take the power that my system is putting out. Any suggestions?

Post by **Rex** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:14 am

Just to we're clear, but distortion (or a signal that's not crossed over at the correct point for a speaker) is much more likely to blow speakers than power alone.

I'm gonna guess the 9807 is a HU, what brand/model amp, subs & cross-overs?

Post by **AustinSilvia** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:14 am

you can blow any speakers given bad tuning.... i knew a guy that had these special infiniti home speakers... they cost $8000 a piece,... that is 8 grand for one speaker setup (there are two.... right and left so $8000 times 2 is $16000 for the speakers alone... no amps or anything) that has mids highs and woofers all tuned and what not. he had 1400 watts for each one and that was not even half of the power they were rated at... they were "unblowable"... and he blew em like 3 times because he's an idiot and probably just tuned them wrong... they cost so much that they replaced em for free each time though (life time warranty). I blew my boston pro subs cause they were tuned incorrectly... once i tuned em right they sounded better and I have had no more problems...

Post by **phatpat240** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:14 am

When you say "tune" ,you mean crossover point ? Or frequency ?

Post by **GEO** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:14 am

i heard the Klispch are distorable.

Post by **AustinSilvia** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:14 am

well for example with my subs... they blew because the guy that installed them put the "boost" up to like +5 already and i have the ability to adjust that from the head unit as well. in addition to this the frequency was left wide open so the subs were playing everything the amp was putting out. to top it off the gain was not set properly. so it was a combination of things, but since i went through everything and did it myself i have had no problems... should have done that from the start but i guess i took for granted the fact that no matter where you buy things the people can know d!ck about the product and screw it up. the other guy i was talking about well i dont know what the hell he did to blow his infiniti's... all i know is they are supposed to be unblowable and he's blown em 3 times, or something like that...

Post by **Phax** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:14 am

AustinSilvia wrote:... but since i went through everything and did it myself i have had no problems... should have done that from the start but i guess i took for granted the fact that no matter where you buy things the people can know d!ck about the product and screw it up. the other guy i was talking about well i dont know what the hell he did to blow his infiniti's... all i know is they are supposed to be unblowable and he's blown em 3 times, or something like that...

This is the point that I'm at. I admittedly don't know jack about car stereos, so I took my car to a stereo shop, told them what I wanted, and expected them to set it up right. Apparently, they didn't because I blew the speakers. I guess that I just need to find a shop with some guys who actually know what is going on. The Alpine has so many different settings on the head unit that it's impossible to figure out unless you have some experience. So far I've found a Subwoofer, bass and treble. Bass and treble each have their own adjustable frequencies, and then there are a bunch of knobs on the subwoofer. So, yeah, enough rambling.

Where did you figure out how to tune all of your stuff? Is there a Stereos for Dummies or some equivalent that I can check out?

Post by **AustinSilvia** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:14 am

i just started messing with things and reading everything i could... really most of the time factory manuals provide a good amount of info, but you may have to look a few things up. when i first started in to this though my head unit didn't have frequency controls and stuff like that, just generic bass, treble, mid, etc... so once i started understanding what all of these controls did and playing with them and figuring it out on my own... well i guess just the experience i got with that and doing other installs and what not... it all contributed to where i am now. let me see if i can find a few sites that will do a little explaining though. i mean basically you probably have a few different crossovers within your system. you really just want to use one of them for "boost" and such, or you will blow em like i did. for example say you have an active crossover and a passive crossover (the site i am listing explains what they are)... if you modify the signal at both the active and passive you will end up with bad sound and could blow your speakers by adjusting levels incorrectly and layering them and such... ok here's one site that should explain a bit... ask me questions if you have em... just read the entire page, or read as you see fit, or whatever.http://www.fastfoursforumscarc...sp#15good luck.

Post by **dorifkin** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:14 am

You need to check your crossovers and the gains. Thats usually the culprit in blowing a speaker...basically making it play things its not designed for. And if the gain is too much, well then your speakers are going to get a nasty clipped signal. clipped as in your amp is sending twice the power its designed for, bad for the amp and for the speakers. Then secondary to that are the bass boost buttons. Set all those to off or zero. Safe crossover points to start with are 120hz for main speakers, then go down from there to around 80hz. For the sub set it to 10hz lower than your main speakers. Austin put some great points in his posts. And in addition to his site post, go to forums such as these: http:forum.elitecaraudio.com or forum.sounddomain.com

Post by **Simmsled** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:14 am

every speaker can blow, every speaker can distort. If the gains and crossovers are not set correctly... things will blow up.

Check this out...

Speakers that are rated for x amount of watts are rated on UNCLIPPED program material. That means DONT CLIP YOUR AMPS or play the speakers until they distort. Setting up the proper system involves some technique. more to come...

Post by **ayjay** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:14 am

ya i agree with the rest of these guys in that you should check the gains and cross-over points on your amps.

it's not necessarily how much power you're feeding the speakers it's the purity of the signal. a speaker might be rated at 100W RMS and you can feed it 200W RMS, this gives you HEADROOM, meaning that you don't have to turn your deck up very high or even the gains on your amps very high to get the full potential out of the speakers. in terms of speaker recomendation, check out focal's polykevlar line, cdt's HD line, or boston accoustic z series, they'll all take quite a bit of power.

Post by **sidewaySilvia** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:14 am

You still have yet to list the gear you got set up and some specs.. So we can give you a better idea of compatability.

I also agree with all of these guys , your amp may be too powerful for the speakers. Meaning your frequencies are off the wall and your speakers are getting more power than they should be.

"unblowable" speakers

"unblowable" speakers

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