question:speakers

[Kevin Tarr]

Anyone have home/car speaker experience? I thought I did, having worked in a stereo store for three years. Am I wrong or was I the victim of gross incompetence?*   I have low-mid level car stereo rated at 40 watts. Because of the car I have to turn the volume up to hear it at all. I had put in new speakers because the old ones were blown when I bought the car. During a thunderstorm both the speakers went out, just completely dead. I was listening to AM. I thought it was the head unit. (I have water trouble during very heavy downpours, or driving fast in lighter rains.) So I drove for another hour with the radio off.   The next day I could hear one speaker okay but the other one was blown. (I did some testing and both were blown, one halfway and the other was completely gone). I went to Circuit City, where I bought the radio and speakers together, to ask why a 40-watt stereo would blow 40-watt speakers. The answer I got, no lie:   "Well the radio says 40 watts but it's really only 20 per side and that's only 16 RMS (root mean square). Since the speakers are 40 watt speakers they need an amplifier so the speakers each get 40-watts."   I said, "You don't know what you are talking about."   He then said, "No really. See when the speaker is underdriven the voice coil has to move more to produce any sound. Even though you had the radio turned up it isn't enough to drive the speaker. It had to over-work and that's why it blew"   I said "Is there anyone else I can talk to?"   He said no so I left the store.   Kevin T. Laughed all the way home.   *I am taking some on-line e-courses, that my workplace is paying for. I have not seen any spelling mistakes but plenty of punctuation and formatting errors, examples that don't match what they just explained, and other things that after four days were driving me to distraction.   I only have 28 course hours to go!