Hey Everyone. I'm new here and just wanted to say that there is a lot of good stuff on this forum. Thanks to all that contribute!

My problem is...

When I turn on my car and my head unit powers up, I get a loud buzzing sound coming from my passenger side component speakers (Alpine SPR-17S). The buzz lasts just 2-3 seconds followed by no sound coming from the speakers. I have determined that it is not the wiring or the crossover. I tried taking my crossover from my drivers side door, and tested it in the passenger side door. That didn't work, so I put the crossover back and now the drivers side door tweeter makes no sound and the woofer is veeeeery quiet! All the connections and wiring is good, which makes me think it could be my head unit. I have a Sony CDX-850MP. The head unit also reads "failure" until the car is turned off. The rear speakers are fine and I have no problem inserting CD's or using other head unit functions.

Can anyone help me out or supply their insight? Thanks so much in advance!

 

Wow!!
I thought I had problems

 

Ok...
So your using a Sony head unit, and your using Alpine components in the front.
But I think we need a bit more info to diagnose this....

What are you using in the back? (Components / Co-axials)
What amp are you using to power you speakers?

 

In the back I am running Alpine Coaxials (Alpine SPR-17C). I have no amp for my car speakers, no subs, nothing....

Update: I tested my factory head unit back in and nothing. It powers on but no sound comes out of any of the speakers.

Odd question: When your hooking your stock HU back in theres only two things that plug in right? The wiring harness and the antenna? Theres a spot on the back of the head unit where something else could be plugged in but I don't remember anything being there.

 

Well, for starters, you need an amp on those components... You can't run them off the deck... it just overloads it.
The components are 110W RMS... and your deck puts out 50W max... see what's wrong here?
I'm surprised that the rears ever worked, as they are 100W RMS.
I recommend you get at the least an MRP-F450... an MRP-F600 is suggested though.

Type-R speakers weren't designed to be ran off any deck... they were actually made to mate with a low end V12 or PDX amp.

WRT, the factory deck... yes, there is the main harness, antenna, and an extra plug. The extra plug, I think, is for OEM XM radio.

 

So you NEED an amp to run these speakers? I was running them fine for about a week until all of this happened. I never realized that the speakers could overpower a head unit. So if nothing is wrong but the amp issue, I should be able to hook up my stock speakers and they should work fine correct?

 

Yeah, your stock speakers should work just fine.

 

pop the speakers tell me wht happens

nope you dont need an amp but they may be better off with one

 

The components should really get an amp.... I've seen a few sets blow from being under powered.... maybe it's a Type-R thing....

 

What do you mean by "pop" the speakers?

 

Sorry to beak the news to you but a speaker will never blow from being underpowered... The actual power numbers that your looking at are really "peak" numbers. Example with you headunit at volume 1 its not producing the 22w rms its rated at its producing only X number of watts... but when you get to volume 25 or whatever right before it starts clipping its producing the full 22w that its rated at. The reason speakers will blow when they are "underpowered" (100w rms speaker on a 22w rms head unit) is because of the user. People spend 2 bills on a comp set and expect it to get louder. In reality it does get slightly loder because the new aftermarket speakers are a million times better and much more sensitive to power then the cheap stock ones but people expect more because of the price tag. Your right those speakers WANT an amp and will sound best with the actual power but they dont NEED an amp. So what people will do is turn up the volume until it starts clipping, increase the bass boost and start boosing all the signal until it gets really dirty and blows the speaker. In the end its not a speaker problem or type r thing its really user error

read it all the way thru a few times before you actually do it

yank the speaker wires from the crossover and put them on a battery pos pos neg neg and both the woofer and tweeter should "pop" If they both do so then do the same with the wires at the HU. Assuming all the speakers pop at the last test then its a problem with the HU. You want the woofer part of the comp set to be popped with either a 12v drill battery or like one of those 9v batteries. Dont use anything over 12v. With the tweeter you want a smaller batteries voltage wise so an AA battery is fine. Dont use a 9v or 12v battery on your tweeter

 

Call it what you want, although it's still 'blowing it' in respect to the speaker getting wrecked....
The lack of power being provided causes access heat to build up, thus causing a speaker to blow.
In this sense, sure it's user error for not powering them, or pushing them past the limit .
In the end, it's a combination of basic physics and mechanics... they driver itself is literally tiring out from working too hard.

In the end... I've seen it happen a few times...
(Long story short, it was a demo from our local Alpine dealer to show the affects of an improperly planned system.)

 

your local alpine dealer is full of **** and wants you to buy an amp for 600 dollars... i can guarantee you you will not blow a Type r speaker with one watt of clean power running all day long

 

Really....
I'll take the advice from the guys I trust.

 

Umm, learn car audio before you start giving out advice

You don't NEED an amp for ANY speaker. As long as the impedance is correct, you're good to go

I've been running Alpine Type R's on my stock headunit forever. It doesn't and CAN'T "overload" the headunit if the impedance is correct.


To the OP check to make sure you don't have any short circuits anywhere. That would be my guess/

Distortion is caused when you turn the volume up way past what the headunit can handle. It doesnt matter whether you're overpowering over underpowering a speaker, you can always cause distortion if you push the volume past it's limits

 

Did you actually read what i posted?

 

Considering everyone else has the tech stuff covered, I'll side track the thread for my own amusment...

bigcountry, you in Albany, NY or down south?

 

Thanks for the support hack.... although techniclly you do need an amp to run a speaker but since most HU's have one built in you dont need a seperate one.

 

For a kid, that's a pretty cocky statement.
Considering that the OP had no clue of the ratings his system, it was in his best interest for me to suggest an amp... otherwise we'd get a thread saying "my speakers are distorting, why?"
And on top of that, why would I go into details on such a subject? I say 'you can blow the speaker'... I guess I could have said "you can damage the speaker if your being a dumb ass and cranking it up like 90% of people do"... but would he have listened? It would have been passed off as some old guy telling him not to turn his music up loud.

And WRT under powering your Type-R's... that's not something a person fancying themselves a 'car audio expert' should be announcing.... it sounds as though you like to half ass stuff.

I'm pretty sure we're talking about the same thing, with a different way of explaining it.

 

yup pretty much exactly the same but it seemed like everytime i would explain it you would dismiss it as ludacris

 

Nah... I just read it at first like "you can never blow an underpowered speaker"... then when I realized what terms you were using, I saw it was the same thing...
In the end -> clipping + underpower = heat = no worky.

 

Well coming from someone that has had one of the largest systems ever installed in a Cobalt, I would imagine what I say should have some weight and I know an assload about electronics and how they work from building battlebots for over 4 years

 

Owning a big system means nothing... all that says is that you spent money.

Building bots... point taken, that shows some electronics background... But I don't think we want to get into a pissing match as far as experience and projects completed....

 

I wouldn't mind getting into a pissing match about knowledge of electronics though

haha

 

... not while I'm at work... that would be cheating on my part....
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