Trying not to blow my KODAS
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New member Username: PeerprideHacienda Heights, California United States Post Number: 7 Registered: Apr-04 | Several months ago, before I knew absolutely anything about car audio, I had a crap system installed in my car for $350 at the local car stereo place. Needless to say, for $350 I got ripped off. I got the cheapest quality equipment money could buy. They installed: 1 JVC KD-S590 head unit 2 Solid Audio 6.5 2-Ways 2 Solid Audio 6x9 4-Ways 1 Targa 65mx(?) 4 Channel Amp (I supplied this.) After about 2 months the front left speaker blew. So, I took it back to the car stereo place and they replaced it and simply told me not to turn up the bass on the radio. Well, after about another month the front left speaker blew again and several days later the front right speaker blew as well. Since then I have studied for hours learning as much as I could about car audio as possible. I have just ordered the Adire Audio Koda 6.1 Component System and I have one simple question. What can I do to prevent these speakers from blowing? -Aaron |
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Silver Member Username: Jonathan_fGA USA Post Number: 734 Registered: May-04 | Don't turn the volume up so high, especially on a head unit, and don't put on bass boost. If you want bass, get subs to do the job. Blown speakers are caused mainly by clipping, which is when an amplifier is trying to put out more power than it is capable of, resulting in a square wave and huge amounts of distortion. Head units are even worse for this because they have high distortion and low power output. The component system needs an external amplifier to get optimum performance, it provides more power, the power is cleaner with less distortion, and will drive the speakers to your desired volume level without having to work as hard. Look at good 100x2 RMS amplifiers, what's your price range? |
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New member Username: PeerprideHacienda Heights, California United States Post Number: 8 Registered: Apr-04 | Actually, in the original post I stated that I already have a 4 channel amp installed. My original concern was that the speakers were trying to reproduce sound waves below their respective frequency ranges. The amp has no built in crossover, so simply put; the speakers were trying to produce every sine wave that was sent to them. I plan to purchase a passive in-line capacitor to prevent the Kodas from receiving anything below 80 Hz. I will do this with a 100v Axial Non-Polarized 500 ufd Capacitor. I am, however, concerned that this, along with the crossover from the component system, will drain some if not most of the power that the speakers will receive. I am also concerned that adding the capacitor won't fix the actual problem that was causing the speakers to blow in the first place. Does anyone have any other ideas of precautions I can take to prevent blowing? -Aaron |
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Silver Member Username: MattlBolingbrook, Illinois USA Post Number: 153 Registered: Jun-04 | Well, from the looks of it, I'm going to guess that you have the Targa FX-640 4x60 amp (am I close?). Those "Solid Audio" drivers are 125W RMS (wtf?), so you were very underpowered. God only knows just what was going on here. I second Jonathan's advice, strongly recommending a different amp for those precious Kodas. I highly doubt it was "too many lows" that killed those drivers; more likely bad advice creating bad signals creating cooked coils. If you're interested, you can email me (matt@mattl.com) and I'll give you my mailing address... I'd love to check a blown one to see what's wrong. -Matt |
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Silver Member Username: MattlBolingbrook, Illinois USA Post Number: 154 Registered: Jun-04 | Although they're distributed by a company in California, I can't even find anyone outside of Hungary selling those speakers. -Matt |
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Silver Member Username: Its_bacon12Hfl, Ny Usa Post Number: 798 Registered: Dec-03 | ahhah oh god im sorry this is way off topic but i have to say it.. matt - ur such a geek! lol ur pictures made me chuckle |
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Silver Member Username: MattlBolingbrook, Illinois USA Post Number: 156 Registered: Jun-04 | I own a software company and skydive. What do you do, bacon? -Matt |
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New member Username: PeerprideHacienda Heights, California United States Post Number: 9 Registered: Apr-04 | In previous posts GlassWolf has claimed that under powering speakers wouldn't possibly hurt a speaker. www.bcae1.com claims the exact same thing. "Too little power will only cause the maximum output level to be low. Abuse and the defective 'wing nut' (an idiot) connected to the volume control blow speakers with low powered amplifiers. If driving a speaker with low power would cause them to fail, speakers would fail every time you lower the volume on the head unit." However, I very well could have been giving the speaker a clipped signal. BTW, I'd be happy to send you the driver. It is currently sitting in my garage under some towels. The amp I have is a Targa 65mx I believe; I will confirm that later today. I'm not at all sure of the rms of the amplifier. It was a hand-me-down and was purchased 12 years ago I believe. The stereo shop that sold me the speakers is called "Stereo One". They are in California and I strongly advise anyone planning to buy anything from them NOT to. I am definitely willing too purchase a new amp for the Kodas. I only have about $150 and I am almost certain that the JBL 180.2 would match my ends perfectly. -Aaron |
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Silver Member Username: MattlBolingbrook, Illinois USA Post Number: 158 Registered: Jun-04 | As stated on BCAE, the argument is absolute in neither direction -- underpowering will not always blow speakers, nor will it never blow speakers, it's situational. I guess in the future I'll have to come up with a new, compact term for "overamplification through an underpowered system resulting in an excessive clipping signal". Unfortunately, in BCAE's lingo, you'd be the "wing nut". Without knowing the output of that amp and/or getting to see the voice coils myself, it's hard to say whether or not underpowering was definitely the case. However, assuming that "65" is more than a model number (as so seems with the Sherwood/Targas), it's very likely. I would rather see the Hifonics ZX4000 over a discontinued JBL for the same price. Email me your mailing or email address and I'll arrange a FedEx pickup. -Matt |
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Silver Member Username: Its_bacon12Hfl, Ny Usa Post Number: 799 Registered: Dec-03 | lol well...im 17 and i work on a farm and i landscape for a grand total of about $250 a week but ive applied early to a few schools, got a $40,000 scholarship to RIT, and im pretty damn about accepted there but im looking at a few others and im gonna play D3 possibly D1 lacrosse at suny binghamton and im gonna be a senior  soo :-P and why would you rather see hifonics over a jbl 180.2? |
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Silver Member Username: MattlBolingbrook, Illinois USA Post Number: 161 Registered: Jun-04 | because of the number of reports like this: http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?TID=35017&get=last -Matt |
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Silver Member Username: Its_bacon12Hfl, Ny Usa Post Number: 804 Registered: Dec-03 | ok, thats one kid whos experiencing problems out of how many? my dad has a p80.4 that i installed for him about 6 months ago and it sounds great in his truck with two cahnnels bridged to a 10" cerwin vega and the other two to 7" comps ive had no problem with that amp, or my bp600.1 or my brothers px300.4 |
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Silver Member Username: MattlBolingbrook, Illinois USA Post Number: 169 Registered: Jun-04 | Funny, neither of those is a P180.2. I found 6+ accounts similar to that one of shoddy workmanship. Besides that, it's a discontinued model. Why even chance it? -Matt |
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