Speaker question, involving clipping.

[Judas 10+ year member]

OK I just installed my headunit in my car by myself yay first audio project. All the wires were done correctly it seems.

I noticed my new headunits is pushing my stock speakers harder then the stock radio, my HU is rated at 45x4channels.

I have some speakers I would love to install they are the front and rear. 3.5" and 4"

Should I wait for my amp to install them or is it ok to install them now? Im inpatient. They are rated for over 75rms and im pretty sure the HU is only giving around 15-20rms. will they clip or what?

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[JAZN 5,000+ posts]

just dont get overzealous with the volume control and you should be fine. even at clipping, you'll still be

 

[Judas 10+ year member]

you sure? I thought I would be ok. Its just my stock speakers dont sound grand with my new HU the highs are better but for some reason they cannot handle the bass anymore.

And I fail to understand...

"even at clipping, you'll still be

clipping happens when you dont provide enough power, and turn the volume up high. The speakers use square waves and it kills the speakers. That was my understanding.

 

[JAZN 5,000+ posts]

lay off the volume control if you dont want to clip the internal amp and you'll be fine.

clipping = 2x amp's rms, if i'm not mistaken.

 

[RandyJ 10+ year member]

lay off the volume control if you dont want to clip the internal amp and you'll be fine.
clipping = 2x amp's rms, if i'm not mistaken.

A perfect square wave will have an effective peak of nearly 2x the rms. And clipping is an issue with the signal sent to the speakers. You can clip a signal even when you have enough power, just by turning the gains up too much, bass boost up, too much volume, anything like that. What happens when send a clipped signal is when the speaker is supposed to be going down, it is stuck at a peak or trough in the wave, this makes for a horribly sounding system and reduced heat dissipation, which is where the damagae comes into play I believe.

Now that I re-read all that sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo.

 

[Judas 10+ year member]

K I installed the speakers, they sound pretty good. I am not going over half the volume or turning up bass boost. Although I am ussing BBE which does increase highs and lows. I dont know if it will hurt them or not.

 

[JAZN 5,000+ posts]

i use BBE at -2 IIRC, although i know i shouldnt be using this DSP crap //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

you definitely increase the chance of blowing stuff with the BBE on, i can hear more distortion at high volumes with increased BBE levels so watch out.

 

[Justinw303 10+ year member]

K I installed the speakers, they sound pretty good. I am not going over half the volume or turning up bass boost. Although I am ussing BBE which does increase highs and lows. I dont know if it will hurt them or not.

Half the volume? I can barely hear my speakers at half the HU's volume (17/35). I've kept it at 30/35 ever since I hooked it up and I get no distortion at all and my speakers have lasted about a month and a half like this.