lets play a little game if we can

I'm gonna cut straight to the chase, basically I'm interested in testing my own knowledge of car audio. Lets pretend I own a shop, and you are the customer. You come into my shop looking for something, and have questions. Ask your hypothetical questions here, and I will try and answer them to the best of my knowledge.... play whichever customer type you wish..... if you decide to play a role, please post which role it is :) Please allow me to be the only one to answer the questions posed here(aside from corrections) and keep the questions away from serious modifications. "the shop" would be mostly retail, handling basic installs, and custom boxes. If I can't answer something I will simply say pass, and we will chalk that up to me not knowing.... in this case it would be nice if the question was answered by someone who knows. Remember this is hypothetical, the questions asked here and any answers given are not to be taken seriously, and no advice given here should not be taken seriously unless otherwise backed up and verified by someone who has "been there done that" fire away.

Say, hypothetically, I live in a cold climate and I want to install a small heater in the trunk of my car to preheat my audio gear before using it.  What would be the best way to do this?Kevin Pierson

heh, didn't see that coming, but should have. should I take that as an invitation to opt out, or just some hilarious ironic humor

The obvious answer to KPierson's question is to install two systems.  One, used as the "pre-heater" system, should be made up from crap components like Power Akoustik and Audiobahn and cranked into full clipping to maximize heat generation.  This is the real reason flea-market-level systems exist, actually: to function as pre-heaters for "real" gear.  Why do yo think Sony calls their crap "Xplode?"  This pre-heat system would come on first, and then once the trunk's ambient has attained the optimal operating temperature for the "real" system a thermostatic switch triggers a series of relays shutting down the crap system and activating the "real" one.  Simple, really.Support the12volt.com

Kevin must have a Pre-Rockford amplifier if it needs pre-heated. Remember the old Fosgate PR-250? They needed pre-heating.

no he is refering to a question i posted a while back, and something I'm currently working on. I wanted to warm my trunk before playing my system in any really cold weather. DYhon.... clearly the best solution ;) it's those kinds of questions i wanted to avoid as quite obviously I know very little about electronics themselves. I'm not trying to pretend I know stuff that I don't, I'm simply just curious myself as to how much I may(not) know. so I hope it isn't taken the wrong way or anything.

Well, lets address the blown speakers issue, my first guess would be that your gains aren't set properly and your probably feeding a clipped signal to your amps or speakers. Bring your car by the shop and we'll check and set your gains properly with an oscope free of charge. Personally I would skip the 3rd sub and just stick with two, the third sub isn't going to make a noticeable difference to your ear. In order to (double??) the output you need to (double??) the (surface/cone area?) the human ear can only pickup sound in 3db increments. (the wording for that is terrible, the exact details of that answer aren't quite in my memory) Before I go suggesting a sub woofer, I need to know, are you looking to replace the box or do you want to just drop new subs into your existing boxes? If you want to just drop in new subs I would need to know how many cu ft the box(es) are so I could suggest a sub woofer good for that size. If your willing to go with a new box this would open up your sub woofer options and we can design/build the box custom for the speakers on site. If it's just drop in replacement you will have fewer choices, and your system won't really be optimized for the best bass. however off the top of my head I would look at the DC level 2, 2 of those wired in series will give you 2ohm per speaker, and wiring those in series together bridged on the amp will give you 600W @ 1ohm. your looking at about $575 for the speakers and custom box, depending on how you want to do the box. I'm sure we can find cheaper options, it just really depends on what you want to do. (question answered, further details/elaboration upon your responses) how was that answer?