Here's the story.

I thought I blew my stock speakers so I went out to purchase some brand new inifinity 6002si speakers that I just installed. They sound great but anything over 50% the bass suddenly just blows and is all distorted. It doesn't seem likely that it would be the new speakers. I also changed headunits and it still does the same thing at high volume.

Any suggestions?

Edit: read through some threads with other people having this problem but I have already tried 3 seperate sets of speakers and one is which I just bought brand new.

It basically crackles when I have lots of bass.


Modified by B2FiNiTY at 2:41 PM 2/16/2004

 

Oh, these are stock headunits. Stock ITR and stock s2000.

Can post a vid of what the distortion sounds like if needed.

It is not the cd either because the radio does the same thing.

If I turn down the bass it allows me to turn the music up higher but if I turn up the bass, it only gets worse.

 

Update:

I just changed the balance to the rear so that the rear speakers are the only ones on and when I turn it up high the tweeter in the front crackles like crazy.

If I change the balance to the front, it will sound totally clean with little crackle.

 

dood, get a good aftermarket headunit. and dont turn up the bass rediculously high. its better to tune down then to tune up. basically turn down the mid and the trebble if you want more bass. also if you dynamat your doors it would help with bass response a lot.

also, did you use a baffle of any kind..? or did you screw the speakers straight to the metal door..?

if you really want better sound get an amp and a sub.

-10k

 

Here's how I installed the speakers.

I am still using the stock basket and the speaker set came with metal brackets to screw onto my stock basket. I then screwed the speaker into the bracket and done.

All connections were done with oem harness plugs.

The bass is not turned up because it will crackle for sure. I just turned it -1 for now.

Good idea on turning down the trebble etc.

 

well..i dont know really what to tell you.. id say its most likely your head unit/amplifier ..or rather, lack of an amplifier and unclean signal at high volumes.

next to that, i wanna say it might be the way you installed it. almost all of the time i install speakers in doors i use wooden mdf baffles. mdf does not resonate as much as plastic and prodives a cleaner sound.

heres a IS300 that i did.





above was actually 2 peices of 1/2" mdf screwed together to make it a full inch for the magnet to clear the window.

heres 3/4" on and Nissan Xtera


i also used 3/4" on my integra.

-10k

 

Great job! Looks very clean.

Even with the speakers OUT of the door panels and just chilling there, they still crackle.

The odd thing is that even with a COMPLETELY STOCK audio setup, they cracked.

That is what led me to think that they were blown. Just bad luck I guess....Could the tweeters blow too?

 

Dude, you need an amplifier! There's not enough power going to the speaker.

 

Vinny..that table with the Arc amps on it sure looks like the one in Tuan's page! Or maybe you guys live together? lol.

 

Tuans actually one of my good friends..i was there when he took those pictures.

-10k

 

BACK FROM THE DEAD because i have the same problem, anyone know if it could be the wiring? its mostlikely not the speakers or the headunits... what could be wrong here?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tub_sephiroth &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Dude, you need an amplifier! There's not enough power going to the speaker.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Exactly. WE NEED MORE POWER!

 

Headunits, particularly OEM headunits, put out very little power. Maybe 11 watts per channel at best. If you crank up the bass and volume, you'll likely blow the speakers. You're asking too much of them with too little power, so they distort. Distortion blows speakers faster than overpowering them does.

There are a couple ways you could go.

You could get a four channel amp for your four speakers. You'll be able to crank them up louder without distorting them, but you still really wont get the low frequencies and good bass.

Another option is to get a subwoofer and amp to power it. Let the sub play all the bass, and bass only. Let the mids play mid to high range and no low frequencies. You get the full range of sound, you're not likely to get distortion since you're not asking your mids to play bass.

Here's an even better option. Get a decent deck that has 3 pre-outs. Get a good 4 channel amp that has both high and low pass. Get some component speakers. Get a subwoofer and a good box. Ditch your rear speakers. Install the components up front and high pass them. Bridge the two rear channels to a sub and low pass them. Actually pay a professional to do the total install. Now you can play it loud, get a full range of sound, and you're not likely to get any distortion.

 

4x75w RMS amp... 1x800w RMS amp... All Alpine Type-R speakers... Deafening. Damn I can't wait to get my Civic back on the road.

 

get a new headunit. Stock headunits aren't the **** lol. even if its new. trust me you will hear the difference.

 

i know but this wasn't a matter of sound quality, the speakers are crackeling at any volume and speakers and HU's have been changed because they were believed to be the reason, but after all the switch arounds the same problem occurs which leads me to believe its the whole wiring or crossover of the damn thing...

i think i need to get a whole new wiring harness and re-wire everything

 

well this is getting interesting now since you're saying it happens at all volumes so if it's still occurring at low volume this would rule out the issue of speaks being underpowered. I suppose I'd maybe try the following

1. Listen to some songs/human voice that only contain a frequency range easily played by most speakers and for this I'd pick an AM radio station and see what happens - same issues with the cracking when at a volume that a conversation with a passenger could also occur?


2. I suppose if it were me I'd want to try and verify the speaks are actually capable of reproducing sound w/o distortion. For the heck of it, I'd take those coaxials and hook them up to a home receiver - this will at least give you 100% confirmation they are capable of playing w/o distortion. Ya you'll of course have an impedance mismatch between amp and speaks when hooking these up to a receiver but as long as your careful with volume control you'll be just fine. Just remember in such a situation you'll be sending double the rated output per channel to the coaxials as opposed to hooking up the receiver to a pair of 8 ohm home speaks.

3. I'd also be interested in the change-of-sound that occurs (if any.....i'm going out on a limb here) prior to this cracking noise? Do things start to sound unnatural and distortion seems to build and build and then the 'crack' occurs? Or does the crack occur the minute the first note is reproduced by the speak yet the volume is set to fairly low and music being played is not bass-makanik type tracks? Where I'm getting at with these questions is seeing if there's signal/power-chain problems or if it's what's been mentioned above i.e. pushing head unit too far - if you start to see distortion build and build and then a 'pop' you've got issues with pushing the speaks too hard given what they're being powered with. If you hear poping/distortion immediately after powering up the HU and this has been reproduced with a variety of HU's then I'd maybe start looking into how things are wired.

Guess maybe one other thing......does this distortion/popping occur when engine is off as well as when you're driving?

I'll have to defer to others on this because I'm not actually sure what happens to sound if, for instance, a solid 12v isn't being sent to the head unit. I know something wouldn't be right or wouldn't be performing as well as it could be in this situation but could this be causing some of these problems.....not sure.


Modified by thekid03 at 7:58 PM 7/17/2008


Modified by thekid03 at 8:05 PM 7/17/2008

 

+1 for what thekid said, good info.

Depends how far you are willing to go, personally I ignored the stock wiring completely, I dont hold very high regard for stock wires, speakers, or headunit when it comes to audio. If you are not going to use amps, I'd still run at least 18 gauge speaker wire (see http://www.crutchfield.com/App...=2917 for reference) directly from the headunit to the speakers and then replace the speakers...

But to diagnose the speakers try just taking a speaker out and hooking it up to a known reliable source (a HT setup like thekid said sounds good) or even a friends car, if he has amps it makes it really easy just wire it up straight to the amp (watch the gains/volume).