blowing speakers

[slip]

hey guys

just got some 300w (i think) JL audio 6x9's and installed them.

i have a pioneer 1350 head unit, 4x45w if i remember correctly.

with the 6x9's claiming such a high power rating (is that right? im crap with audio) can i realistically blow them with my head unit (no amp) ????

im guessing that i can, but i dont know for a fact.

[predator]

Speakers are measured in peak output, and amps are in RMS... so if i am right on the forumula its peak = rms * root2 * 2

So for your 45watt amp (per channel), any speaker listed above about 130watt rating should be fine.

Depends how good the brand is as to how accurate the actual peak rating of them is - been a while since I've bought anything but haven't heard of JL (were they cheapies?). When it comes to speakers, you get what you pay for. $200 is minimum for a set of speakers if you ask me.

Generally for the better brands (alphine, clarion, etc) when they say 300Watt they mean a full 300watt (or closer too). Cheaper brands often pretend to be 300watt so it sounds similar on stats but they will be nowhere near in quality or output rating of any "real" 300Watt speaker.

300W for 6x9 sounds too powerful to me, doubt they are that powerful in reality, but they will be ok.

You're not going to blow speakers generally. What happens if you crank them up they will start to distort when they're getting close to the limit. At that volume its when you want to stop turning it up :lol: If you keep turning it up then, yep, you probably can blow them - never done it myself but I've heard of it happening.

Over time and at two higher load the cone starts to separate from the housing and the internals start going screwy and it starts sounding dodgy all the time... but that takes time.

What you are describing should work fine without out any damage to anything. People correct me if i'm wrong - this is just what i've picked up over the years.

[slip]

they were on sale for 175 i think (JB hi fi sale) and i got em for 150.

im mainly worried about the bass component.

[predator]

They're prolly fairly good for that price... 6x9's are cheaper generally.

Bass shouldn't be too much of a problem (are they 3 way?)... but of course you can always get a subby to bump up the bass later on.

My setup is 16x9 in back and 6x9's in front... the 16x9's work well 'cause they are pretty basey and provide enough bass that my 6x9's lack a bit. You can always do same later on.

Next setup for me is subby, maybe some splits and nice mp3 face unit - then again i won't have much change from $2k

[The Tool]

jl audio tend to underrate their products - they are pretty good stuff. the amps & subs they make are quite expensive and i am yet to hear or read a bad word about them as far as performance goes. can't vouch fo the 6x9's but by the sounds of it i reckon they'd be fine.

i doubt you'll risk blowing the amplifier in your head unit unless you run it at peak volume continuously. 45 watts peak (about 22watt rms if my memory serves me correctly) is way under what most 'decent' aftermarket speakers will handle.

you always need to have speakers that can handle a higher powerload than the amp is putting into them otherwise you will cook the speaker coils.

bare in mind that the 'amps' in head units have nowhere near the power output or sound clarity of a dedicated amp. this is due to heat, current flow, space, cost...this list goes on. you might find tthe speakers a bit underpowered running off the head unit and they are likely distort at lower volumes than if you had them running off a dedicated amp. this is usually because of quality of the signal coming from the head unit and not because of the speakers themselves.

i cold go on for pages about this stuff, but there is a heap of documentation on the net about car audio. it can get fairly involved depending on how enthusiastic you wanna be about it.

[riggaP]

JL audio ROCK! They're a higher end brand and are certainly not cheapies! It would almost be a miricle for you to blow those using the deck. At worst the speakers will distort.

[teka]

I always thought that speaker distortion is what causes speakers to blowup, the passing of DC voltage over the coils?

[XCUZME]

yeah just dont turn them up until they distort and you'll be fine.

[riggaP]

Originally posted by teka

I always thought that speaker distortion is what causes speakers to blowup, the passing of DC voltage over the coils?

This is true, but doesnt that only happen when there is too much power being fed to the speakers and not too lillte?

If your running HQ speakers off the deck, its the shitness of the amp in the deck that produces a dirty/distorted signal. The speakers just convert the dirty signal into sound while still performing under normal conditions...

[NIZ30]

What most people are talking about is "clipping".... This is when you are trying to turn the amp up too high and it can't cleanly produce the signal to give to the speakers. It is this bad signal that destroys speakers (especially tweeters) and not too much power to the speaker (in this case anyway). So this is how a 4x45w amp kills 300w speakers, not becasue it overpowers the speaker.

If you want your music louder you can do this with these speakers, just buy an amp.

JL have a long and prestigous history, mainly through home, and studio reference speakers. I think they are relatively new to car audio (2 years or so). But with their history of manufacturing speakers there quality should be pretty good.

[predator]

If you want your music louder you can do this with these speakers, just buy an amp.

You get a lot more response with an amp, and often while you'll think "hmm, these speakers are crap" when its really you default amp in the unit (which is like 45watt per channel (RMS) optimistically). Really its the clarity at high volume you're looking for.

Cheaper speakers tend to "mud" at higher volume, or the treble and bass starts blending into one.

Like Niz30 is saying, when you get clipping you get square waves i mean i could draw like a diagram which explains its visually but that would take effort Anyway, as speakers are expecting smooth sine waves (that is steady undulating cycles), you can imagine a square thing doesn't translate well over a round surface (the speaker cone).. and can in fact damage it.