Why did my speakers blow out????

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

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?

Setting the gain at 50% is not necessarily correct. In fact, its likely incorrect.
Yes, I would confront the install shop (in a respectful manner since you really dont know what happened), but do not suggest the gain should have been set at 50%.

 

[Paaco1981 10+ year member]

I wasn't suggesting 50% in my post if that is where you got that number from. I was just stating that if it was over 50% it is very likely it wasn't set correctly. I have never had a setup where I had to even get close to that. I would do like those guys said and ask the install shop...as nicely and respectful as possible. Also if you could take a look and tell us how the gain, high pass filter, etc are set it would help to further diagnose your problem and make sure it doesn't happen again.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

How high his gains should have been set will depend on several factors including the signal strength of the h/u he's using, the output level of other speakers in his system, and his regular listening levels. There are plenty of situations where a gain setting above 50% is correct.

Remember guys, the gains are used for matching input sensitivity of the amp with the signal strength of the h/u. The amp maker doesn't know if your h/u will put out 8volts, or a 1/4volt, so we have sensitivity adjusters to compensate. Picking an arbitrary setting, like "50%", does not relate to anything in the real world. A gain set at halfway on one amplifier may correspond with a 4v input sensitivity while on another amp it may correspond to 1/2v. I know you didnt necessarily mean it this way paaco1981, but we should move away from using terms like "50%" when discussing gain settings. The correct nomenclature would be to tell us what voltage setting the gain is set to (approx) or to simply tell us the method you used to adjust the gains so we have a clue if they are even in the ballpark. Saying 50%, or 3/4 of the way, or less than half... all these terms mean nothing realisitically speaking.

 

[Paaco1981 10+ year member]

I got ya Audioholic, and agree. Guess I should have worded my posts differently. Just trying to help the guy narrow down exactly what caused the 4 speakers to go bad. And his gain and the things we have all listed are definitely high on my list of the most likely things.

 

[MercuryMilan]

You guys know a lot more about this stuff than me. How do I find all of this crucial information out? How do I find out what the gain is set to, and all the other things audioholic mentioned. It would be very upsetting to know the installshop are responsible for my speakers being blown, and my money thrown out the window. How do I find out these things?

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

While it is easy to lay blame on the shop for how a gain or crossover might have been set, in the end though, it was you that turned up the volume. This is a you issue but may be based on their setup.

Heat is what kills speakers in all cases except for a mechanical fault (a speaker being overdriven and tears the cone away from the spider for example). If you listen to the stereo for a long time or listen to it loudly, you get heat. Too much heat and you end up with sss (smelly speaker syndrome). A speaker must be allowed to cool in all cases, a speaker that cannot cool or does not cool is destined for the circular file when the magic smoke that makes it work gets released. The windings of a speaker are very small as compared to a much larger sub. The more these windings get heated, the sooner you will breach the thermal point at which damage to the speaker will happen.

Want your new speakers to last, don't blast them, don't play them at a sustained high level for long periods of time and ensure the amps gain and crossover are set properly. Another free bump for Morel as they have some of the finest speakers on the market and a rather unique voicecoil structure.

 

[GMCJimmyslt2000 10+ year member]

Dontbuy new speakers until u find the problem first, it's just gonna happen again if u don't.

To find the settings, go to ur amp and write down everything u see and what they are set at. Also go Into the hu and find those setting too. Come back here and give us all the info.

If everything is jacked up and u didn't touch the setting. I would go back to the shop and tell them from there install they blew ur speakers. If it's a legit shop they should compensate in some way.