KF

So, I was in the shop talking about the install I had planned, and the guy, whilst helpful, was pretty adamant that running Infinity 60.2's from my vanilla Sony HU (4x35) would see them die in a fit of burnt out coil in super quick time.

The question is, if I only listen to them at moderate levels, and never running the amp into distortion, this has got to be stretching the truth? No?

An amp is in the pipeline, but being holiday season, cash is flowing down a different plug hole...

What are your opinions... do I <B>need</B> to get an amp as a matter of urgency?
TIA.
KF.

rockin'Ru

No you don't.But he's right about clipping the amp.As long as you don't drive it to bad distortion,you'll be fine.

chiark

The sales guy is speaking with some truth: the most common way of destroying speakers is by driving with an underpowered amp. However, he's also trying to sell you something so just back off the volume when you hear distortion and you'll have no problems with your speakers.

To explain just a bit, an audio signal is an AC signal constantly changing. When you drive an amp too hard, the signal clips, meaning that instead of being a changing current it reaches its maximum output and can't go any higher, so it's providing a DC signal.

This causes the voice coil of the speaker to heat up massively, as it's trying to keep the cone stationary at some point in its travel. Speakers ain't designed to do this!

Distortion will occur before an amp is clipping, so do listen when you whack the volume up!

Particularly damaging is bass, so you may want to activate the high pass filter on your head unit, if it has one. (Modern kenwoods, and other brands, have this)

KF

Cheers Guys.
As I thought. Still going to get the amp, but I am thinking that I might replace the head unit first : crap in crap out, as a wise man once said.
Thx,
KF.