Car speakers, amplifiers performance in winter?
 

I don't know if this has been posted before but I'll ask just the same. I don't have an indoor garage at the moment and am in the process of getting all these components.

Will these freezing temperatures affect the performance of speakers and amplifiers? Do I need to warm up the car interior first before using them?

Thanks in advance.

Al

you need to warm up the speakers mainly by playing them low for about 10 mins then playing like normal, and as for subwoofers, you shouldn't run them at all if its under -25C cause the glue from the parts connecting the spider and the diaphram starts to crack up with the cold, hence the reason you play speakers low when cold, then you can push them like normal.

^^
thats right

and i always wait till the car warms up...i cant stand the shivers from the bumping sub

I appreciate all your answers. Thanks :)

The rule of thumb that was suggested to me was, by the time your deck has become warm, the rest of the system should be warm as well, but in extremely cold temps, I wouldn't play it very loud, because it just risks problems.

i was tempted to crank it yesterday within 30 secs of start up

i bumped it to vol 15 (bass level 5) and BAM! distortion.....usually i get distortion
past vol 23 (bass 9+)

so i just let is warm up for a good 10-15 mins and it was fine from there

what i do is every 2 minutes i turn it up 5 on the volume. worked fine for me over the last 3 years, and I ran hudge systems.

I eventually bought a remote starter/alarm and let the car warm up for about 8-10 minutes before even using it. I also have to remind the wifey to set the volume to the lowest whenever she goes home at night. :)