I installed Infinities all around back in October. The rear ones are coming in all messed up, they sound like rattling paper, The front door speakers sound like they are going out as well.

Did I blow the speakers by playing to loud? Is there a good way to check them.

I was thinking about taking them out and having Circuit city check them.

Anyone elese have the same problem?

Thanks for your help!

You could have blown them quite easily with the stock amp if played too loud. The factory amp isn't very good so playing it loud causes it to clip and clipping is what generally blows speakers. Any speaker can be ruined by a bad amp played too loud.

I already know I have blown my factory speakers, in particular passenger front and I don't go too far about 50% on the volume, about where bad amps will clip.

The easiest way to check your speakers is to take them out of the car and bench them. Hook them up to a home stereo. If you need to, get a small cardboard box and cut a 6" hole in it. Lay the speaker in the hole. The cardboard box will make an effective temporaty speaker box. You'll hear if they are blown.

I agree with Larry. 95% of the time speakers are blown because of too little power, not too much. If you overdrive the factory amp, which isn't tough, and you keep it up, you'll blow most any speaker. What happens is the overdriven amp puts out a ton of distortion, which tries to move the speaker driver both in and out at the same time. The speaker obviously can't do this and the voice coil gets hot and distorts, causing it to rub and the speaker to sound scratchy. In time it will melt completely and you'll get no sound from the speaker at all.

Are they the Reference Series?

The reason I ask (although spdrcr5 & outpost are most likely correct) is that many, many years ago when I was an S&I manager at Circuit City & the newer Reference Series came out, they had a problem with some kind of dye that they impregnated the cones with & they would more or less dry-rot (fall apart) in a matter of months. The cones would be shattered to hell. I'm pretty sure they fixed that though. You never know.

On a side note, Best Buy (as opposed to Circuit City) will start selling Infinity in April.

I didn't even take the risk. The first thing I did, before making my first car payment, change out the stereo, speakers, amp, etc..... Stock just doesn't cut it.