Real Serious Question:

[sanjay]

Okay; can you damage your speakers by running too much bass at too high volumes?

Its assumed that the power from my head unit (4 X 45W) cannot blow up my aftermarket speakers.
However, if I were to say, turn up the bass to full, turn the treble to min & crank the sound system,

not only would I be an idiot, but would I be hurting my speakers in any way?

Just a question. Bob?

:huh: :confused: :huh: :confused: :huh:

[shepherd79]

yes, you will put some damage to the speakers.
i don't know how much damage, but there will be some damage.

[Bobs89LXi]

Unless you have a pair of bargain basement subs, there is no way at all to blow them with the head unit drivers. Even the new Alpine 4x200 watt head units are not capable of that. It is actually 200 watts split 4 ways, ie: 50 per channel, which most reputable brand subs can handle. If you are running them through an amp, there is one rule of thumb that has never done me wrong when it comes to power ratings: ALWAYS run subs that are rated HIGHER than the max rated PEAK (not RMS) power of your amp. Also make sure your amp is rated for the impedence of your subs.

[catalin]

Power will not kill a speaker... distortion will.
All amplifiers of every kind have a certain point, in volume, where they will stop producing a clean audio signal and start producing distortion. Since head units don't have a gain adjustment, you won't be able to adjust it's output to properly match the speakers, and in turn damaging your speakers. Also increasing the bass control, with loudness turned on will also damage your speakers at higher volume levels.

[Bobs89LXi]

I respectfully disagree with your notion that a head unit amp will destroy a sub. Even if you do have a great deal of distortion, the puny head unit amp doesn't have sufficent power to drive a decent brand sub, let alone drive it to self-destruction. Unless they are Wal-Mart specials, subwoofers are designed for higher power and mechanical stresses than mids or tweets. That is why a separate amp is required to drive them. If anything, the head unit driver chip will give out long before the sub does.

[catalin]

Originally posted by Bobs89LXi
I disagree with your notion that a head unit amp will destroy a sub. Even if you do have a great deal of distortion, the puny head unit amp doesn't have sufficent power to drive a decent brand sub, let alone drive it to self-destruction. Unless they are Wal-Mart specials, subwoofers are designed for higher power and mechanical stresses than mids or tweets. That is why a separate amp is required to drive them. If anything, the head unit driver chip will give out long before the sub does.

Yes a head unit will kill your speakers, regardless of what they are. Regardless if they're 1000watts or 100watts. The distortion that the amplifer will produce, will kill the speaker. NOT the power....

[Bobs89LXi]

I have worked in car and home audio as a trained tech for years. Head unit amps CANNOT and WILL NOT run a sub enough to do any damage. It is a physical impossibility. Even the cheap subs require AT LEAST 50 watts RMS just to drive them. Your top of the line Alpine head unit is rated at 200x4, or 50 watts per channel. I am sorry but again, I am going to have to respectfully disagree. I do agree that distortion is a killer. However head unit amps don't have enough drive power in them to blow my nose, let alone a sub. I believe that is where the misunderstanding lies.

[catalin]

Originally posted by Bobs89LXi
I have worked in car and home audio as a trained tech for years. Head unit amps CANNOT, and WILL NOT run a sub enough to do any damage. It is a physical impossibility. Even the cheap subs require AT LEAST 50 watts RMS to drive them. Your top of the line Alpine head unit is rated at 200x4, or 50 watts per channel. I am sorry but again, I am going to have to respectfully disagree.

I hear you man... I've been installing proffesionaly for over 9 years and I never said that a head unit will drive a sub.
Sanjay wasn't reffering to subs. He was talking about turning up the bass on his deck, which is running his four speakers. It will damage his speakers for sure, seen it happen many times.

[Bobs89LXi]

I do stand corrected. Sanjay was indeed referring to regular speakers. I was wrong. :D

[catalin]

Originally posted by Bobs89LXi
I do stand corrected. Sanjay was indeed referring to regular speakers. I was wrong. :D

However I still think you'll kill a sub though... :smokin:

:stick: j/k

[Bobs89LXi]

Originally posted by catalin
However I still think you'll kill a sub though... :smokin:

:stick: j/k

Yeah, I can too. Take a cheap sub and wire it to let's say a 1000 watt amp. You'll be sending up smoke signals in no time. :eek:

[pearldrop]

Ok now my input.

