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Car Forum / Land Rover Cars / October 2006ROT: Car stereo speakers
Hi all, I have a shiny new (to me) MiniDisk player/headunit in my 110, rated at 50Wx4. I have a pair of speakers in the front, rated 50W max, and a pair in the back ay 80W max. All speakers are about 5" across, with a centrally mounted tweeter. So far so good, except the the sound isn't loud enough. Is this just a function of the size of the speaker (as I suspect, ie they simply can't shift enough air), or should I swap them for some the same size but rated at say, 120W? They currently distort when at vull volume, although not hideously. The front pair really can't be any bigger and still fit in the same place, but the rear pair could get larger. TIA, Stuart > Hi all, > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > bigger and still fit in the same place, but the rear pair could get > larger. What a 'watt' is varies depending on who you're taliking to, however... Assuming your speakers are rated in the same way as your head then your speakers need upgrading. Speaker capacity is a function of the coil and magnet construction and not really much to do with the amount of air they can displace. You just need bigger cones to shift the air the heavier coil/magnet set can shift without breaking. Normal practice in the music business is to have a speaker system that is aproximatly double amplifier power. Your system pushes out 200 watts...  SignatureWilliam Black I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach Time for tea. > > Hi all, > > [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > > Your system pushes out 200 watts... Not forgetting the effect of the enclosure design - a speaker not in a cabinet makes bugger-all noise. Richard Signaturewww.beamends-lrspares.co.uk sales@beamends-lrspares.co.uk www.radioparadise.com - Good Music, No Vine Lib Dems - Townies keeping comedy alive > Normal practice in the music business is to have a speaker system that is > aproximatly double amplifier power. > > Your system pushes out 200 watts... The head unit is unlikely to be rated as RMS watts, and even if it is, it'll either start clipping or the THD figure will be stupid anywhere much above half power. Add an amp and it should sound a lot better. SignatureEMB >> Normal practice in the music business is to have a speaker system that is >> aproximatly double amplifier power. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > >Add an amp and it should sound a lot better. It's been my observation that ghetto blasters and car stereos are almost always rated at peak output, so they can write "300W" on the box in large letters. My home stereo is 30W RMS and at 70% volume through a pair of JPW mini-monitors is too loud to stay in the same room with. The RMS output of a 200W peak system is probably about 10W... You can verify this rather simply by considering the input power fuse... most car stereo head units run on a 3A or 5A fuse. At a nominal 12V, a 5A fuse will deliver 60W longterm without blowing (in fact, it'll probably do a bit more) but even if all those watts are made into sound with no losses at all (which is highly unlikely), you don't get 200W. 's advertising, dont'cha know. ditto the speakers, of course, unless they're really good ones. SignatureAustin Shackles. www.ddol-las.net my opinions are just that "Festina Lente" (Hasten slowly) Suetonius (c.70-c.140) Augustus, 25 >>> Normal practice in the music business is to have a speaker system >>> that is aproximatly double amplifier power. [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > > ditto the speakers, of course, unless they're really good ones. I purchased a pair of powered speakers for on here t'other day, box says: True Sound P.M.P.O.: 260W spec says (also on box but in liddler letters) Output rms: 6 Watt, reconciling those two values is rather difficult, if not impossible. IIRC PMPO translates to Peak Music Power Output. It is supposed to be the peak possible output voltage multiplied by the peak possible output current, then multiplied by 4, because of course music ihas both positive and negative excursions, then probably by a further 2 because it is stereo. Unfortunately in order to relate the volts and amps you need another bit of information which they have conveniently neglected to tell us, namely the speaker impedence, or more likely in their calculation resistance. If some clever *** with too much time on their hands does the sum equating the two unrelated powers, the answer will be the impedence, which tends to be uselessly high in these small speakers. SignatureDon't say it cannot be done, rather what is needed to do it! If the answer is offensive maybe the question was inappropriate The fiend of my fiend is my enema! >My home stereo is 30W RMS and at 70% volume through a pair of JPW >mini-monitors is too loud to stay in the same room with. My old fashioned amplifier with tubes gives 2*20W or something like that, and this was enough to deliver the spound for several parties. It throws out true 20W per channel, and with high quality even at high power, this does the trick :-) Ralph. >Hi all, > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >TIA, >Stuart Don't think fitting bigger wattage speakers will necessary make it louder. AFAIR the wattage of speakers determines how much power they will handle before going splat, not how loud they are. Some speakers have different sensitivities, which can influence loudness but I think the major factor in determining how loud a system sounds is how much power the amp (head unit) is putting out. Having said that, larger wattage speakers will (probably) not distort at high amps settings (providing it is not the amp distorting, shouldn't be), and 4x50 should really be enough, unless your very young and your 110 is fitted with blue glowing washer jets. David > Hi all, > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > bigger and still fit in the same place, but the rear pair could get > larger. Running 120W speakers cranked at full volume (50W) will cause clipping, i.e.. the waveform distorts to a square wave. This is basically a DC voltage that will heat up and burn out the coils in the speakers. You either need to look at getting the 120w speakers with a matching amp, installing a sub-woofer in a box with a dedicated amp (for better base) or try sealing up around the doors for better road noise reduction (lol!). How did you run the cable to the rear speakers? I've just bought some new rears myself and am trying to figure out the best way to run the cabling in my Defender Xtreme. The rear floor mat doesn't look contusive to running cables under so I'm thinking either under the car (yuck) or up the b-pillar, over the top of the backseat doors (behind the trim) and down the c-pillar (ouch). > I have a shiny new (to me) MiniDisk player/headunit in my 110, rated at > 50Wx4. I have a pair of speakers in the front, rated 50W max, and a pair [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > bigger and still fit in the same place, but the rear pair could get > larger. I'm of the "crap in crap out" hi-fi camp so if you want quality hi-fi (actually impossible in such a small space) then look to the best quality head you can afford and then the best quality Amp (quality, not loudest/most powerful), worry about the speakers last of all.** You want the Amp just ticking over at normal volume. I've heard a full blown Linn system driving a couple of cheap £100. speakers and the music sounded amazing, a cheap front end linked to a couple of Linn speakers wouldn't. Personally I never have any noise in my vehicles other than mechanical (or the Missus). SignatureRegards Bob H 17mls W. of London.UK > Hi all, > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > TIA, > Stuart Its just that some speakers are far more efficient than others if you check the specs most usually quote the SPL for one watt input each additional 3dB ( thats the minimum noticable increase in sound) in theory needs a doubling of power to produce it so if you really want your ears to bleed its either high efficiency speakers or put the output through a big amplifier. One other thing to be wary of is when you get past the speakers handling capability you run into to clipping when the sound degrades just turn a little tranny on full for the effect or listen to Chris Evans either way it is very annoying . Derek |
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