This is about to be my 4th pair of speakers in this car cuz i jus blew one of my PCE 216 mb quart component woofers las nite. I have a JL 300/2 and have it set at like 35% gain max.....i have all my levels set up right and all. I just blast the music sometimes, but i do notice that the song that blew the speakers sounded kind of drowned out and distorted (muddy sounding). I think I need to be careful on making sure the song im listening to is a quality recording with the levels in the song sounding right. The song i was listening to had mad low levels and even tho my xovers are set right the speaker started smelling burnt and then stopped playing. I LOVE THE SOUND THESE Speakers make but i wonder if i should buy some more or get some focals either way i dont wanna spend more than $250-300 right now....(i can get new mb PCE's for $260 shipped online)......

 

Just a hunch, but if this is the 4th set of speakers you've blown, maybe you really <i>don't</i> have your "levels setup right and all". Speakers don't normally blow that easily, especially a quality speaker like mb Quart.

 

I have the high pass filter set at 90hz and the gain on the amp set at 30-35% along with my alpine 9835 with its filters set at the same high pass filter and all.

 

+1 You're probably driving your speakers into massive distortion.

The MT Quart PCE216 are rated at 130 watts and 4 ohms.

Your JL Audio 300/2 amp will deliver 150 watts into 4 ohms.

The extra 20 watts probably isn't going to hurt. Back in the day I drove a pair of 100 W speakers with a 150 W/channel Zapco. But driving a speaker into distortion is what kills them when the power rating is that close. I don't know if the JL Audio amplifiers have a clipping indicator but if it does have a look at it as you crank your amp up. I do know that they have a procedure to follow in where you disconnect the amp from the speaker and connect it to an AC meter (a combination or VOM meter). You put in a 0dB test tone from a special CD and adjust the gain until you hit the target voltage.

 

Like said above, you are killing your sub with to much distortion not to much power. You need to not turn it up to the point of distortion or you need to add more power. The reason for more power is not so it could be louder, but so that you can play the music at the level you want without distortion.

 

Do yourself and your speakers a favor and learn how to set the gain on your amp. This link shows you how to do it.
http://www.resnet.trinity.edu/areynol1/gain.htm