deathsled

So my factory amp looks to be shot. There's no sound most of the time. Sometimes you can turn the volume all the way up and hear a little something and a lot of whine. Sometimes the volume level is actually acceptable. It's pretty hit or miss. I pulled the amp earlier and the entire underside was covered in corrosion. I cleaned it up really well but this didn't help at all.

I've thought about just getting another used factory amp for cheap to see if that fixes it (does this sound like the likely culprit?) but I have a carPC setup laying around that I've never installed that I'd like to finally use. The only thing I'm missing really is an amp to drive the speakers. I'm looking for something cheap, quick, and dirty to get the job done. I've found this Crunch P1 600.4 that does 75x4 for pretty cheap but I'm wondering if that's too much power to drive the factory speakers?

Any suggestions? Also, if anyone has any input towards what the issue with my factory stereo is I'd appreciate it (pioneer, no CD controls).

lev00221

iTrader: (28)

75 x 4 should be fine for your factory speakers. Your ears will tell you when your speakers are in trouble way before you damage them with 75 watts. However, if you are installing a CarPC and an amplifier why would you want to keep the factory speakers? Even a modestly priced set of used speakers from a reputable speaker manufacturer would be an upgrade to your factory speakers (yes, even over the Mark Levinson stuff).

Good luck!

Shibumi1

should be fine.. keep gains down an listen for distortion... its not the power that blows speakers its the distortion....


to quote a great man:

With great power comes great responsibility !!

Robert_J

Distortion plays a part in blowing speakers but it is not all distortion's fault.

There are 2 ways to kill a speaker - heat and over excursion. That's it. I recently blew up a Blueprint 1001 (XBL^2 low distortion, underhung motor) with about 250w of power. If you watch the video in the ES-350 section where my installation helper is describing the system, he plays a 20hz test tone. There is absolutely no distortion but the voice coil came unwound when the adhesives reached their melting point and failed.

Distortion plays a small role in the heat failure by passing current through the voice coil but the driver isn't moving. As each clipped signal passes through the coil, the cone stops for a millisecond. That might not sound like much but over time it does build up. A speaker's motion cools the coil. When the coil has current passing through but less motion due to a clipped signal, then the heat starts to build. A hot voice coil isn't as efficient and it makes you want to turn it up even more. It's a vicious circle that ends up frying a lot of speakers.

I've also seen speakers (mostly subs) pushed past their mechanical limits and end up with crushed voice coils, torn spiders and snapped tinsel leads. That is caused by playing them below tuning or in the case of tweeters either an incorrect cut-off frequency on the crossover or the slope isn't steep enough.

deathsled

Oh I'll probably upgrade the speakers further on down the road, I just don't want to spend a lot of money at the moment. I'm looking for a quick fix just to get some tunes going. I'll worry about speakers when I cross that bridge.


Thanks for the advice everyone!