Basic speaker choice for Loud sound

[Biker 10+ year member]

I have tried just about everything to get loud hard pounding sound in my Dodge Dakota with little luck. My lows are covered. I have enough Bass in my 2 tens I can hardly keep my windows in but need some super loud mids and highs.

I started with Infinity perfects in the front rated at 100watts RMS and some Diamonds in the rear rated at 90watts rms. SQ was fantastic but I kept pushing the gains until I destroyed the front speakers.

I replaced the fronts with Diamond comps rated at 180 watts RMS and they were loud and the SQ was great but clipping got me again. now all my fronts and rears are blown.

With that said I want to start over. I will buy speakers and an amp if necessary to get loud sound and am not worried about quality.

Any sugestions?

Thanks

Biker

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[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Compression horns...guarantee you will go deaf before you blow them //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[XanderMoser 10+ year member]

What amp, if any, are you using? If you're using HU power, the problem is most likely that you're clipping on the head unit and destroying the speakers because they aren't meant to play a clipped signal. I'm guessing the problem isn't the speakers.

 

[DaveDSMer 10+ year member]

you need a bigger amp on your highs if you are clipping your speakers to death. What amp are you using to power them? Throwing 100 rms at a pair of kappas should have been ear piercing loud.

 

[Biker 10+ year member]

you need a bigger amp on your highs if you are clipping your speakers to death. What amp are you using to power them? Throwing 100 rms at a pair of kappas should have been ear piercing loud.

The amp I am using is a 4 channel rated 4X250 at 2 Ohms

Is that the problem?

Thanks

Biker

 

[XanderMoser 10+ year member]

The amp I am using is a 4 channel rated 4X250 at 2 Ohms
Is that the problem?

Thanks

Biker

Your speakers are 4 ohms, so that would end up being 4x125 watts...are you sure that is RMS, not peak? I don't know how you could stand it, but I suppose you could have turned it up enough to make the amp clip or distort the speakers, not sure which would have come first.

Let me ask you something. When in casual conversation, do you find yourself saying "What?" more than anything else?

 

[Biker 10+ year member]

What?

 

[jmanpc 5,000+ posts]

Horns will blow your face off.

 

[bryce-man 10+ year member]

What?

hahahaha.. i get it .. cause he said what?

hahhahahahhaa.

lol at myslef

 

[tunes 10+ year member]

A few 10" pro drivers like EVs or Beymas paired with compression horns would easily get you clean and accurate highs at cop calling levels. Deafening.

If you don't have space for a setup like that though I'd recommend you look into the Memphis M Class 8" coaxial/components. They get very, very loud for components but need a good amount of power to really sing. Say, two hundred watts per side.

 

[krisfnbz 10+ year member]

Buy a pair of Cystal sscs6's for your front and power them with a good amp.

 

[DaveDSMer 10+ year member]

what amp are you running though what model.. not just specs.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

yea dude. what amp are you running. there arent many 125x4 RMS amps out there that arent surf boards...

and that guy who recommended EV's 10" fullrange - pay no attention to that shit //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

 

[phyphoestilic 5,000+ posts]

U said it urself, u clipped the speakers to death. Even if u get speakers that can handle 200rms ur still gonna keep trying to push it louder and louder until u clip it to death.

 

[mvw2 10+ year member]

Look for anything with good sensitivity, high power handling, and plenty of excursion. Your limits to get loud will either be excursion based(low frequency extention) and thermal(burning stuff).

Did you have a budget for this?

I'm with phyphoestilic, you do need to take care of your audio system and understand its capabilities. Know what your speakers can take, know what your amps can provide(cleanly), and learn to listen for signs of stress/distortion either induced by overexcursion or by clipping of the amp. For clipping, just don't be a nut with the gains. Know what voltage is going in from the RCAs and know what voltage is going out to your speakers. The gains are there to calibrate your amp to your HU. It's not a volume knob. For excursion issues, just keep the woofers crossed a little higher. You're not going to get an authoritative 60Hz tone out of a 6.5" woofer. It just won't happen unless you're running a mini-subwoofer.

I will state this simply, an intellegent person could never damage their audio system in any way. They either set up their system so it was impossible to damage(gains set appropriately, x-overs set appropriately), or they at least listen to signs of stress and back off so they don't simply end up with $200 paper weights. If you know your hardware isn't up to your desired task, you make appropriate changes to allow you to achieve the desired results.