What is your favorite store or website to buy new speakers? And what do you need to know besides the speaker size and ohm rating?
parts express.
Swap the caps out if you have an existing pair.
For some reason audiophiles look down apon chrome dust caps. They look dope in ghetto's though. Just make sure you dont get some speakers that are power hungry, the poor amp in the box will not be able to keep up and you'll risk frying it.
quote:
Originally posted by Master Z:
Swap the caps out if you have an existing pair.
For some reason audiophiles look down apon chrome dust caps. They look dope in ghetto's though. Just make sure you dont get some speakers that are power hungry, the poor amp in the box will not be able to keep up and you'll risk frying it.
So you just glue the chrome cap on? Then I guess you'd have to make sure the new speaker has the exact same cap diameter as the old ones?
quote:
Originally posted by Reli:
What is your favorite store or website to buy new speakers? And what do you need to know besides the speaker size and ohm rating?
Power. Most portables have (relatively) weak output, so efficiency is important. Less than 20 watts is okay, but 5-10 would be better.
Unfortunately low power full rage speakers are getting hard to find.
I almost feel like I shouldn't post this because any audiophile would scoff at the idea, but I have used them a couple of times and it worked quite well.
Pyramid (out of all things) "duel cone" (with whizzer cone) car speakers seem to work well as replacements. Sure they are not exactly hi-fi, but they do sound good. They're just as good if not better then the originals in most cases.
Speakers They lie about power handling and the output of their amps so 100W is usually 10W thus efficient and perfect for most boxes.
Where can you find them? Check your local flea market or cheap electronic store. Unfortunately it looks like the 6 1/2" and 8" are no longer in production. Most of the places where you would find the 5" drivers would more than likely have old stock of the larger sizes because they were in production for many years and I doubt that there is a high demand for them.
quote:
Originally posted by Reli:
Watts peak power is what's stamped on the back of the magnet, right?
Yes, but in their case it's nothing more than a bold face lie. They may say "100w peak" on them but hit them with more than about 25 r.m.s and they'll melt for sure. There's no way they'll handle 100W peak.
quote:
Also how do you find out how many watts are required to start moving the speaker at low volume? If it takes too much power to move the speaker, the amp would be stressed.
I could be wrong, but I don't think an inefficient speaker will overload an amp as long as the impedance isn't lower than what the circuit is built to handle (4 ohms for most portables, though there are a few 3.2) I don't think that (for instance) connecting a 4 ohm speaker rated to handle 100W RMS to a box would do any harm to the amplifier. It just wouldn't put off as much sound as a more efficient speaker (say one rated closer to the output power of the amp).
Although again I could be wrong.
The other end of the spectrum is true, though. You could do damage to an amp by using a speaker that's rated for less power as the coil could melt and cause a short circuit.
I do remember reading "minimum power" ratings on speakers, but I think the number related to how much power it would take to drive the speaker properly.
