overpowered?

[Sulleigh 10+ year member]

I've got some kenwood coaxials(they're meh, but w/e they were cheapish) 3-ways rated at 2-28 rms with a 150w max. I'm running them on a PPI A404 amp that does 50x4 at 4ohms, 100x4 at 2ohms, and 200x2 at 4ohm bridged. I've already blown one set of speakers with this amp(although the back kenwood 4" speaker rated at 100w max have been fine and I ran them alone when the fronts were blown). I'm just wondering if I'm giving these speakers too much power. I had the amp installed professionally so I have no idea how it's wired(although right now I have it in 2channel, only powering the front). How do I check and see? would a dmm do that? and should I keep it in 4channel just to be safe, I like the added output of 2channel but I don't want to hurt the speakers. Thanks

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[nyydmb12 10+ year member]

I would say yes. Even in the lowest configuration it exceeds your rated RMS for the speakers. When I'm looking for stuff I look at the RMS because the peak power rating isn't supposed to be played at continuously.

 

[Pl8er 5,000+ posts]

Set the amp to put out the power you need. Having extra headroom from the amp is NEVER a bad thing. Just adjust it with a dmm to the desired power.

Sqrt(watts*Ohm) =

so with a DMM you would want SQRT(30*4)=10.95445..... so that is what you need on the DMM.

Personally, I would get higher rated speakers as you have a pretty (na, scratch that very) nice amp. if you want to put more power to the speakers just replace the 30 with however many watts you want to run.

 

[Sulleigh 10+ year member]

Yeah, I plan on buying some components if I ever get the money. Hopefully the coaxials will last till then lol. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

You should be fine assuming that you set the gains right and have highpass filters on the speakers. You also need to show some restraint on the volume knob. Lots of people run more than rated power to their mids and highs without a problem. Because of the dynamic nature of music, the actual average power that the speakers see does not even approach the average rated power of the speaker.

 

[Sulleigh 10+ year member]

That's my problem though. I turn the bass up and end up having to turn the volume up to compensate. The crappy little coaxials have a tough time keeping up.

 

[dman4486 5,000+ posts]

That's my problem though. I turn the bass up and end up having to turn the volume up to compensate. The crappy little coaxials have a tough time keeping up.

turn the bass down and the sub up.

 

[Sulleigh 10+ year member]

That's what I do. Sub level at 8(all the way up), and bass at -2.

 

[08redgti 10+ year member]

Great amp by the way. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif