What's up with my BRAND NEW speakers??

tbird2340 · 10-11-2004, 06:13 PM

OK.. I replaced my rear speakers in my truck with Infinity Kappa 693.5i 6x9" 3 way speakers. They sounded great with my stock head unit and even better when I got my new head unit (25 X 4 RMS). When I turned it up to a certain volume it sounded like they were blown.. I don't turn the bass up and they weren't even hitting hard. I ended up sending them back and getting another brand new pair. I then got a set of Infinity Kappa 572.5CF 5x7" 6x8" 2 way speakers to replace my stock fronts.. I'm not experiencing this "sound" with all 4 speakers. I know there is no way they are blown because Infinity makes high quality stuff and I don't think my luck is that bad. They sound fine at low to mid volume but when I really want to jam I start to hear the sound (like popping hissing... hard to explain).

Anyone have any ideas of what can be wrong?

nirvanades · 10-11-2004, 07:25 PM

are the speakers hooked up to your head unit? or an amp? You said you got a new pair - are they working fine? and now the fronts are the problem?

sdashiki · 10-11-2004, 07:28 PM

I bet u got LOUDNESS turned on.

Whether you do or not its worth knowing, if u dont got an AMP, yeah loud can make it sound a little more rich, but at the expense of all it doing is upping the gain on the waveform that goes thru the HU. SO it can clip without u knowing it really, and in time sounds like crap during certain freqs. My advice to anyone WITH LOUDNESS as a button or feature, DONT EVER TURN IT ON. Tweak yer damn EQ to make it sound that way. Loud is BS and is really only good for stock only, cuz they are made of paper 99% of the time anyway.

dont take a chance with 3rd party $$$ speeakrs.

brrman · 10-11-2004, 07:28 PM

It's what is known as "clipping".

Your headunit is not pushing enough juice to sustain the high output you are demanding. You need an amp. These speakers are RMS 100W each - and you are trying to support them with 25W/channel. You run out of juice, man.

Basically the top of the sine wave is being clipped off so instead of a nice curved sound wave, you get one that begins the upcurve, but then goes flat, and then begins its downcurve.

Constant use hearing this will ruin your speakers, keep the volume down until you can get an amp that will push enough power to support the high volume.

tbird2340 · 10-11-2004, 08:11 PM

This forum is da bomb... Thanks for clearing it up.. That sucks that I have yet another expense now though.. I do have the "LOUD" feature turned on and it does seem to make them sound better but I will turn it off like you suggest. It happens with both LOUD on and OFF.. Just at high volumes! I do not have an amp yet. What is a good amp (reasonably priced) for powering these?

Thanks again!!

Tidder · 10-11-2004, 08:17 PM

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-pIAxMlz...10&I=108R7520A

or

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-RK8xITO...20&I=108R7540A

Maybe one of these if you wanna stay with Infinity.

tbird2340 · 10-11-2004, 08:26 PM

Ouch $199... Me no have that much loot...

So am I looking for something that is X Watts x 4?

And I haven't had a system for about 6 years... Do the speaker wires go directly to the amp or do the RCA's go from the amp to the head unit?

For reference:

Infinity Kappa 572.5cf
Recommended power range 2-100 watts RMS
Peak power handling 300 watts

Infinity Kappa 693.5i
Recommended power range 2-110 watts RMS
Peak power handling 330 watts

Tidder · 10-11-2004, 08:41 PM

I would say for something to sound decent, you need to find an amp that puts out between 110 to 200 watts per channel. It's a common misperception that you need to match outputs to speaker wattages. You want to go a little higher to get a good crisp sound.

That's my $0.02 anyway.

timothy0605 · 10-11-2004, 11:06 PM

if one of the speakers are out phase it can cancel out lots of sound and make them sound like crap.

make sure all the positives and negatives are correct on the hu/amp and speakers.

Naamanf · 10-11-2004, 11:15 PM

[QUOTE=Tidder]I would say for something to sound decent, you need to find an amp that puts out between 110 to 200 watts per channel. It's a common misperception that you need to match outputs to speaker wattages. You want to go a little higher to get a good crisp sound.

That's my $0.02 anyway.[/QUOTE

You really don't need that much power. A good amp that puts out a true 50-75 watts would work just fine. Just don't try to get any deep base from them. They are not a sub so don't expect them to sound like one.

brrman · 10-12-2004, 12:22 AM

an amp at 50-100W/channel rms is fine for your speakers. Even a cheap one - you don't need anything monstrous or high end brand name. Hifonics makes a good amp in that range and at a good price.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...724311982&rd=1

Aksor · 10-12-2004, 09:28 AM

From personal experience I know that most head units start to clip pretty badly at 3/4 volume. I actually tested a few using a test CD and monitoring the output with a scope.

Each time the sine wave clips (flattens out) the speaker is actually receiving a constant voltage that turns the coil into a heater and blows your speaker.

tbird2340 · 10-12-2004, 09:31 AM

So I should be getting a 4 channel amp right?

And what about hooking it up?

tbird2340 · 10-12-2004, 09:37 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Aksor

From personal experience I know that most head units start to clip pretty badly at 3/4 volume. I actually tested a few using a test CD and monitoring the output with a scope.

Each time the sine wave clips (flattens out) the speaker is actually receiving a constant voltage that turns the coil into a heater and blows your speaker.

So they could be blown already?