My 6x9's blew up when connected to an amp! Wtf??

[Skidney]

yo

I bought an Alpine V12 300W amp off a mate. I have it powering 2 6x9's. i had it on 2 channels so they were 150W each. the speakers sounded real good at first, but then they started to turn shit and they eventually died and smoke started coming out.

i looked on the back of the speaker and it said they can take 290W... but my amp is still only giving them 150 each?


the speakers are JVC by the way..


what could have caused this???

[hakhawk]

yo

I bought an Alpine V12 300W amp off a mate. I have it powering 2 6x9's. i had it on 2 channels so they were 150W each. the speakers sounded real good at first, but then they started to turn shit and they eventually died and smoke started coming out.

i looked on the back of the speaker and it said they can take 290W... but my amp is still only giving them 150 each?


the speakers are JVC by the way..


what could have caused this???

thats 290w MAX, sounds like you're pumping 150w RMS into them, they can probably only take 50w RMS.

what are your gains set at?

[danja]

290W will be the peak power, the RMS rating is probably more like 40W..

It's usually Ok to overpower speakers a bit, but it sounds like 3-4x is pushing that envelope a little to far

[Skidney]

im pretty sure at the time the gain was set to max... whoops


but if i buy a new set of KICKERS, i dont want to f*** them up. so i want to sort this out ay haha

[danja]

If you get a set of speakers that are better matched to the amp you should be fine. You should be able to get away with something rated 100-150W RMS (ignore peak figures, most decent speakers don't even list them)

[Joe Bellissimo]

Poor speakers...

How about you try some REAL 6x9s

Shopping Secure - VIBE BlackDeath QB69

[holdenboy]

The JVCs must have been distorting?

Generally ive found with amps that the gain set between 1/3 and 2/3 is about right.

[Skidney]

Poor speakers...

How about you try some REAL 6x9s

Shopping Secure - VIBE BlackDeath QB69

i forgot to mention i dont have a job and i cant afford stuff like that



and yes they were distorted a bit but they made a good clean bass sound.

[bezz]

Poor speakers...

How about you try some REAL 6x9s

Shopping Secure - VIBE BlackDeath QB69

do they make square waves instead of oval waves?

[Joe Bellissimo]

Shopping Secure - SPL Dynamics TD-6903

Hehehe, well these are a little more down to earth.

I can appreciate that the BlackDeaths are a little on the pricey side but at 200RMS they are some serious beasts.

If you hear any distortion in a speaker you should turn it down. I generally have a look at the cone and make sure its not moving too much before turning a speaker up.

[Joe Bellissimo]

do they make square waves instead of oval waves?

Yes, yes they do.

[acarmody]

Just had a look at the video of that BlackDeath 6x9", no way in hell you would fit that in a parcel tray of a commie. The things massive, and has a crossover??? What sort of 6x9 has a crossover?

[bezz]

Just had a look at the video of that BlackDeath 6x9", no way in hell you would fit that in a parcel tray of a commie. The things massive, and has a crossover??? What sort of 6x9 has a crossover?

nothing is impossible, would take a fair amount of work though!

[Joe Bellissimo]

LOL! It's essentially a 10" subwoofer with a tweeter built in.

What sort of 6x9 has a crossover?

A REAL 6x9

(BTW sorry to OP for being OT.)

[Tasmaniak]

no, actually it doesn't take a fair amount of work to fit them into VR-VS...VN-VP requires a little bit of massaging but reality is...who wants 6x9s anyway?

acarmody...all highend coaxials will have a crossover. Be it a simple capacitor on the tweeter or a cap and a coil on the woofer...right upto a full external crossover.

[Phoen1x]

If you dont want to ruin your new speakers, set the gains on the amp all the way down, and then turn ur volume up as loud as it goes until it distorts, if it goes to full without distorting then you can start to slowly increase the gains until you here distortion. at this point turn the gains slightly lower than the point of distortion and u'll never overpower ur speakers again

[acarmody]

I've been told by a few installers that the H/U shouldn't be run at full volume, instead pick a volume and match the gains for this setting. Is this true?

[scozz76]

Always work with the RMS value. The Peak or PMPO ratings are crap and should be banned!

[Phoen1x]

I've been told by a few installers that the H/U shouldn't be run at full volume, instead pick a volume and match the gains for this setting. Is this true?

Well if there is no distortion at full volume i see no problems, if there is then you'd want to turn it down a bit before fiddling with gains. I use max volume because it reduces the risk of damage if someone else is in the car and decides to turn the volume right up. I play my music loud, and is on full very often, and i have no problems at all, i could even probably turn my gains up a bit more without risk, but im happy where it is at now

[holdenboy]

Not really acarmody, ive just hooked a CRO (oscilloscope) up to my Pioneer head-unit and it goes all the way to 62 vol and it dosent distort at all. I think its good to set it maybe to 3/4 or abit more, mine is set at 50.

Edit: what he said ^^^

[Philthy]

If you dont want to ruin your new speakers, set the gains on the amp all the way down, and then turn ur volume up as loud as it goes until it distorts, if it goes to full without distorting then you can start to slowly increase the gains until you here distortion. at this point turn the gains slightly lower than the point of distortion and u'll never overpower ur speakers again

I've always used about 75% volume on the headunit when setting up amps

[Phoen1x]

yeh, its personal preference, if you know that's where it sits then find, but i use 100% coz i can occasionally have people in my car who wanna put the volume all the way up just a saftey barrier, doesnt mean i listen to it at 100% all the time

[Tasmaniak]

I just match my amps unloaded outputs to the inputs using a solid test tone and a multimeter.

I connect up the amp the way it should be for everything BUT the speaker. I then grab the specs book on the cd player and find out it's output voltage (usually somewhere around the 2V mark but noicer units... 4V-6V) and at what impedance if listed. I then figure out what that will match upto on the amplifier inputs impedance. 9/10 times it's the same as the headunit. So if I have 2 volts going in then my speaker outputs without a speaker connected will have their gains turned up until they say 2V also. I then adjust the front, rear and sub levels to suit....by turning the gains DOWN on the channels which are louder then the quietest channel.

My system is clean but not as loud as people would expect....but you can get my system VERY high and retain that quality...nothing breaks up. The only distortion that can ever come through my car is from the headunits pre-amp.

Speaker power handling is very closely matched to the amp (within 10%)

My headunit only has 2V outputs on it but it's the perfect unit....so I use a pair of line drivers for the fronts and for the subs.