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Advice for the car audio enthusiast

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Topic review
   

Expand view Topic review: Advice for the car audio enthusiast

by OnYrMrk » Wed Mar 22, 2006 7:56 pm

Polypropelene surround speakers have a sturdy cone.
That is the main reason that I buy those polypropelene surround speakers...cause their cone is sturdy.... :thumbsup

by GlassWolf » Wed Mar 22, 2006 7:41 pm

Jonathan wrote:I'd halfway consider that a mechanical limit, but one that's not taken into consideration. I forgot to mention that one. When I think of some of the folklore I've seen, some people people treat clipping like the square wave is going to make the VC do some crazy stuff like rock sideways or something :lgh Which, pushing the driver past linearity can cause rocking, just not with a decent BL strength. It's also important to note that the power rating from manufacturers fluctuates a LOT, better to be safe than sorry.
good points. I was thinking mechanical limits by way of exceeding Xmech, specifically. In regards to the Bl, most of the ones I saw killed this way were older subs.. old Orion HCCA and XTR series, JL W0 subs, etc.. smaller motors.. not nearly what we have on the higher performance subs today.

by audiobass10 » Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:37 pm

It actually takes a lot to blow a subwoofer. If it sounds like shit, turn it down. If it starts to smell, turn it down. Now..if you're riding around town playing 20hz test tones all day..well yea..there's a good chance the sub isn't gunna like it. I still haven't damaged a speaker, and I don't understand how so many do. I was giving my SE (rated for 600w RMS) 800W RMS off a Viper D1200.1 all day long. This was with the gain 3/4 tilt all day, every day. Still, probably the best sounding subwoofer I've heard. Never bottomed out, never got stinky. Was it recieving a clipped signal? Probably, but you can pretty much tell when a sub is playing within it's limits, or being overdriven. That's just my experience with speakers. Nothing real scientific. Mostly common sense. Some will probably disagree with me.

by Jonathan » Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:31 pm

GlassWolf wrote:I agree with Jon for the most part, although I have seen a number of subs damaged by clipping without going beyond the thermal or mech limits of the speaker. This mainly happens when the sub loses linearity with a square wave input, and the coil gets shredded along the inside of the magnet.
I'd halfway consider that a mechanical limit, but one that's not taken into consideration. I forgot to mention that one. When I think of some of the folklore I've seen, some people people treat clipping like the square wave is going to make the VC do some crazy stuff like rock sideways or something :lgh Which, pushing the driver past linearity can cause rocking, just not with a decent BL strength. It's also important to note that the power rating from manufacturers fluctuates a LOT, better to be safe than sorry.

by smoker » Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:01 pm

Just like a water hose If you're working in your trunk and want to stop your subs from getting power for a sec, just kink the wire and it'll stop current flow
you owe me a new keyboard dude.........i just spit a can of coke all over it.....

by GlassWolf » Wed Mar 22, 2006 4:10 pm

I agree with Jon for the most part, although I have seen a number of subs damaged by clipping without going beyond the thermal or mech limits of the speaker. This mainly happens when the sub loses linearity with a square wave input, and the coil gets shredded along the inside of the magnet. The other way you can kill the speaker is technically by surpassing the mechanical limits while still underpowering the sub, and that's by unloading the sub by lack of a narrow band notch filter or IFS on bandpass and ported enclosures, respectively.

by JeremyC » Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:44 pm

Keep in mind lotus that a square wave can peak at well over the amps RMS rating. So if you have a 300 watts RMS amp on a 300 watt RMS sub, and you drive it into clipping it can, and will hurt the sub. Now if you have a 1000 watt sub hooked to a 300 watt RMS amp, and you drive it into clipping the sub should be able to handle the clipped siginal, without the voice coil reaching its thermal limit.

Getting more complicated, if you have a 300 watt RMS amp, hooked to a 400 watt RMS sub, and the amp sends a cliped siginal grater than 400 watts to the sub, than you could excede the thermal limits of the sub, damaging it with an amp with a smaler RMS rating.

EDIT: Or to answer your question with the simple answer it needed............................YES

by lotas » Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:30 pm

Wow....but I assume the underpowering comment deals with underpowering a sub, therefore turning up the gain/volume to compensate, therefore clipping the amp and sending a clipped signal to the sub damaging it.

I'm puzzled though Jon by your comment because someone on this board once told me the only way a speaker can damage is from distortion. Is your statement correct because you can send a clipped signal to a speaker but that doesn't mean it will exceed those driver's limits, BUT most of the time it will? And that's why distortion will damage a speaker?

by audiobass10 » Wed Mar 22, 2006 1:39 pm

It's funny though..a lot of people do think 12" subs play deeper or lower than a 10". Differences in Enclosure design, Inductance and Transient response is unknown to most of the "car audio enthusiasts" heh.

by High Society » Wed Mar 22, 2006 1:30 pm

You need to look at the total RMS wattage before you look at the MAX wattage because you can ruin a speaker faster under powering it faster than over powering it
HAHA, I always hate when my sub blows when I turn down the volume :argh
I would definately recommend against wiring two 8 ohm subwoofers in parallel, although it can be done. The much preferred solution is to buy a proper amp with two outputs and wire each individually. That provides for better quality sound.
since when did ohm rating tell you how a sub sounds??
When putting subs in your trunk it's not a very good idea to have 15's. I would try to fit 12's, but 10's might have to do.
Umm.......why the hell would anyone listen to this BS.
10" subs are good because they play a little deeper then a 12" sub, but a 12" sub plays a little louder than a 10" sub. If you put subs in your truck, I recommend putting 10" subs in a enclosure with sound filling. It makes the subs sound deeper.
:help:
Don't expect good quality for less than $125 a subwoofer
I think Ryan the RE-tard could answer this :)
my 1 ohm. It hits the frequencies better than any other amp I've heard. Ever! I've blown two 10 ohms already. That means my amp is awesome and I need to stop being cheap with the speakers and get a hard core dvc 12 (or something). Take it from me, 1 ohm is unbeatable. Expensive, but well worth it.
Right blowin subs whens your amp is awesome :thumbsup

How to get more bass from your speakers icey
This is a good thing to know if you have subwoofers. You can easily mount a plate in front of of the subwoofers which will conduct the air and the sound flow
So will a dinner plate work for this?
Don't worry about a capacitor for your headlights. Get a capacitor for sound quality. Holding long bass notes takes a lot of power. Without a capacitor, the bass starts to sound like it's dribbling. With a capacitor, the bass is one constant note. If you're into sound quality, the difference is huge.


You just cracked the mystery of the CAPS, I better go out and buy one now!

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