The Story:

A while back I went and bought (or so I thought) a set of good quality Alpine 4" speakers from a reputable shop in my arear. Let me firstly say that I have no problems or issues with the shop and that I have found the service provided to be excellent. The same, unfortunately can not be said for the quality of the speakers. Within a couple of months or so (well within the warranty period) the right side speaker "blew" and was distorting and crackling at normal volume levels. Fair enough, back to the shop for a replacement.

Linky (http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15945)

Popped in the finn brothers latest CD, which in my opinion has high levels of treble and I find out that the same has happened again. The right speaker is distorting and making all sorts of godawful noises at normal volume. I do not know why this is happening, as none of my speakers are amped. I do run the speakers at a moderatly high volume now and then, however I don't see how this could cause this sort of damage. Twice.

Same speaker, same brand, same model. To me this indicates: **** speaker

What should I do? Go back? I'll get replacement speakers which will most likely "blow" again.
I think that for the $100 I piad that I'd be better off going elsewhere and having good door speakers put in. I'm really over mucking around with ****ty 4" dash speakers. In the mean time, keep away from Alpine SPS100A 4" speakers. I believe that these speakers suffer from poor quality components and dodgy manufacturing. I expected more from Alpine.

So, what door speakers would best suit my system? I have:

Pioneer TSD690R 6x9's in the parcel shelf
Pioneer TSW-??? 800W 12" sub
Philips DAP4040 amp

Cheers for any help and advice, it's much appreciated.

I think the quality and high volume your expecting, far breaches the capabilities of a $100 set of speakers !

SPS-100A are 25w RMS each and can only go as low as 50hz. I dont think the head unit will output that much but youll find that these probbably will distort with bass fairly far from their max, especially if your feeding them 50hz. A speaker like that needs a crossover for max quality but dont expect much from them. I have Pioneer TS-G1040R 4" 2-ways in my dash and they sound great but distort if I turn the crossover off.

We need to anaylise what is happening..

1. Is there any signs of physical damage to the speaker ???
2. They are 4 inch speakers, they are not designed to be cranked, you have a sub, you may be pushing the 4 inchers beyond their limit and not hearing the speakers bottoming out..
3. There is a wiring problem on that side of the car..

iv got alpine speakers for my front and i have them running of the head unit on high treble and its all good for me. im not sure of the size but its in a TH so im guessing 4" or 6". maybe theres sumthing in ur door thats damaging the speaker.

We need to anaylise what is happening..

1. Is there any signs of physical damage to the speaker ???
2. They are 4 inch speakers, they are not designed to be cranked, you have a sub, you may be pushing the 4 inchers beyond their limit and not hearing the speakers bottoming out..
3. There is a wiring problem on that side of the car..

1. No signs of physical damage. There wasn't signs of physical damage the first time either and I asked what was wrong but didn't really get any sort of specific response. It sounds like there is something loose (like sand, or tiny bits of metal) rattling around inside the speaker somewhere...voicecoil?

2. That's possible, however my amp isn't that powerful and I don't have the sub set on max settings.

3. Could be. I thought of that myself. I have narrowed the problem down to the mini-tweeter thing that sits above the main cone on the speaker. Kinda hard to describe. I think that's what was happening last time too.

Just because the speaker is not amped doesn't mean you can't fry the speaker through improper system setup. 2 things will fry a coil, too much Xmax, and a clipped signal.

When the former occurs you can damage the speaker surrounds and possibly the poles, and with the latter overheating of the voicecoil due to the cone not moving sufficiently for ventilation.

If you don't amp the speakers, the latter is more likely to occur since head units clip the signal really easily once you pass around 70% of the max volume setting.

Sounds like a wiring problem, check the wiring with a multimeter, it might be coming in contact with the chassis somewhere. Besides that think about installing an electrolytic cap to filter out the low frequencies, you wouldnt want anything below 150 hz getting into a 4" speaker.

But I agree with Tek, sounds like you've been asking too much from a little speaker.

I'd look towards 6" + in the doors.

Well, sad news with the speakers.

I did a few little tests and found out that both are blown to the ****house. Diverted the signal up front to the 4"ers and both rattle and distort. Took both speakers out and gave 'em a bit of a shake, and sure enough, *rattle rattle* *rattle rattle rattle* *THUD* (that was me getting the ****s again).

CBF even touching them again. I'm SO over arsing around with them. If I never have to screw and unscrew the bloddy things in again that's one time too many.

On the good side, a mate's dad owns a car audio store. Might look into door speakers, depending on how difficult it is to do and what speakers can fit into the front doors of me TS exec.

well if your mates dad owns a car audio store.. get him to take a look at the Alpines, he can then tell you exactly what is wrong with them and what you are doing that causes their destruction..