Chris,

I would say speaker longevity is improved with CLEANER power, not MORE power. If the signal is clipping, you are putting a higher RMS through the coil which will burn it more easily. My point was he won't blow ANY half-assed aftermarket speaker with the stock unit...it just doesn't have the juice. I mean, listen to it...the stock head couldn't even blow the STOCK speakers

 

Yeah, sorta, but lets talk real world. I'm driving at 50Mph, so there's a fair amount of road noise. So I turn up my standard head unit (which is rated at like 12W). And I'm basically pushing my head units amp past it's limit. So I'm getting a lot of clipping and distortion and my speakers (whatever they are: OEM, Sony 1621's, or MB Quartz) are being asked to process a bunch of distortion. Not good.

Now picture this. I've got an amp between the head and the speakers. When the ambient noise rises I turn up the volume, but I'm still well within the performance range of the amp, it's delivering clean power, and my speakers are able to reproduce it nicely without fear of damage.

This is why I say, no matter what speakers you replace the OEM's with you're probably wasting your time (and money) if you don't buy an amp.

 

Thanks AusS2000,

You clarified my point, perhaps I just didn't write it clearly enough. What I meant was that the more power you have, the less you're likely to be clipping the amp @ any given volume, assuming amps of relatively comparable fidelity.

MacGyver,

The reason the stock amp couldn't blow your stock speakers is that they have no tweeter (the part most likely to get blown), just a lame paper dual cone.

 

I'm guessing that the speaker doesn't care what kind of sound it produces. Call me naieve

 

Speakers are very fussy about what sound they produce. Remember that the cone is a moving diaphragm that likes to accelerate in one direction the decelerate until it's accelerating in the opposite direct (a sine wave).

Most music or intelligent sound (ie. not death metal or Celine Dion) is composed of combinations of waves. Distortion isn't. It is a series of random spikes (anyone thinking Greenday?) and tries to force the cone to move in very unnatural ways and positions (George Michael springs to mind all of a sudden). This is the stuff that damages speakers.

 

I installed some Boston 6.5 Pro's. The sound is amazing. I had them professionally installed. They weren't cheap ($450/pair), but well worth the price. I would recommend them to anyone.

Dan

 

I looked and listened to a bunch of different speakers, but figured sound clarity wasn't my biggest priority in a convertible sports car that revs to 9k. Nothing is going to sound great, especially the way I drive.

I was prepared to spend on a really nice pair of Infinity Kappa 63.1i's, they sounded really great, but when wandering the aisles of Fry's came across this pair of JBL Decades for $29.95. Compared to the $200 I was going to spend on the Infinity's, there was no comparison. I love my car, but I can spend that $180 upgrading my horn, and carpeting the back of the window well, and may even have enough next time a dead pedal group buy comes along!!!

 

If your speakers are good quality, having more power than you need is ideal. Keeping your amp as far away from clipping as possible will not only provide clean power but will keep the amp running cooler. I always buy amps that supply more power than I will need/use...

A side note, I blew one of my 7" Dynaudio woofers with the 25 x 2 (max) amp built into my Alpine IVA-C800 which I was using until I installed my larger MRV-1507. Obviously I was clipping the diminutive amp built into my head unit... the new woofer cost me $175.00

 

OK Guys, thanks for the feedback. Here's where I am... I've bought myself some Polk Audio 2-ways. I'll be installing them this weekend if everything works out correctly. And, I'm thinking that I'll probably decide to install an amp after I listen to them being powered from the stock head unit. So, here's my next questions:

1. What type of AMP should I get?
2. Amount of power?
3. Where is a best place to put it? I definitely DO NOT want any sort of box or mods to the trunk. Can it go under the passenger seat?
4. Any other issues with the AMP?
5. If I do this, would it be worth it to also get a bass tube [or whatever they are called] installed in the trunk? My impression of them is that they can easily be removed when I need the trunk space. My goal is to be able to have full use of the trunk when necessesary [i.e. my weekly golf outing].

Thanks,
-DD-

 

i went for the little Sony 222 because it is so small it fits under the passenger (RHD, so passenger is on left) seat.



Other have installed inside the spare wheel, or to the left of it near the fuel tank.

My reasoning was that the speakers are in the front, and so is the head unit, so why run signal and power, and switching wires all the way to the boot, then run speaker wires back to the front.