Speaker-Eating dashboard?

Find a cheap speaker, hook if up electrically but don't install it physically. Just extend the wires and leave it somewhere in the car to figure out whether it is related to the physical installation or a short from the radio.

50W continuous? I have some 2' tall floor speakers rated for 50W music power but only 1W continous (instructions said not to exceed 8V, peak-to-peak, for more than 2-3 minutes).

If you don't blast them at high power all day, about the only electrical thing that usually ruins speakers in a hurry is DC from the amplifier. Switch a digital voltage meter to read DC volts and see if there's more than about 0.1Vdc across the amp terminals (an analog meter won't work for this). Don't measure to chassis ground because I think that most car stereos now use two floating outputs (an easy way to get higher power without higher power supply voltage).

Have you tried pressing the speaker cone to see that it moves in and out without binding? Some of my Ford factory speakers (base audio system) that scraped the magnet when moved also buzzed, but I had a Ford radio cause a buzz because of some power supply problem (I think it was the power supply that drove the LCD).

You need more power. A good rule of thumb is that the amp should be rated at 2 times the speaker rating. This prevents clipping which speakers apaprt.

you sure about that? it's true that distortion tears up speakers, and an underpowered amp can lead people to crank the volume up beyond clipping, but i've never heard it suggested that the amp be rated for more power than the speakers.

If the one side is failing, swap the good and bad speakers. does the bad speaker become good? and the good speaker turn bad? is the stereo properly grounded?

What size are these speakers?

Any chance that the speaker mounting area could be distorted, which might be pulling the speaker frame out of alignment and causing the cone voice coil to rub on the magnet gap?? Maybe some old accident damage? Just a thought.

Dave

Very, very common in the high-end and pro audio worlds.

You get two bonuses. Headroom, which can do wonders for clarity, and no clipping which prevents your speakers from dealing with DC.

There's not much that speakers hate more than DC, which happens to be

0 Hz. (drive it all the way in or out and hold it there!) except maybe water.

If they're pressed metal frames and you overtorque the mounting screws they almost always warp.

Have you ever listened to a *continuous* 22 watts, let alone 50? You don't want to....

Driving a low-powered amp into clipping, yes. But clipping kills tweeters first, then mids and eventually it *could* kill the woofers.

Overpowering a speaker usually kills the woofers first *IF* you can stand the level and the racket of the woofer cones overextending and having the coils hit the magnets.

High amounts of DC voltage usually "cooks" the coils.

Someone else's idea of putting in a "cheap as possible" speaker is a start, but since the dead speaker's mate is a known good speaker, use it instead. If it stays alive, you'll have to chalk this pair of failures up to Murphy.

FWIW, I was a tech in a hi-end audio shop and we were known to do intentional speaker-killing at times.. under "controlled conditions" you know..

You know, the car was in an accident at some point, but all the doors open and close like they're supposed to, so I didn't think of it...

5"

Shoot...have you ever listened to a continuous *ONE* watt?!?! % watts true RMS is enough to drive you...OUT of the car!

This is my THIRD speaker in this position!

Oh Boy! Where do I sign up!?!?!?!

I used to do testing for Underwriter's Laboratory certification at one place where I worked. We made OEM power supplies; one of our products was for a 'secret' project for IBM back in 1982...

At any rate, I would drip water into the power supplies, throw shorts into various circuits, disable the safety circuits and THEN throw shorts into the circuits, throw the switching section into overload, etc etc. I had what looked like a motorcycle sheild in front of me to catch sparks and capacitor spew...

Ah, how I long for the Good Ol' Days... ;)

The last one I pulled worked flawlessly!

I'll try the meter thing, but I'm also on my second head unit. I upgraded the one in the Supra and pulled that one for this car.

All good suggestions!

Except for one thing: A speaker without an enclosure will produce pretty much zero bass, which will tempt you to turn it up and fry it. Find a cardboard box about the size of a small bookshelf speaker. Seal it well with tape, cut a hole that's right for the speaker, and use speed clips over the edges of the hole for securing the speaker.

I have wooden 'test boxes' I use for testing speakers/radios. No Problem!

In my situation it seemd to follow about the 3rd time my teen borrowed the car...every time. I'm sure you know that distortion will kill a speaker as quick as power. This one seemed to think the volume had to be on max for it to work at all.

>

It doesn't?! ;)

(He don't know me too well...)

I have a JVC headunit in my Supra, powering a 100Wx4 channel amp, and 4

100W MB Quarts at each corner. Since the roof comes off the car, I wanted something I could hear over the road and wind noise.

3rd year and no problem! I rarely have problems with my installations. That's why this is so perplexing.

But, I am a bass player, so I want to HEAR the bass. It's just odd that it's always this one speaker! The left front has been in there since I took the original pair out. I always replace with 4 ohm speakers so the balance is correct all the way around.