Desperately Need Help (keep blowing speakers)

Landscape wire? Why would you use landscape wire?

Are the speakers or something else getting wet and causing a short? Are you cranking the volume way up? Keep in mind that it's a lot easier to blow speakers by underpowering them than overpowering them. You can blow speakers rated for 500 watts with a 50 watt amp if you overdrive the amp (cranking the volume level up such that the amp clips).

Its a safe bet that your Pioneer 516 doesn't really put out 100 watts channel. And if it did get to the 100 watt level it is most likely with a high amount of distortion which will kill your speakers. For a $199 receiver its probably decent but not real powerful.

If you can try a different receiver to see if it makes the difference.

What is your budget? If you can afford about $300/pair, you won't go wrong with Axioms new outdoor speakers. They will sound great and won't blow, guaranteed. I'm guessing your not wanting to spend a lot? They are very efficient. My guess is your turning your receiver up so far that it is clipping and blowing the voice coils on those cheap rock speakers.

http://www.axiomaudio.com/outdoor_speakers.html

...and here I thought this was going to be a punny thread about the "Joy of Politics."

Speaker wattage recommendations aren't worth the paper they're printed on. My speakers are rated 10-125 watts. I power them with a 350 watt per channel amplifier. Sirquack has the right idea. You need more efficient speakers because you are probably driving the amplifier into clipping while trying to get the volume you desire. That will blow speakers in a heartbeat. If your current speakers are, say, 87dB efficient (1 watt input to the speaker measured from one meter away produces 87dB then going to a 90dB efficient speaker will produce 90dB with the same power or the same 87dB with only half that. Efficiency, not wattage ratings, is the key.

Greg

Those are very nice, but I've always found speakers utilizing horn drivers to be much better outdoors. They also tend to be more efficient which helps with low wattage amps. Klipsch comes to mind.

Try different speakers. Who makes the rock speakers? Probably not a "real" speaker company. Get some real speakers appropriate for the task.

I'm going to go out on a limb here. You said you keep blowing the woofer, is their also a tweeter in the unit? If their is a tweeter & your burning up the woofer first I would suspect that you have the Bass turned way up & are smoking the driver that way.
I only ask because if there is a tweeter in the speaker & the receiver is clipping it would normally be the first to go. By the woofer blowing first it really sounds to me like your just asking for more than what the speaker can do & over driving it with a bit too much EQ.

BTW, as a couple others have suggested don't get all hung up on wattage of the speaker. You wont to look for something efficient. Something in the 90db 1watt 1 meter range & up is a good starting point for a good efficiency. The more efficient the speaker the better it will use the power available

Sensitivity is sensitivity. Efficiency is a slightly different concept, though the two things get confused, efficiency isn't particularly relevant, and sensitivity is almost always what people mean when they say efficiency w/regards to speakers.

First of all, the speaker wire is almost irrelevant, that has been debunked many times although companies like monster cable insist otherwise. They are just a marketing company with pretty packaging and monster mark ups for it. Your statement of 14 gauge is enough.

Secondly, as Doug Blackburn constantly points out; you cannot blow speakers, as most people view it. A common myth. While, in this case, there is the possibility of some shorting going on there are only two reasons speakers blow; clipping & distortion.

I remember reading a serious Eopinions piece where someone claimed you must never use 50W speakers with a 100W amp very funny. Tell that to most large commercial or theme park installations world wide.

Most amplifiers, produced by any manufacturer, today are over run on specs particularly output. It is well known that in independent tests we read about around the web, most amplifiers are at full output, ie. not producing any distortion or clipping, at half their volume tuning level.

Above that anything goes, it gets hairy with distortion or clipping produced being subject to everything from the efficiency of the power system (which might be true in your case) to the type of sound being played to the input device, cd/mp3 etc., that is translating the signal noise. The greatest amp in the world can suffer crap input devices or a poor power source.

You blew not one but two sets of outdoor speakers, its unlikely its the speakers. You need to talk to not only someone who knows speakers inside and out but also know amplification systems and related hardware.

I bought my outdoor speakers from a real speaker manufacturer (see above post) TIC Corp, www.ticcorp.com and in discussing accessories they recommended their partners Parts Express www.partsexpress.com who do everything to do with speakers and related technology. You can even ask to speak to their well known speaker designer Darren Kuzma. This guy has a great reputation. He might actually enjoy your unusual problem as an intellectual exercise.

Without actually seeing your installation and its specifics which is always hard, the advice can only be general but 99% of the time that's all it takes. See their website or give em a call, its an 800 number and you got nothing to lose.

GL!

So not to open a can of worms here, but I really must. Though I doubt this is the cause of the OP's problem you are really saying that you honestly believe that clipping the amp is the only way to "blow" a speaker.
In other words things like overheating the VC with too much input power wouldn't do it as long as no clipping is present? Or simply running the speaker beyond it mechanical limits would not cause it, again as long as the signal is un clipped?

Here's another thought that hasn't been brought up - maybe you have some DC in the line either from a defect in the amp, leakage into the wire from something outside, or whatever. You wouldn't hear anything nasty from the speaker since it's essentially 0 Hz, but over time the voice coil will heat up enough to fail. I cooked an Altec instrument speaker in a sub that way with a 60 watt amp - had no clue there was a problem until it just stopped working, only took about 20-30 minutes. Should be able to tell pretty quickly with a multimeter.