tower speaker amp

A while ago i posted on here that one of my moster tower speakers was damaged. I was runing them off the clarion APX480M marine 4 channel amplifier, bridged to a 2 channel. I followed the instructions for running it as a 2 channel high power system and in it they show it running 2 clarion marine speakers. Bridged this thing makes 230rms per channel which is alot, but it shows it pusihng clarion marine speakers wich have a 100 watt max. I used this setting for my tower speakers and one of them like fried. I posted this on the polk forums and ppl said I melted my voice coil. DO you think polk would cover this, If not do I need a new set of speakers or can the voice coil be repaired? I'm guessing that is too much power for the speakers but then I dont get why clarion would show it pushing 2 of their speakers

Manny,

Several things:
1) When you say fried the speaker, how do you know? Did the speaker just stop working, did smoke come out of it? Did you also check the amp to make sure that the channel driving the so called fried speaker is still working?
2) Polk would probably not cover the speaker if you did blow it due to the fact that it wasn't a manufacturers defect, but was abused (i.e. excessive power to the speaker).
3) You cannot replace the voicecoil in the speaker (Polk probably could, but not worth the effort), and would need to go buy new speakers. The voicecoil is not something you can just pop out...the structure of the speaker is built around it.
4) If you are trying to use the setup you describe with speakers that handle way less than the amp output, you might want to turn back the gain on the amp to the point you aren't driving your speakers into distortion.

Anyway, that's my few comments, hope it helps some.

thanks, the thing is is that when the speaker blew, or whatever it was that happened, there was no distortion and the gain wasnt high, everything was sounding perfect not to mention the other speaker is perfectly fine so I'm not sure if it was my fault or if the speaker had a problem. The reson i say its "fried" is because it smells like when electronics burn.

If what you say was the case, i.e. the other speaker was fine, you weren't pushing it too hard, and the gain was turned down on the amp, then yes, you may have encountered a defect in the speaker. Given that, you might want to touch base with Polk or Monster Tower regarding getting a replacement speaker (probably Polk).

AGREE WITH MICHAEL, BUT IF YOU PULL THE SPEAKER OUT YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO TELL IF THE WIRING TO THE SPEAKER AND THEN TO THE VOICE COIL IS STILL GOOD, I'VE MELTED THE WIRE BETWEEN THE COIL AND BASKET TERMINALS AND DID A CHEAP/TEMP FIX BY SOLDERING THE REMAINDER OF THE WIRE BACK TOGETHER, AGAIN I MAY BE WAY OFF BUT IT'S A SIMPLE CHECK BEFORE YOU GET UP IN ARMS.

Manny,

Take the speaker out and run some tests. Measure the VC resistance, see if it's shorted to the frame. How did the Polk forum guys determine you melted your VC?

Here is what a fried VC looks like:



Other than being torn apart it's also black on the inside from being overheated causing the glue to let loose and release the coils.

usually a speaker is fried by:

a: having to low wattage/current to run the speakers and support music. This is #1 reason.

b: imporper wiring

c: too many watts

Get a quality hi-powered amp that is high current and try again. it is best to get an amp with more watts that the speakers can handle and turn it down.

Think of it this way.....an amp is a person pushing a car up a hill.....would you rather be a person that can barely push the car up a hill or a person that hase more than enough strength to push it? Same thing with amps and speakers.

an easy way to tell is look at the fuses. You want the biggest fuse per watt. Sooooooo....a 500w sony with a 20amp fuse won't compare to a 500watt JL with a 50amp fuse.

You are buying a amplifier not a wattafier

And also remember to produce POWER you need POWER. Dont strain your alternator or main battery with a high power audio system, get an extra battery. I am currently running a High Current (ORION) power amplifier in MONO to 10 - 6.5 Kicker speakers on my tower. Just make sure you wire them correctly and use a fluke meter to measure the ohms and try to stay between 2 and 4 ohms for you wire configuration. You can get away with this running them in Series/Parralell