Well it only took a year for my G/F to blow the speakers in her 01 Z28. I want to replace all five with somthing that is stock size but, I want them to be "unblowable". Anysuggestions? I was thinking in the area of $200. What ya think?

 

Five? Mine has eight. Does she have the Monsoon stereo?

$200 is not enough to replace all of the speakers with replacements that won't blow, even if there are only five.

Which speakers did she blow? Probably the door speakers. Take your $200 and buy her a nice set of replacements just for those. They're 6.5", and $150-200 will buy a nice pair.

Unfortunately, the factory speakers on the Monsoon system are 2 ohm speakers. Pretty much every aftermarket speaker in the world (aside from some subwoofers) are 4 ohm. The short version of the story is that at the same power level, the 2 ohm speakers will be about twice as loud as the 4 ohms, which in turn means that replacing only the front speakers is going to throw off the front-to-back balance of the system. You'll want to crank the fader **** towards the front to balance it out.

There's not a lot that can be done without resorting to a complete overhaul of the car's sound system. You'd have to get all new speakers, an amp, and a new head unit.

 

I do not know the output of your system. You want to get speakers that have an RMS value range that matches the output of the system. For instance...

A head unit has 50W X 4 max output and a 15W - 20W RMS rating. The speakers you want should have an RMS value of under 15W to above 20W and a max power rating of above 50W.

Speakers no matter how much they cost can blow if thir low frequency range is exceeded. This is what bass blockers are for.

 

That's not entirely accurate.

The RMS power rating of the speakers should exceed the per-channel RMS power rating of the head unit. You won't hurt anything (other than your wallet) by going too high.

That said, I'm assuming your girlfriend still has the stock Monsoon head unit. I've never seen published RMS power output figures for that, but I would guess that it's about 20 watts per channel.

 

thats not accurate at all... if you go way above the RMS rating you can actually damage the speaker and or the amplifier or head unit. There is a reason for the RMS rating it is the speaker's most efficient operating power. The max rating must be way above the output of the amp or head unit not the RMS rating.

 

A speakers power rating don't mean much if the signal sent to them is clipped. To the OP, if the girl friend likes to crank the volume any speaker you put in will "blow" if the amp is driven into clipping. The only way to really fix the problem is to let her know that she is causing damage when the sound is distorted and to lower the volume. If she needs to listen at hearing damaging levels then you will need a lot more power, it takes 2x's the power for a 3dB increase in volume.

When shopping for new speakers look at the sensitivity rating, the higher this number is the louder the speaker will play at a given amount of power. A speaker rated at 93dB @ 1 watt/1 meter would be a good choise. With 10 watts of power it will play at a little over 100dB, which will damage your hearing in a short amount of time. Remember hearing damage is cumulitive.


Kevin

 

RMS values of a speaker will have no effect on an amplifier's life expectancy. The speakers ohm value will (a 2ohm speaker hooked to an amp that can only take a 4ohm load will smoke the amp)

The RMS rating of a speaker simply shows how much power the voice coil can take before it starts thermall damage. This is a rating for constant power though and music is not a constant load which means the amp that drives the speaker can have substancially more power than the speakers rating and be quite safe.


Kevin

 

A speaker's RMS rating is only a guideline and not much more. It isn't as if a 100W RMS speaker is gonna blow just because you gave it 101 watts. As long as the power is clean (and within reason) you are not likely to blow the speaker on account of too much clean power. Distortion is why the factory speakers are blowing all the time. When I first got my '99 Trans Am I used a calibrated test CD and my O-scope to do a little checking. After only 23 clicks of the volume control the factory HU started to clip the output. The higher you turn up the volume the worse the clipping gets. To make matters even worse the POS Monsoon amp isn't a real power amp. It is nothing more than an overhyped power booster. So you are feeding a badly distorted signal into this amp and it adds it's own distortion on top of that. It's no wonder the factory speakers are blowing all the time.

If you don't have the cash to upgrade the entire factory system there are a couple of things you can do to protect the speakers. One is to ease up on the volume control. The other is to back off the bass controls on the EQ. If you don't do these things you can expect to spend a lot on replacement speakers in the future.

 

Lol, you can use a 1000watt amp with a 75 rms speakers and not blow it. Set your gains right and your going to be in the clear.

 

Ok there is an RMS rating and a Max power rating. RMS rating is the speaker's most efficient operating range on a continuous signal.
For instance...
If you get a speaker that has an RMS rating of 30-50W and a max rating of 200W and push 30-50W through it the speaker will play sound perfectly.

Now for the damage... if you put over 200W through the speaker the actual moving part will start to clash with the casing causing damage.

If you can't put the minimum RMS wattage through a speaker the speaker will not only sound soft but it can actually damage the head unit an or speaker.

A speaker needs power to operate. A speaker needs enough power to overcome the speaker surrounding and distort the magnetic field of the magnet to move.

if you underpower a speaker it will draw from power that isn't there thereby damaging whatever is pushing it.

Anybody that knows anything about audio electronics will tell you that building a good sounding system means paying attention to RMS values as well as frequency ranges of a speaker.

 

Oh brother.

 

Did you forget about the volume ****

 

It must be bad I'm putting 1300rms to my 750rms subs with my 1000watt rms amp then huh?

Like I said before, set your gains right and nothing will be damaged.

 

I thought we where talking about door and rear speakers not subs? Sub woofer and multi range speaker systems should be separate. The best sound for subs would be if the amp is hooked to a pre amp output for sub woofers on most decent aftermarket head units.

The multi range speakers would either be pushed by the head unit or separate amps with pre amp outputs on the back of the head unit or low level input on the amp for the best sound, or outputs hooked inline with speakers or high level input.

Bottom line is when you choose a speaker you would waste money overbuying by power rating. If you buy a good speaker system it only makes sense to invest in a good amp to push them. If you plan on keeping a stock system it doesn't make sense buying 400W speakers


Not sure why I’m being attacked here I’m just trying to share the 6+ years of knowledge I've acquired in the car audio sales and installation

 

No attacking coming from here. But what are multi-range speakers? All speakers are multi-range speakers lol....Subs up to 80hz, mid-bass 80hz to 2000hz, tweeters 2000hz +.

Anyways, IMO any speaker should be ran off an amp and not a HU, they should just get rid of internal amps all together, then there would be amost no underpowering issues.

Also, as I have learned, experience doesn't mean much. I have heard "9 year" experts try to tell me 8 gauge wire can carry 3800 watts and that ported boxes make the sub require 25% of the rms. I've talked to other experts that don't even know what the big three is, or how to manage the ohms law.