Getting new car CD deck... "speaker savers" Useful or BS?

[Vortex22]

I just went up to BB to take a look at a few of the decks they had on sale this week. $170 for a Pioneer MP3/WMA/XM deck with free install. The guy said that since I was keeping my stock speakers (98 Civic), they would eventually blow out because the deck put out more power than they could handle. I asked him if this was just at high volume and he said no, it would always be delivering too much power. He told me that I needed these little things called "speaker savers" which would filter out the very low bass that could damage the speakers if I wasn't planning on upgrading them in the near future.

He said I needed 2 of these.. which were like $10 each.
The BS flag immediately went up in my mind but I wasn't sure.

Do I really need these things to keep my speakers from blowing out?

And don't tell me to switch out my stock speakers please... $$$

 

[Saulbadguy]

This is bullcrap. Don't listen to him. This may be true if you had a 72 Chevy POS with paper speakers, but not in a 98 civic.

 

[RagingBITCH]

No. I've never even heard of speaker savers before.

 

[Amorphus]

did you ask him about just turning down the bass?

 

[Vortex22]

He said the deck put out a minimum of 26W and that my speakers were only 20W.
He showed me the things... they were from some place called installedge.com or something like that.

 

[Saulbadguy]

The things he are talking about are "bass blockers". They can be useful if speakers you purchase dont include a crossover, or your amp/HU doesnt include one. It will filter out low frequencies, but since you don't have a sub, putting bass blockers on all your speakers would sound terrible. You would have no bass.

 

[Vortex22]

Originally posted by: Amorphus
did you ask him about just turning down the bass?

I asked him if the speakers would only be damaged at high volume and he said that the deck would always be stressing them at any volume.

 

[Saulbadguy]

Originally posted by: Vortex22
He said the deck put out a minimum of 26W and that my speakers were only 20W.
He showed me the things... they were from some place called installedge.com or something like that.

26W total watts..not per channel. I also highly doubt that your speakers are only rated @20w.

 

[Saulbadguy]

Originally posted by: Vortex22

Originally posted by: Amorphus
did you ask him about just turning down the bass?

I asked him if the speakers would only be damaged at high volume and he said that the deck would always be stressing them at any volume.

He is a best buy employee. He is paid to lie about things to sell accessories. Don't worry about this, please!!

 

[LS20]

theyre cross over filters... and they should be built into any decent head unit (175$+)

 

[AvesPKS]

Originally posted by: Saulbadguy

Originally posted by: Vortex22
He said the deck put out a minimum of 26W and that my speakers were only 20W.
He showed me the things... they were from some place called installedge.com or something like that.

26W total watts..not per channel. I also highly doubt that your speakers are only rated @20w.

I seriously doubt that the aftermarket deck would only be putting out 6.5Wx4...that just doesn't sound right. It makes more sense that it would be putting out 26WRMSx4.

 

[Saulbadguy]

Originally posted by: AvesPKS

Originally posted by: Saulbadguy

Originally posted by: Vortex22
He said the deck put out a minimum of 26W and that my speakers were only 20W.
He showed me the things... they were from some place called installedge.com or something like that.

26W total watts..not per channel. I also highly doubt that your speakers are only rated @20w.

I seriously doubt that the aftermarket deck would only be putting out 6.5Wx4...that just doesn't sound right. It makes more sense that it would be putting out 26WRMSx4.

Just now thought of that, and it doesn't make any sense.

<--not thinking straight.

 

[Howard]

Totally wrong. Most head units only put about 15W RMS per channel anyway. Besides, bass blockers aren't worth $10.

 

[Vortex22]

So the consensus is that I don't need these things and my speakers will be ok?

 

[Saulbadguy]

Originally posted by: Vortex22
So the consensus is that I don't need these things and my speakers will be ok?

Don't buy them.

 

[Black88GTA]

Listening at normal volumes will not hurt your speakers at all. That guy either doesn't know what he's talking about, or is lying.

HOWEVER, if you tend to crank up the music really loud, and your HU doesn't have built in crossovers, you may pop your speakers. It's generally a good idea to put bass blockers on speakers 4" or smaller, but they aren't required. If you wanted to get them anyways, you can get them on Ebay for @10 a pair.

So, to answer your question, they are useful and do work. In fact, I blew 2 sets of 3.5" speakers in my Mustang before putting on a set of those, and haven't blown a pair since.

Get them if:
Your speakers are 4" or less
You listen to music loud
Your HU has no built in crossovers.

 

[Vortex22]

Anyone know if this has built in crossovers? I don't see anything about it in the description.
link

 

[OrganizedChaos]

Originally posted by: Vortex22
He said the deck put out a minimum of 26W and that my speakers were only 20W.
He showed me the things... they were from some place called installedge.com or something like that.

hes an idiot if you see him again kick him in the teeth

 

[Thegonagle]

Originally posted by: Vortex22

Originally posted by: Amorphus
did you ask him about just turning down the bass?

I asked him if the speakers would only be damaged at high volume and he said that the deck would always be stressing them at any volume.

That's not true. In fact, that's impossible. I think your friends at Best Buy have invented some new physics here.

 

[Ladies Man]

heh

i love people just saying don't buy them

I have them on 4 of my front speakers.... i have 6 speaker system...
2 3ish and 2 6ish speakers in the dash and door...

to prevent them from blowing from to much bass i put bass blockers on them...

now i have proper bass on my rear speakers that can handle it, and not on my front ones...

also works out well when you add subs and want to crank up the bass

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: Black88GTA It's generally a good idea to put bass blockers on speakers 4" or smaller, but they aren't required. If you wanted to get them anyways, you can get them on Ebay for @10 a pair.

So, to answer your question, they are useful and do work. In fact, I blew 2 sets of 3.5" speakers in my Mustang before putting on a set of those, and haven't blown a pair since.

Get them if:
Your speakers are 4" or less
You listen to music loud
Your HU has no built in crossovers.

Yep. I agree with this assesment. I put them in when I did a system that consisted of a pair of 3.5" and a pair of 5.25". Made it sound much nicer since the bass to the 5.25" could be kept "normal".

Tho, this $10 stuff is crap. Hell, most speaker instructions tell you what size capacitor to use based on what frequence you want your high pass cut to be. Caps are like $0.50 at an electronics store.

 

[LS20]

Originally posted by: Ladies Man
heh

i love people just saying don't buy them

I have them on 4 of my front speakers.... i have 6 speaker system...
2 3ish and 2 6ish speakers in the dash and door...

to prevent them from blowing from to much bass i put bass blockers on them...

now i have proper bass on my rear speakers that can handle it, and not on my front ones...

also works out well when you add subs and want to crank up the bass

it aint "proper bass" if its playing from your 6 inch dash/door mids

the reason i told him not to buy them, is because, more likely than not, his 170$ pioneer (5500mp, 460mp perhaps) would already have the cross-over filters built-in

 

[Compton]

I had to use them on my 4x6s.