what speakers to buy. keep blowing them.

[esca_ByDesign]

hey i need some advice without searching the internet all day for 600 threads.

i have an alpine amp the puts out 80-90W RMS and i need some good speakers that won't blow. first i bought some cadence 3 ways all round and blew them. then i bought some sound stream picasso 6.5 component speakers that said they could handle 100W RMS but blew 2 of them within 2 months, i don't turn it up past where i hear the distortion and never drive constantly at full power.

i was looking at some morel speakers, type x etc but they all seem to be a bit low on the power side.

anyone give me some good brands, styles or anything to get?

cheers heaps.

[mint]

Perhaps there's something wrong with your amp? Get any weird thumps, etc?

[StoneX]

You need someone experienced with audio to show you when distortion is audible as your speakers must be distorting OR you have a faulty amp.

Any speaker will blow if you continue to overdrive them...

[aaronevolution]

Turn down the volume for each channel on the amp. Turn the headunit volume up as loud as it can go, turn each channel up one by one until it distorts, then turn it back down just a touch. Then you will never blow your speakers again.

[MAG00]

Learn to set your gains, there is the option to do so for a reason. Also learn to hear when a speaker is stressed, not really difficult stuff.

[StoneX]

Learn to set your gains, there is the option to do so for a reason. Also learn to hear when a speaker is stressed, not really difficult stuff.

It IS difficult for guys new to car audio. My mate's all thought they set their gains correctly and weren't listening to distortion but they were wrong. So many people can't hear minor clipping or mechanical speaker distortion and need to actually be shown it before they will learn.

[esca_ByDesign]

Yeah I did get it tuned by a mate who has been doing it for 5 years. We thought we would be safe and turn the gain down even more than normal when we set it up. It was running about 50-60%.
It's the second amp I've had I upgraded to a bigger one. It sounded good for ages no distortion even up loud.
When i say blowing them well the still work they just crackle really bad and sound like the cone is hitting and rattling real bad.

It might be the amp surging every now and then. But that's what I thought it was with the old amp but when I got a new one it never fixed it.

I dunno I'm sick of it ready to rip the whole thing out and start again lol. If I had the money.

[DAKSTER]

Turn down the volume for each channel on the amp. Turn the headunit volume up as loud as it can go, turn each channel up one by one until it distorts, then turn it back down just a touch. Then you will never blow your speakers again.

You arent going to be able to turn each channel up very much then. With the volume at max, the preamp is already going to be screaming?

Set them with the volume at 75% instead, and learn not to turn it up past that.

[sweefu]

Yeah I did get it tuned by a mate who has been doing it for 5 years. We thought we would be safe and turn the gain down even more than normal when we set it up. It was running about 50-60%.
It's the second amp I've had I upgraded to a bigger one. It sounded good for ages no distortion even up loud.
When i say blowing them well the still work they just crackle really bad and sound like the cone is hitting and rattling real bad.

It might be the amp surging every now and then. But that's what I thought it was with the old amp but when I got a new one it never fixed it.

I dunno I'm sick of it ready to rip the whole thing out and start again lol. If I had the money.

Do you mean 50% or 60% gain? Turn it right down, zero gain should be the aim, work from there.

[aaronevolution]

You arent going to be able to turn each channel up very much then. With the volume at max, the preamp is already going to be screaming?

Set them with the volume at 75% instead, and learn not to turn it up past that.

Doesnt the external amp bypass the pre-amp through the RCA's?

[DAKSTER]

Doesnt the external amp bypass the pre-amp through the RCA's?

Not an expert here, but I would assume the preamp was necessary to put a signal through the RCAs at all?

If you turn your HU up to full blast, regardless of whether you are using amps, or what speakers you are using, you will have distortion. Better to set the amps to suit 75% volume on the HU and never turn it up higher than that, in my uneducated opinion. Thats what I've always done anyway.

Of course, then you are going to need some kind of shield to stop the passenger from twisting the knob that extra (speaker killing) bit..

[HoZy]

[sweefu]

Not an expert here, but I would assume the preamp was necessary to put a signal through the RCAs at all?

