how to tell if my speakers are blown.

[Doug]

Ive got a pair of infiniti kappa 5x7s and at relatively low volumes they distort. I put in bass blockers and they didnt make much of a difference. I have them hooked up to my headunit and its 50 watts per channel. Im wondering if my speakers are blown or if theyre not getting enough power. Ive pressed on the speaker and i can hear a slight amount of crackling.. any ideas?

 

[leenjen]

the biggest problem is that you are running them off your headunit. it is not putting out 50 watts no matter what it says. it's putting out more like 18-20 watts. anyway. the speakers might be blown, but from feeding them the low power from the headunit which caused distortion. distortion is one of the worst things for speakers (water and heat are probably the only things worse for a speaker). those speakers are crying for an amp. you are starving them to death. you can pick up a decent 50 watt per channel (RMS) amp for pretty cheap. the signal will be cleaner and the sound will be much better. it'll be clearer and louder. hopefully the speakers aren't permanently damaged. most likely they will be ok.

 

[AdamsGuitar]

As I recall, kappas are rated at 110W RMS, something like 300W peak and are designed to be power amped. You can tell if this is true by checking to see if your speakers came with a small black box with one set of wires with a stripped end on one side and two sets of wires with crimped ends on the other. This black box is a crossover (which splits sound by frequency into a channel with all sound above a certain hz and one channel with all sound below that hz) and is required in order for the speakers to work.

You can always tell on the box. Check and see what they're rated for. If they're as high as I think, then it's never going to sound good until you get a real amp in there to power them. It's like trying to power the lawn sprinkler system on the white house with a single garden hose's worth of pressure.

 

[Doug]

Yeah theyre infiniti kappas and they do have a cross over. Theyre rated at 100rms and 300w max. im gonna try hooking them up to my amp see what happens.

 

[MrExplorer]

Yes i agree with them needing an amp. My kappa's sounded like S*** running off the HU. An amp brought out the best in em!

 

[MO_GUY]

speaker isnt blown until it doesnt play any longer, sounding like crap could be just from prolonged distortion to the speakers.....anyways to answer your question.....you can tell if a speaker is blown by pushing down lightly on the center of the cone....if you can feel it scrape......its blown

 

[TimReno]

I have the pioneer 3-way speakers TS-A6865,
here are the Dead Link Removed, with 4x40w face.

Would I see an increase in performance if I hook up an amp to them?
From what I understand the reciever puts out 40x4 max, but normally it puts out 16 to 18, and the amp would constantly supply the speakers with more watts. The increase in watts would allow the speakers to pronouce each tone better even at low volumes?

 

[AdamsGuitar]

MO, actually, that's incorrect. The majority of people in the audiophile world (including studio engineers, sound techs, etc.) say "blown" when implying that the speaker has been subjected to a level of input on a certain band or bands of frequency that was beyond the power threshold of the speaker and permanently damaged it, not when it "no longer plays"

 

[AdamsGuitar]

Tim, yes, a high quality aftermarket amp could improve your sound quality, as they're rated for 50W RMS while you're never going to actually see that kind of output from your HU without lots of distortion. Not to mention the fact that a good aftermarket amp could very well (and most likely will) produce a higher quality signal to send to the speakers in addition to a higher wattage signal.

 

[SaleenEXP]

Tim - definitley get an amp, I have the same 3 way speakers as you for mids in all 4 dr's. They sounded good off my head unit (Clarion DRX8675z Millenium Edition) but once I hooked them up to a 400watt MTX amp, they sound incredible, the highs on some songs pierce my ears.

 

[TimReno]

Do you have any recomendations on which amp to buy, I do not have unlimited funds, I can sepend about 250
I found this Dead Link Removed and this Dead Link Removed on ebay. Does these look good to you? Is that the MTX amp you have? What MTX do you have?

 

[SaleenEXP]

No, the amp I have is an MTX Blue Thunder, but I bought it brand new 3 yrs. ago (11th grade). The one your looking at is the new Thunder amps. That one isn't a bad amp, but its only a 4000 series amp (their cheapest and most basic) and is limited in its tunning abilites. Try to find a 4 channel MTX amp thats part of the 6000 series, they have a lot more adjustments, cross-overs, eq., boost, frequency ect. ect. like the amp I have for mids. Definitley worth the little extra money.

For my subs I have an MTX 2300x amp that I also bought 3 yrs ago and it's pushing about 700 watts rms bridged to three 10" MTX Thunder 6000's, sounds friggen incredible, so clear, and the bass will hurt your gut!

 

[leenjen]

that MTX amp will be great for what you need it for. it will give the speakers plenty of power and will sound excellent.

 

[SaleenEXP]

Originally posted by leenjen
that MTX amp will be great for what you need it for. it will give the speakers plenty of power and will sound excellent.

Actually. now that I think about it, Leejens right, it doesn't sound like your going for a full out system so your probably don't need all the tunning abilities of the 6000 amps, so stay with that 4000 amp you were looking at, its still a very good amp, plus you'll save some money also. And remember, it's going to put out more power than its rated for - mad props to MTX on that -

 

[MrExplorer]

I bought a JBL P80.4 . It did the trick for me. You can pick em up on ebay new for under $150.... My $.002