Quote:
Originally Posted by marm
It's the not the cone itself that splits but rather the foam surround - the foam degrades over time and eventually falls apart. It's actually possible to replace it but given how cheap car speakers are probably not worth the effort. Mine seem in pretty good order at the moment so I'll probably keep them until they fall apart.
With my track record for swapping cars it's probably best not to plough too much money or time into improvements. Main thing is to keep it on the road. Would be nice to have some tunes though.
20 watts is plenty for me, thanks. My comment was that it was a healthy output by the standards of the day. Today perhaps you might expect more like 50 watts but in practice there's not loads in it - 100 watts is only twice as loud as 10 watts.
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Foam surround? Crikey, you're an optimist on the quiet aren't you!
Most of the OE speakers i've seen in Volvos still have the (much older design) paper support so any rot in the paper cone also happens to the support too. It's possible the later 9xx models have foam but i don't think i've seen any.
While what you say about 100 Vs 10W is correct in theory, in practice with todays levels of traffic and other background noise, what would have been perfectly acceptable 30 +/-5 years ago isn't necessarily acceptable now. Also factor in that as you turn the volume up so you can still hear your music above the higher ambient noise levels, so the THD (Total Harmonic Distortion for those not familiar) rises exponentially.
To that end, in my other beast i have an amp in the back to boost the OE spec from 25W RMS per channel to 75W RMS per channel, with the fronts still on the original outputs. This means i can get it louder without hitting THD too soon. This is relevant as i've installed the same head unit and 6 disc changer in my 760 and that really needs an amplifier in it too.
I have aftermarket speakers in my other car front and rear and aftermarket speakers in the front doors of the Volvo. For some reason the rears seem to have fared better over the years than the fronts that came out with no cones or supports left!
The Volvo and my other car front speakers are the same, triaxial 13cm, 80W RMS jobbbies (cheap make but do the job) and the rears in my other car are 6.5" (soon to hopefully be changed for 8") triaxial beasts.
With that said, i recently upgraded/updated the head unit in my other beast to a modern one that as well as having built in BlueTooth (and a hands free phone mic) boasts 45W x 4 but a bit of investigation suggests that is the oft-misquoted "music power" and the real output is 25W RMS per channel as it's about the same sound output as the original, just a bit clearer with less THD when turned up.
The BT capability means i can store music on the SD card in my phone so i don't need to keep changing CDs in the 6-disc changer, any calls coming in are handsfree and played through the car speakers and if i happen to be using the sat-nag on the phone, any instructions from that come over the car speakers as well.