Stock speakers -vs- aftermarket speakers

[<natem33>]

I have been into car audio for 6-7 years now. Over this time I found that after market speakers are easier to blow than stock speakers. Has anyone else experienced this, or is it just me? Does anyone know if there is any explanation for this? My theory is that stock speakers are cheaply made without sensitive materials so they can handle more distortion and abuse. Aftermarket speakers are made of sensitive materials and precise construction so they are much more vulnerable to distortion and abuse. Does this sound accurate? Thanks to all who can help.

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[stones 10+ year member]

Sounds right to me.

 

[Unregistered]

yup,,, they're made to take a lickin and keep on tickin //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[LoneRanger 10+ year member]

i think that most aftermarket component and coax speakers are made to run off an aplifier rather than your head unit. people sometimes forget that underpowering a speaker is just as harmful as overpowering it. most head units, even the higher end ones only put out 20-25w RMS at best. That's WAY below the rated power of most aftermarket coax and component speakers. another thing that you mentioned is distortion. static and line distortion such as ground loop noise and electrical fields put off by other equiptment in your car makes a difference in the lifetime of a speaker too. to solve this, make sure all speakers in your car have some sort of inline filter such as a crossover or EQ to keep undesired frequencies out of them, and if you notice a noise that might be contributed to ground loop, like squealing, whistling, static or any other noise that shouldn't be there, track it down and get rid of it as soon as possible.

 

[Black98sunfireGT]

Most of what was said above is correct, except that most head units are producing more like 10-15w rms at best not 20-25w rms. Underpowering a speaker is much more damaging than overpowering. Distortion is a speaker killer.