A head unit will not "blow" a sub, but it will char the voice coils by running it with a ton of distortion.
I have seen this done several times off of very low power decks.

[Sm0kin]

I have read alot about amps subs speaker units etc. one thing i have read is that not giving your sub its minimum wattage can cause damage but i don't know how i think i read it in a car udio mag.

[AccordEpicenter]

Im a firm believer that underpowering subs is more harmful than overpowering subs. I have blown door speakers by giving them too much power, its easy to blow a door speaker by playing any tone under 60 hz at full vol, distorted or not. If you want to protect your speakers just make sure you have a high pass filter (ie bass blockers) set at 75 hz at least for most round speakers like 6 1/2s or 5 1/4s. For you techs, even those guys with those 50wx4 decks put out like 22rms (sometimes even less)... and a very distorted 22rms at that so even if it doesnt blow the sub itll make it sound like crap...

[catalin]

Well... maybe I should have been more descriptive when I said 'blow'. What I meant by it is that it will damage the speaker to the point that it will cause it to sound... eerrrrr distorted :(
Ahhh...... I'm a loss of words...
The speaker won't actually stop playing (open circuit) but it will actually emit a scratchy audio signal... which we all universally know as 'sounds like crap'.. :)

[sanjay]

Thankyou to all whom contributed in a positive manner to this thread!

Catalin & Jim are audio buffs...

[86hatchbackLXi]

you may not blow the speakers, but i cant imagine those speakers sound good with lots of bass. use good judgement when turning up the bass, and if its not enough get some subs!!!

[AccordEpicenter]

yeah thats what subs are for, youll never get good bass out of even 6x9s, they wererent designed for it... so even if the speaker says it plays to 30-40hz if you put any kind of real power to it and turn it up sooner or later itll damage it.

[mykwikcoupe]

Im with accorsepicenter. Low power is definatly more harmful. A 50 by 4 setup only has 22 watts rms going out. Never trust the max power ratings. The only time you see it is when the voil shorts causing smoke and sparks. Alpine has a 60X4 setup and its rated output is 27 watts. If you give that kind of power to a decent pair of speakers youll be fine. Distortion suxs so pay the 10 bucks a month for XM and call it good. My favorites are 42, 66 and the blues stations.

[AccordEpicenter]

yeah you think thats bad look at cheap low end clarion... some say 50x4 but somehow the rms is like 12-13w.... sad. My 50x4 Pioneer only does 22rms, but it has a neat feature where you can bridge the back 2 channels for a sub... 70w peak. I only ran it like that when my one amp was acting up, and it didnt sound good, and distorted like junk. Im just surprised the deck itself didnt overheat.

[mykwikcoupe]

I am upgrading to a 8400 if I can get a few bucks off the already low price. Not ebay but theres a warrenty and I know its new. What I save on shipping itll probably be cheaper anyway. I am using a sony cdx c90 in My tbird and the quality of the burr-brown D/A converters make the no wattage thing worth every penny. Next will be the F1 status Alpine:D . Oh yeh Im dreaming for the last one. A little out of my price range

[TJ89Accord]

i saw a JL W7 that was blown by like a 4-500 watt amp. I think it was a JBL amp. Froze the voice coil. Underpowering your subs will hurt them too. but yah u will screw up your regular speakers by doin that.

tim

[SiCReX]

why are you guys talkin about 50w x 4 like its some kind of god... everyone should have at least 50 x 4! they have been out for a while now, my sony xplod deck has 52w x 4 I like it. 1 question while im on the subject, when you buy a box of speakers and they say max power is lets say 160w. are they talking about a 160w deck / 4 or are they saying that speaker can handle 160 watts to that speaker? because if it's 160 to that one and I got a deck that only gives 52 watts max to that speaker why does it still sound like shit when i turn it up really high, is it because the deck isn't powerful enough? did I miss something? plz dont call me stupid or anything, it will hurt my feelings.