If you turn your HU up to full blast, regardless of whether you are using amps, or what speakers you are using, you will have distortion. Better to set the amps to suit 75% volume on the HU and never turn it up higher than that, in my uneducated opinion. Thats what I've always done anyway.

Of course, then you are going to need some kind of shield to stop the passenger from twisting the knob that extra (speaker killing) bit..

You need to do some more reading mate.

[DAKSTER]

Maybe I do. Thats why I made no claim to being an expert. Share the knowledge, I'm interested

[sweefu]

I can turn my headunit to full volume, and there is no audible distortion. Sure, there is some distortion present, in amplifier specifications you can look for it as THD (Total Harmonic Distortion)

You can set the gains correctly and have no audible distortion and have the level absolutely so low it will not effect your speakers.

For example,
I have an Alpine 9855r headunit, 4volt RCA pre outs
into
An Alpine MRV-F545 4x125wrms amplifier. Front channels to my tweeters, rear channels to my midwoofer, there is no gain across all channels.

[Nic92]

CLEAN, DISTORTION FREE SOUND! Set Amp Gains like a PRO! Its Easy! SMD DD-1 - YouTube

[vrollin]

WHAT?!?

I just...#### it....

No headunit is going to give you crystal clear headroom, ie no clipping of signal, through its entire volume range, especially at max... No amp for that matter... Its just not going to happen...

[DAKSTER]

So my assumption from that is that your Alpine unit doesnt allow you to turn it up beyond a certain level, that which starts creating too much distortion.

Most factory units dont have that feature (neither of my Kias for a start, and one of them has less than 1000km on the clock so it should be a modern enough HU lol), and the volume knob/switches will push max power and distort horribly if you crank them up. I assume a lot of aftermarket HU's also behave the same.

You've used your system as a benchpoint, and possibly your head unit is helping out here. On the Pioneer system in the Berlina, the distortion comes in at around 40 on a scale of 50. give or take a few depending on whats being played. This applies from the HU outputs, or from amps via RCA, makes no difference.

Am I correct in thinking the HU preamp is what supplies the signal to the RCA outs in the first place?

[HoldensBestVehicle]

best bet would be to get a good set of alpines, don't absolutely flog them, and you should have no problems

[vrollin]

back on topic, focals will soak up the power and love you for it

[DAKSTER]

I think we are on topic, its not power thats blowing his speakers up..

[Beauzza]

Get hertz 250xl

[sweefu]

So my assumption from that is that your Alpine unit doesnt allow you to turn it up beyond a certain level, that which starts creating too much distortion.

Most factory units dont have that feature (neither of my Kias for a start, and one of them has less than 1000km on the clock so it should be a modern enough HU lol), and the volume knob/switches will push max power and distort horribly if you crank them up. I assume a lot of aftermarket HU's also behave the same.

You've used your system as a benchpoint, and possibly your head unit is helping out here. On the Pioneer system in the Berlina, the distortion comes in at around 40 on a scale of 50. give or take a few depending on whats being played. This applies from the HU outputs, or from amps via RCA, makes no difference.

Am I correct in thinking the HU preamp is what supplies the signal to the RCA outs in the first place?

No, this your thinking is incorrect. It has nothing to do with the brand of headunit I am using, it was the same situation with my previous Sony unit and the JVC unit before that, its about appropriately setting your gains and tuning the system as a whole. You could have crappy speakers and a crappy amp and crappy headunit, tune it properly have no audible distortion, though it probably won't be overly loud. Please note the difference between audible/harmful distortion and THD in general, there will always be some THD, but its a matter of keeping it low.

[one_and_only2004]

Dynaudio splits - they're delicious.

[vrollin]

No, this your thinking is incorrect. It has nothing to do with the brand of headunit I am using, it was the same situation with my previous Sony unit and the JVC unit before that, its about appropriately setting your gains and tuning the system as a whole. You could have crappy speakers and a crappy amp and crappy headunit, tune it properly have no audible distortion, though it probably won't be overly loud. Please note the difference between audible/harmful distortion and THD in general, there will always be some THD, but its a matter of keeping it low.

Simply running your amps at minimum gain and cranking your head unit to max is not tuning the system... And yes there will be clipping at max on the head units...