Why does my Cd player keep blowing speakers?

[mountforever]

I recently bought this.

West Marine: Jensen AM/FM/CD/DVD Player Product Display

I have gone through 2 sets of box speakers like this.

Amazon.com: Pyramid 2022SX 200 Watts 3Way Mini Box Speaker System: Pyramid: Automotive

They sound great at first buthe then eventually the speakers just crap out. Are box speakers like this not meant to handle car/marine CD players? The cd player and the speakers are both 4 ohms. Do I need to run all four speakers to even out the impedance load with some traditional car/boat speakers?

I just like these box ones because they are easy to wire and install. Thanks guys.

[pedcab]

There's no way that such small speakers are rated 200W RMS. Some "cheap" speaker manufacturers inflate the power rating of their products hoping for less experient buyers to fall in the temptation of buying them.

I suspect the problem to be that your stereo delivers way more power than those speakers can handle, thus blowing them after a couple of hours.

My suggestions are:

1- Buy a set of boxed speakers accurately rated for your stereo's RMS power output;

2- Buy a set of proper speaker drivers from a reputable brand (jensen, celestion, magnat, sony, alpine, blaupunkt, pioneer, visaton, etc) and build the cabinets yourself (you'll be surprised how much better wood boxes can sound)

3- Buy a set of higher impedance speakers (this will reduce your perceived volume output but won't stress the speakers so much)

4- Reduce the bass boost and listen to the radio on low volumes...

[sailingdog]

I'd second what pedcab said. Look for the Marine Stereo thread that Camaraderie started and get the speakers he recommends... he's got a lot of good info in that thread.

[sck5]

heres another vote for Cam's thread. I went and got the speakers he recommended and am very happy. Even my teenage son is happy and if the speakers could have been blown out he would have done it. He certainly tried.

[US27inKS]

Don't play the radio so loud.

Sorry couldn't resist.

[Maine Sail]

That 200 Watt rating is a pure LIE!!!

Sorry to say this, but, Pyramid is one of the lowest quality manufacturers of stereo equipment on the planet. they are also VERY dishonest in their ratings, though all are to some extent. It's just what they do. Everyone has a niche Pyramid's is low quality, low price but looks high quality, high price..


Pyramid is "Expo" quality only. Meaning you go to the cars stereo "Expo" and buy an amp or speakers rated at 1000% of what they really are, but by the time you find out, the Expo has moved on and your stuck with it.

They may not actually be blowing but the voice coils may be suffering from corrosion and corroding to the magnet. Of course the "Wets Her Pants & Talks Barbie" grade speakers in those things may actually be blowing and corroding too..

Buy a quality speaker from a reputable manufacturer and you'll likely never encounter another "blown" speaker. Eventually you'll spend as much on Pyramid replacements as the cost of a good speaker so the cost savings is a false economy.

My friend Keith used to own a stereo shop and had about five "Expo" grade amps, including a few Pyramids, opened up on a display next to the three brands he carried. The "Expo" grade stuff was basically a huge aluminum heat sink with a small PC board in the middle. They were a total joke when you opened them up yet they all claimed about 4X the power output of the good quality amps..

Be careful what you buy online if it is not a reputable or known manufacturer.. Pyramid, IMHO, is not a reputable manufacturer which you are finding out..

[Shortman]

The sailing gods are telling you to turn off the radio

[GaryHLucas]

You may be overloading the CD player too with bass. When an amplifier overloads on the bass frequencies it dumps more poweer into the midrange and high frequencies which blows out the tweeters. Doen't matter any more. When they tested my ears they asked me how long I had been working with large guns or explosives. Huh, whadya say? Never.

Gary H. Lucas

[mitiempo]

Not only are the speakers not capable of handling 200 watts of power but the Jensen will not produce 40 watts/channel cleanly either. It is probably 12 to 15 watts/channel rms with 1% distortion. At 40 watts the distortion % is huge. Small box speakers are usually not very efficient in a trade off for some bass response from such a small woofer. Increasing bass will demand more power output from the Jensen as well which makes it worse. A speaker can handle more power if it is low in distortion than if the distortion is high. The easiest way to get more volume is to increase the efficiency of the speakers. This means a larger better quality box speaker or a speaker designed to mount in a cutout in a bulkhead (infinite baffle) as it will not have to work against such a small sealed volume box.

[ericroline]

If the amplifier is driven into clipping, the result is an output wave that appears closer to a square wave that is full of harmonic energy that can fry tweeters..... Woofer voice coils can be wound to handle high wattage, but the voice coils are large diameter and have large gauge wire and lots of it. Different manufactures have tried hex sided or square cross sections to try to maximize the windings into the littlest space. Speakers can be also be falsely rated at higher wattage by inefficient crossovers. Speaker efficiency is rated by the amount of sound pressure that they develop at one watt at a specific distance of 1 meter: SPL: 91 dB 1W/1m, example. To balance each speaker, a zobel circuit can be added to attenuate a speaker to keep it from being overbearing compared to the other speakers. Manufactures on the cheep may just use resistors.
I installed KLH speakers in the salon with the understanding that the max would be closer to 40 watts of power. Capacitors are used as low frequency blockers to protect them. I installed a 10" JBL woofer in the door to the stowage area under the sink in the head. A nice solid enclosure with a couple sqft of internal displacement. I used a couple of 6mHy coils to couple the L and R channels to the dual voice coil woofer. The end result is that the KLH's don't have to work their coils off and can just sing. Sax and voices are fantastic. The woofer radiates throughout the boat. wonderful when playing Wear and Wasserman. This system was first installed in my Santana525 over 12 yrs ago. When I bought the Cal 9.2, I moved the system into her, now that has been over 6 yrs ago and it still sounds great.
Summary: Have more amp than you will use to prevent from using the amp in clipping mode. D amps and the newer T amps are very efficient and have found their way into affordable amps. Staying out of clipping keeps from generating unwanted distortion and harmonic energy that will fry speakers. Find a set of hi efficiency speakers that don't require the power of Hover Dam to get a decent sound level. Install a (sub)woofer if you like clean bass as much as I do. Don't let your friends get too wasted and crank it up!