Shaner,

While the rest of the info in your post was solid, I still have a problem with this type of statement, especially with readers who are new to this type of stuff hanging around. Please explain why you think clipping is bad for a speaker.

As I've stated in past posts, it's not the clipping that damages a speaker, but the average/peak power you throw at the coil. A square wave can be seen as nothing more than a SEVERELY clipped sinusoid, but at 1W it won't do a single thread of damage to a 500W coil.

It's a pet peeve, and I'm sure we've beat it to death, but I would hate this type of myth to be carried on to another generation of audio enthusiasts.

 

Ok, so high end speakers are bad without amplification. I'm going to lease & want a good speaker that will "drop in"? A recommendation from S2Ki is the Infinity 52.2i? I'm not wanting to invest a whole lot of $ on the upgrade as I've managed to coerce my wife into going along with wheels/tires, spoilers/strakes, speakers, Muz floor mats, Rick's windscreen/console cover. I offered to make my own rear window tube & roof well mat. Any guidance is appreciated!

 

LOW end speakers are bad withut amplification, as well. When you upgrade to higher end speakers over stock, they usually require a bit more power to "get going", so to speak. If you usually listen to the stock radio at half volume, you'll probably be fine...if you're usually at either extreme of the volume control, I suggest an amp.

 

Ok well I got to listen in on a Master Installer today. He knows way more than I ever want to know. He explained it like this. Clipping or Distortion comming from an amplifier is the output of DC current. DC is direct current it holds the speaker OUT AC is music it goes up and down moving the speaker. A speaker that can handle 10,000 watts can hold DC for 4 seconds before blowing up. Yes only 4 seconds!

So if you take a underpowered amp(you cant go to large) and push it to far your putting DC straight from your batterie through the amp to your speaker basicly slowly destroying it. Slowly because your not putting direct DC into the speaker but very diluted amounts along with regular music.

Simply a underpowered speaker pushed hard will blow up much faster than a properly powered one.....which in theory should never die unless it rots out.

 

For all their flaws, the stock speakers have two things going for them. They are efficient. They produce a lot of bass.

The bad things about them are that they have lots of distortion so that voices are muddy and low notes are more noise than music. Sorry I'm not a connoisseur, but I do know that Trisha Yearwood and Faith Hill sound a zillion times better on my replacement speakers than on the stock.

I got the Kenwood KFC xr600s because they have a cleaner tweeter and a cleaner bass than the stock speakers but are still very efficient. I am not planning an amp, other than the Honda powered subwoofer at this time.

As I learn more and learn to need more, all that may change. In any case, anyone changing from stock speakers to an upgrade should be careful to get efficient speakers if you are just sticking with the stock head. The Sony xplod 1621 speakers and the Kenwoods I chose seem to fit the bill. Both are drop ins with no basket cutting. The Kenwoods are a tad bit trickier to wire in. That is to say, you do have to read the instructions to be sure you are powering both the tweeter and the midrange.

With the Kenwoods I can drive at 80mph top down and still listen to music. The stock speakers were okay around town but worthless at speed.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Pinky
Ok well I got to listen in on a Master Installer today.