INVISBLE
Well-Known Member
The wattage isn't really what determines the volume, the wattage is in the amp, and it's set in a factory system. Most any of the aftermarket speakers will handle the factory amp wattage... thus how much wattage the speakers will handle will have little effect on the volume. The volume is determined by the sensitivity and the resistance of the speaker, which is why all the speakers we have been testing are higher in sensitivity and of the correct resistance so that we don't over-drive the amp. We've no issues improving sound quality with the factory system by swapping out speakers.
The factory system does not need more power to play loud... it's plenty loud in these trucks. Now... if you grab a speaker with low sensitivity, such as the JL Audio that I tested, this is a speaker that needs more power to sound it's best, and to produce the same SPL as the factory speakers. The JL is not designed for lower power like the Infinity, FaitalPRO, Hertz, Kicker and maybe a few others that are used frequently in factory replacement speaker systems. Most of us don't want to have to change out our headunit, as we like the factory unit, and we like the factory look. Recommending replacing the headunit is a serious no go for most of us, not to even get into the fact hardly anyone makes anything that would not require some very serious custom work to make it fit and look halfway respectable. Then you have a WHOLE lot more going on with the factory headunits than a radio... you have vehicle settings involved as well... you just can't replace the headunits in these new vehicles. Factory headunit to aftermarket amp... yes... that works and many of us do that... which is completely different.
What happens in some cases by those that don't do any research, they think that just because a speaker will handle more power, it will be louder, which again, has very little influence on how loud the system will play. However, I don't know any anyone in this forum that isn't doing their homework. These guys are smart and they are researching what is needed. They want a higher sensitivity speaker and the correct resistance (ohms) to match the factory system... and it's been working for us all very well.
I see that you have some knowledge here, but your wrong about speaker wattage, totally. Have you bothered to turn a speaker over before and looked at the mass on the backside of the basket... that's a magnet. Depending on the size of the magnet, will determine how much power is required to move it. Thats where its power requirement and handling capacity in watts comes in. A speaker can have a small magnet structure and in turn require less energy to power it or a big one and need more. The larger the magnet the higher the wattage it can handle because the magnetic field increases with magnet size therefore creating magnetic resistance which eats up power trying to move the coil/cone assembly(mass). Not going into that any further.
Sensitivity is going to as a result of the cone material and the surround, how light the cone is and the elasticity of the surround.
This is all a fairly simplified explanation because I am not an engineer and wont detail it like one.
And as I said the analogy of the radio replacement was a generalization of typical radio plus speaker systems not incorporating amplifiers such as most base model oem systems and primarily older vehicles.
And I am aware of the output of the amplifier in our trucks but there is indeed a correlation of a speakers magnet structure size in relation to audio output given a set amount of power when comparing speakers of the same diameter or size/shape.
I am not trying to get into a pissing match here but I am not some dope that just wandered into this field yesterday and received my expertise by exchanging parts almost randomly in my vehicles. In fact after having worked at many retailers, owned my own company for over 20 years and also having worked for a well known competition speaker/amplifier manufacturer, I am sure I have a knowledgeable grasp on what I am talking about.
But pardon my 2 cents since you seem to know it all.