Help.... I just installed some aftermarket Alpine Type E 6x9's in my car with a stock head-unit. After installing and doing some testing I noticed one of the speakers cones tore on the outer rubber part. This also happened to another aftermarket Alpine Type S 6 1/2 inch speaker... Did I install them wrong? is there any reason why this could have happened. They are rated at 300 watts and 75 watts RMS... Ugh.... Help, anyone?
You need to be more specific, what car, what happened step by step, what tests, how you connected, did you went loud, did you try to put back the stock speakers.. etc..
I have a 2002 Dodge Caravan with a Stock Head-Unit. The car has 6 speakers, 4 of which are installed.
two Factory 6x9 Front Door two Factory 6x9 Rear Pannel two Empty spaces for 6 1/2' in Front Dash
I installed 6 1/2' Alpine Type S in Front Dash & Alpine 6x9 Type E in Rear Panel.
I removed and cut the original speakers from the harness.
Then I spliced the new Speaker harness/wire onto the Vans Speaker cable.
Then used Electrical tape to keep wires stable.
I did this same process to the 6 1/2' speakers in the front dash.
I then screwed everything in and turned the FM radio on to various stations testing the sound quality. I also hooked up and I pod tape deck thing and tested my ipod using different equalizer settings and volumes. I kept the treble and bass settings at MAX and then used the Fade and Balance knobs to test the speakers individually adjusting the volume to around or about Max on each speaker. Everything sounded fine I and believe I hooked up the speakers to the correct positive and negative polarities. However I may have reversed them, I'm not sure... After closer inspection of the speakers I noticed the speakers on the Left side of the car: One 6 1/2' & One 6x9' both suffered a small tear in the rubber lining on the outside of the cone.
I also thought I smelt a slight burning oder from the 6 1/2"s on the front dash...
I removed the speakers from my car and am now trying to figure out my problem.
I ran the tests with new speakers not the original one. And yes they did have the speaker covers on them... Do you think they hit the coverscausing damage?
Yes you haven't done anything wrong in the install that I can see, I suspect that your left channel may be a little stronger so the suspension did hit the covers since you cranked the bass to the top.
You should either avoid bass (which is a bad idea) or change the covers for the Alpine's which at least will be easy on the rear deck.
And I really don't like stock head units, if you ever see the chance I would recommend upgrading, the Alpines will sound much better.
Post back if you run into trouble or have any questions.
I'm going to try to reinstall everything next week once I figure out if I can get an exchange on my speakers that are damaged. I'm also going to put my old Head unit back in as well.
I have an Alpine CDA-9827 head unit that is about 6 years old or so... It's still in working order, just needs a new wiring harness. I might take a shot at putting it back in or just head to BestBuy and let them do it....
I have a feeling I somehow either damed the cones on the speakers myself or they were damaged from hitting the speaker grills... I don't see any other way unless they were just defective....
Do you think my method of splicing the wires together with just the electrical tape will provide the same sound quality if soldered?
Who knows what happened for sure but you would have a 25% chance of placing both damaged speakers on the left side and less if you factor in other reasons.
You should definitely solder if you can just to make sure that in the long term the connection stay solid.
if you tore the surround on two speakers, it's most likely that the speaker is hitting something during it's excursion. Probably the speaker grille (factory one) or a screw, plastic flange, or similar, which is tearing the speaker during use.
