Facts about Blown Speakers

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by: Chelsey P.

What are blown speakers? Blown speakers are those that have been damaged by an excessive amount of sound being pushed through the car speakers. How do you know that your speakers are blown? Identifying that your speakers are blown tends to be fairly easy.  If a speaker is blown, or partially blown, it will create a static-like or fuzzy sound. If you have a speaker that is completely blown, it will not have any sound but distortion. If a speaker is partially blown, it will only distort at loud levels.

One way a speaker is blown is due to less than perfect component sets. For example, low-end speakers are made with paper cones and with too much power can blow the speaker. In some instances, if too much power is sent through the speaker, the woofer can change its shape creating inferior sound reproduction. As for high-quality speakers, many of them blow because they have reached their power limits. Strong bass and high-treble are also contributing factors to blown speakers if played loudly.

There are a few different types of blown speakers:

- Completely blown speaker: A completely blown speaker means that the cone has separated from the coil. If this happens, you will notice that there is no sound, or buzz-like sounds coming from the speaker at higher levels.

- Partial, or minor speaker blows occur when the midrange or tweeters are damaged. This can be detected if you hear sound, but it is heavily distorted. Since both of these components produce vocal sounds, the blow can be detected immediately if it is not being used for high-bass audio.

To test if your speaker is actually blown, use a multimeter and set it to read the impedance. If a speaker is blown, it will read infinite impedance. The best way to keep your speakers from blowing is to keep the volume at a moderate volume.

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Written by Chelsey P.