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to keep from blowing out your speakers....(LONG!)
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Posted by gavin (more from gavin) on Thu, 5 Aug 2004 16:52:03 Share Post by Email
In Reply to: Thanks Gavin, you sound like you could, AMG [Profile/Gallery] , Thu, 5 Aug 2004 14:42:02
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Hello there...

Well, there are a few reasons why your front speakers could have blown before... sending too much low frequency IS a possibility, but i would guess either overpowering from an amp, or UNDERpowering from an amp is the culprit...

The frequencies you hear are measures in cylces per second, or Hertz (hz)... this means how many times it's electrical or acoustical waveform reaches from it's high peak to low peak in one second. LOWER frequencies are of course, a lower number of cylces per second, and higher frequencies are, of course, a HIGHER number of cylces per second.

When you apply this concept to the physical / mechanical / electrical workings of a driver (speaker: sub or tweeter)... you see that in order to reproduce the sound frequency, the cone of the speaker has to resonate at the same cylces per second as the sound wave...


....so... if you are asking a tiny little 4 inch diameter speaker to move BIG LOW BASS frequencies... (large amplitude waveforms and LONG cylces per second)... it cannot properly repoduce the waveform, and the energy that's not being reproduced is going to quickly turn into HEAT!

Overheating the mechnics of the speaker over time, or quickly all at once, will cause it to fail, in some way or another, depending on it's quality and age i'm sure.

What you should essentially do with the 4" speakers in the front of the car, or in any car for that matter... is READ THEIR SPECIFICATIONS! Or if they didn't come with any, try to look them up by model number and manufacturer...

What you are looking for is their frequency range, a measurment by the manufacturer telling you the exact range of frequencies that the driver, 4" or any size, can accurately reproduce, and safely reproduce.

Such a measurement would look like this "freq. Resp. 20hz - 20kHz"

This means that the speaker in question can reproduce from the low end 20hz, which is LOW LOW LOOOOOWWW bass, alllllllll the way up to the threshold of our hearing... which for most is 20,000hz, aka 20kHz.

a speaker with such a rating is a VERY good speaker, and you should be paying a decent ammount of money for one... and if you got one for cheap with such a rating, then i'd bet you money they are lying!

CD quality audio is burned onto the cd with frequencies only found in this range, 20hz to 20kHz. Anything above or below that range we cannot hear and thus it was decided not to be burned onto a cd, however these higher and lower freq's DO make a difference in the overall quality of sound...

...i'm getting WAY off topic, but for those of you who want to know more, i suppose i'll keep going. I've got 2 audio oriented degrees in Studio Recording and show production and touring, i do this "for a living"... it's my job to understand it all, but feel free to dispute me about anything if you wish. I can call up my professors and tell them they are wrong! :)

anyways....

SO, let's assume you've just bought some new 4" speakers for the front of your 9000, and the freq. resp. found in the specifications says

80hz to 19kHz

this is close to what i have.... boston acoustic rally rx47's...

so... 80hz is the LOWEST it can handle for BASS frequencies... you would want to then figure out how you are going to LIMIT the low frequencies from getting to the front speakers.

You can do this a number of ways, you can buy "bass blockers", which would be measured in a "low cut" scenario... meaning the number they are rated at is the cut off number, and everything else below it is cut off..

example. a 100hz bass blocker would cut off every freqeuncy up to 100hz...

WHICH I RECOMMEND for anyone in a saab 9000. The 4" speakers in the front shouldn't get any less than 100hz in the low end, because they not propery reproduce it and it gets distorted... just based on the size of the speaker.... if you want to send it less than that, go ahead, but i think it sounds muddy....


A few OTHER ways to block bass would be right at the deck.. like the nice one I have. It allows you to set the frequency cross over points for the drivers, front l+r and rear l+r. Very expensive tho... just forget that, most decks don't do that. ;) clarion dxz925 if you want one...

ANOTHER way to limit the bass is by use of a crossover unit, not an indash one, but a small box that you can hookup to an input, and it splits into two outputs, high and low, or maybe three outputs, hi, MID and low... such a box can be hidden under a seat, in the dash, or in the trunk. These boxes basically have built in bass blockers, but do all the wiring for you easily with a speaker wire clip system...



WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

so if you haven't gotten enough information there to properly set up your front speakers... then i'll keep going...


The general rule i was taught about QUALITY built drivers, is that they can be OVERPOWERED BY UP TO 50% of their rated capacity! This means if i have a speaker that says 10 watts MAX, i should definately be able to feed it 15 watts and it won't blow... altough you shouldn't do it, you CAN...

As you can imagine, feed it MORE than 15, like 75WATTS!, and you can expect it to stop working EVENTUALLY! It might now blow up in a ball of fire that you imagined just then... but it won't work for very long. ;)

How many watts can my speaker handle you ask?

READ THE SPECIFCATIONS! If it's not printed on the speaker itself...

SO, what does this measurment in watts mean? That it takes 10 watts of power to effectively and efficiently power the driver.

So if you have an amplifier in the garage that you want to use... and it says it'll do 100 watts MAX by 4 channels, and you need some speakers...

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR, and buy speakers than can ALSO handle 100 watts max! It's not rocket science in that respect, however it is a little more complicated than that.

The MAX watts rating is seriously the MAX rating, meaning that neither the amp, NOR the speaker can really handle operating at that level all the time, and normally will not.

Like my amplifier for example, it says it will run 3000 WATTS into my subwoofer, but in actuality it runs 1200-1300 all the time... and 3000 watts at its PEAK output level.... which i have to try really hard to reach.

anyways... that lower, constant power rating, it called WATTS R.M.S., and it's usually 50-75% of the MAX rating... but sometimes lower...


WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN!???!??!?! you ask...

don't give the speaker more bass frequencies it can handle, and don't give it tooo much more wattage than it can handle...


ONE MORE THING... very important... UNDERPOWERING a speaker is WAY WORSE that overpowering...

don't ask me why, it just IS. But the rule is, you are 10 times more likely to BLOW your speaker if it's not getting ENOUGH power, than you are if you are OVERpowering it.

for most of you out there, don't even worry about it. Most cd deck units are putting out enough wattage to run all your speakers, not very EFFIECIENTLY mind you, but enough to now blow them either way. It's when you get into HIGH WATTAGE subs and loudspeakers that you'll end up blowing them from underpowering.

If you bought a 150watt RMS pair of 6" speakers for the rear deck however, and ran them from your cd player unit, you can expect it not to sound to good, and also blow the speakers, and possibly damage the deck....

HOLY CRAP.... anything else? did i answer your origional question??? ;)

bass blockers "cut off below 100hz" should be ok...

and arron... you might not notice a difference in the quality of sound, but electircally, everything is operating easier, less heat maybe? i don't know...

ENJOY THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATIO, found here on SAABNET...

-gavin

posted by 69.169.238...

1990 9000 turbo

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