What is the maximum watt limit for speakers?
 

I have a 2002, 2-door, 4WD, Blazer where it's time to replace the old OEM speakers with new ones. I have a few products in mind, but I'm trying to understand the electronic requirements I'm working with. I don't plan on replacing the AM/FM reciever yet. I still have the complete original audio deck. What are the major things I have to keep in mind choosing the correct speaker. My 2-Door Blazer has a total of 6 speakers and I plan to swap them all out eventually.

I saw ohm requirements in another thread. Would the impredence from the original audio deck make a difference with newer modern speakers?

What is the maximum watt output for the OEM electrical system in these Blazers for speakers? I see 300 watt and 400 watt speakers are common, so I'm just trying to make sure I don't over exceed the power requirements.

Bump.

I use 3 way 300 watts boss speakers in my doors.

If I had to guess, and this is PURELY a guess, the factory speakers are probably rated for 20-30 watts peak at 4ohm. Not saying the factory radio pushes that to them, that's just what the speakers are probably rated to handle.

If you're not planning on swapping to an aftermarket radio any time soon, there's no point on wasting money on high dollar door speakers that can handle 100+ watts, because the factory deck is never going to push the power they need to sound good, plain and simple. As soon as you start trying to turn up the volume to any sort of high level and have any sort of mid to low end bass tuned in, you will start to get clipping and distortion in the audio and it'll sound like garbage.

A cheap pair of ~50 watt peak speakers paired with the factory deck will probably sound better throughout the volume range than some expensive speakers that can handle 100+ watts paired with the factory deck.

Throwing some speakers rated for 100+ watts on the factory deck and then actually trying to crank it up and get good sound out of it is about like trying to through 44's on a 4 cyl truck with factory gearing... Looks good on paper, fun to brag about, but in the end it doesn't work as good as you'd hoped it would...

BUT, if you DO plan on swapping the deck for an aftermarket unit in the near future, it may be a good time to invest in some half way decent speakers. Most aftermarket decks will push ~50 watts to each channel (granted some brands are more truthful than others about that rating...), and you can usually get away with stepping up to a door speaker with a peak power rating of about 100-120 watts and get good clarity out of them throughout the volume range without going too crazy overboard with the mid and low bass tuning settings. But if you wanted to get anything with a much higher watt rating than 150-200, then you're going to have to start thinking about actually amplifying your speakers separately from your head unit.

Don't worry about the factory wiring being a limitation of the speakers unless you ever get to the point where you going to actually be running a stand alone amplifier for the speakers and pushing upwards of 150-200 watts to them each. The factory wiring is more than capable of carrying the current for them if you're just pushing up to 50-100 watts with a factory or aftermarket deck. I'm actually pushing 100 watts per channel via a stand alone amplifier to each of my 4 door Rockford Fosgate component speakers in my 4 door through factory wiring and it sounds great and hasn't given me an issue in the 3 years I've had the setup. But if I even wanted to step up to more power, the first thing I would do is route all new thicker wires to the doors, as I'm sure I'm pushing the factory wiring's limits right now lol.




BUT, this is all coming from an audiophile... I like to FEEL my music, not just hear it, so I always have some mid and low bass tuned in, hens the amplified setup. So, keep that in mind as you read my garbled mess of info ;)

https://i113.photobucket.com/albums/...929_180550.jpg

https://i113.photobucket.com/albums/...701_224546.jpg

I like the subs in the back.
I'm a bit of an audiophile myself, but I'm not looking for an overkill replacement. Just something better than the OEM speakers that's wearing out.
I am planning to replace the radio deck too. I havent found anything that would look good without gaps or bare metal sticking out. For me it has to be a seamless fit; or close to it.

My current deck is a Pumpkin Android unit that I've really fallen in love with. The built in amp for the 4 channels doesn't produce the best sound quality, but running dedicated amps off the RCA preamp outputs to power speakers works well with it.


https://i113.photobucket.com/albums/...224_182523.jpg

So are not the power ratings for speakers the maximum amount they can absorb? If so, then should not the question be what is the minimum power-rating for speakers for a given stereo?

Also, the impedance is important so that the amplifier output is matched to the load.

This is about all I know and if I was in your place, I'd consult some web sites about speaker and stereo selection.

The factory deck will drive either 4 ohm or 8 ohm speakers. Modern 4 ohm speakers will give more volume and effectively double the power of the amplifier in comparison to 8 ohm speakers if the amp is stable into the lower resistance. If you have a low power amp, you will definitely want a high efficiency speaker (not necessarily the one that will handle the most power).

Speakers range in efficiency or sensitivity from about 85dB (very inefficient) up to 105dB (very efficient). As a comparison, a speaker with 85 dB efficiency rating will take twice the amplifier power to reach the same volume as a speaker with 88 dB efficiency. Similarly, a speaker with an 88 dB efficiency rating will require ten times more power than a speaker with a 98 dB efficiency rating to play at the same level. It's not a linear scale. Used to be the efficiency spec was dB/watt/meter @ ohms from frequency range ± dB. but I see they have recently tended towards dB/2.83volts/meter which is a resistance independent spec. Also they seem to do everything at 1000 Hz and don't worry about the entire frequency range. But it is what it is (a way to make it appear better than it actually is). Just remember that the two types of specs are apples and oranges.

2.83V is 1 Watt into 8 ohm. (dB/2.83V)
For impedance Z, you change the dB/2.83V
by 10 x log (Z/8) to derive the dB/W figure.
Then you can compare apples to apples
…. and you thought you would never have a use for that math in school......
So the 2.83v specs should generally be about 3dB high for a speaker output at 4 ohm. See how they padded the spec?????? Tricky huh??

As far as maximum power from the factory radio, I would guess 10-15 watts per channel x 4 useable before distortion sets in.