Why did my speakers blow out????

[MercuryMilan]

Is it possible that the installation of speakers/amplifier can cause them to blow out?

I have a great pair of speakers, Boston Acoustics SPZ60's in the front, and Boston Acoustics Pro60's in the back. They're powered by an Alpine PDX 150.4. The Pro60's blew out about 2 months prior to the SPZ's, which have juts blown out this week. I want to know why, the power output is a good match for the speakers, as the SPZ60's are 150 watts RMS and the pro60's are 125RMS... I do blast them at all times when driving, and have had them for a little over a year.

Why did they blow out?

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[MercuryMilan]

Can ANYONE please help me? I'd appreciate it.

 

[jpexpc 10+ year member]

Were you running each of the speakers to their own channels or did you have them bridged?

 

[01 S 10 10+ year member]

clipped signal? how is your HU set? any settings maxed out? like treble or bass?

 

[mrogowski 5,000+ posts]

Is it possible that the installation of speakers/amplifier can cause them to blow out?
I have a great pair of speakers, Boston Acoustics SPZ60's in the front, and Boston Acoustics Pro60's in the back. They're powered by an Alpine PDX 150.4. The Pro60's blew out about 2 months prior to the SPZ's, which have juts blown out this week. I want to know why, the power output is a good match for the speakers, as the SPZ60's are 150 watts RMS and the pro60's are 125RMS... I do blast them at all times when driving, and have had them for a little over a year.

Why did they blow out?

This is probably your answer.

 

[AVSTANG02]

150.4?! **** that's lame.

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

They blew because you abused them. They did not just think for themselves one day, fak it, I am going to blow today. You ran them long and hard and did not allow them to cool down. Once to damage a speaker by breaking the thermal barrier by giving them too much power (be it clean or dirty), the speaker is going to start to handle less and less power until one day the magic smoke that makes them work is going to go on strike. Speakers 2, you 0. Learn how to use your system properly in the future. Want a upgrade to a speaker that can dissipate heat better, look to Morel. http://www.morelhifi.com

 

[okiedokie 10+ year member]

Hey MercuryMilan have you checked your amp fuses??

If i can remember i think the boston passive xover has fuses as well.

when you blow a tweeter it will stop working, but when you blow a mid it will give you a muffle sound or lots of distortion.

I dont think you blew your speakers, just check out your gear to find the problem.

 

[MercuryMilan]

150.4?! **** that's lame.

What's lame about that amp? It's small, powerful, and gotten good reviews from what I've seen. What amp would you recommend as a good match for speakers 150 RMS?

Yeah I do blast them but not to a point where it's distorted. Really, when i used to turn it ALL the way up it wouldn't be distorted anyway. But I don't spend money on this stuff to ride around playing it at low volume. I can do that with stock speakers.

I've heard great things about Morel, I'll look into them.

 

[Paaco1981 10+ year member]

How were the gains set on that amp? Remember the gain is not a volume knob...Unless you have like 1v preouts if your gain was more than 50% up and your hu volume was also turned up a lot you were probably sending them an extremely clipped signal. Also features on HU's like loudness and bass boost is generally a bad idea. Leave those off.

Just going by your general description though I am going to say, the "blasting" you say you do caused them to die. Either you were turning the HU volume up way too high or the amp gains were not properly set, or a combination of the two.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Exactly how the speakers 'blew' would be a good clue as to why they failed. If the coil melted (shows no continuity through the circuit when using a DMM) then chances are it was from simply too much power for the speaker (either from clipping or from a clean signal). If the speakers 'blew' by bottoming out, decreasing the amount of low bass they are expected to play would increase their durability with your amplifier's power. In that case, id suggest adjusting the HP filter a little higher. You WERE running a HP filter on them, right?

 

[SSS 18734 5,000+ posts]

What is your HPF set to?

 

[MercuryMilan]

I didn't install this stuff myself. I paid an audioshop to install this stuff. I would ASSUME they knew what they were doing and set the gains at 50%. But I don't know the answers to the questions such as what the HPF is set to.

Should I confront the installers and ask them these questions?

 

[Twistid 5,000+ posts]

This is probably your answer.

I blast my subs 24/7 and they never blow //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

 

[MercuryMilan]

Anyone know a good place to buy Morel or rainbow speakers?