Tweeters making noise at high volumes during bass heavy music

[bobdehunt]

I have an old pair of Jenson speakers that I'm pretty sure were custom made by somebody. It's a three-way system. The x-over for the tweeter and mid it at 1500 hz and itit's relatively steep. I have the Dayton audio apa-150 amplifier. The problem only started after I changed amplfifiers and tweeters, but I don't believe that I've listened to these speakers quite as loud before replacing the tweeters and the amplifier due to the distortion my old amplifier brought at higher volumes. The x-overs look well built and are fairly large and complicated. Does anybody have any ideas as to what could cause this? Could it be the amplifier, or should I try to reproduce the old crossovers and get some better tweeters?

 

[TLS Guy]

I have an old pair of Jenson speakers that I'm pretty sure were custom made by somebody. It's a three-way system. The x-over for the tweeter and mid it at 1500 hz and itit's relatively steep. I have the Dayton audio apa-150 amplifier. The problem only started after I changed amplfifiers and tweeters, but I don't believe that I've listened to these speakers quite as loud before replacing the tweeters and the amplifier due to the distortion my old amplifier brought at higher volumes. The x-overs look well built and are fairly large and complicated. Does anybody have any ideas as to what could cause this? Could it be the amplifier, or should I try to reproduce the old crossovers and get some better tweeters?

Sounds like you changed the crossovers and tweeters. A very bad move. If you have the parts put them back. There are not many tweeters that can be crossed at 1.5KHz. Clearly you are driving the tweeters too low, and you will blow them. Since you don't state what you have then I have no idea how low your tweeters will go and what sort of slope they need.

To put it bluntly you have made an absolute hash of things and bad results would be guaranteed.

 

[bobdehunt]

Sounds like you changed the crossovers and tweeters. A very bad move. If you have the parts put them back. There are not many tweeters that can be crossed at 1.5KHz. Clearly you are driving the tweeters too low, and you will blow them. Since you don't state what you have then I have no idea how low your tweeters will go and what sort of slope they need.

To put it bluntly you have made an absolute hash of things and bad results would be guaranteed.

I haven't changed the crossovers. The crossovers are the originals, but i believe there may be a problem with them because when the bass is low and loud, the tweeters make noise with it. The highs aren't distorted when this happens

 

[TLS Guy]

I haven't changed the crossovers. The crossovers are the originals, but i believe there may be a problem with them because when the bass is low and loud, the tweeters make noise with it. The highs aren't distorted when this happens

So you need the old tweeters. I suspect you are trying to drive a tweeter with too high a Q below free air resonance. What were the old tweeters and what are the new?

 

[bobdehunt]

I don't know what the old tweeters were, but the new ones are dayton audio DSN25F-4. The low end stops at 2500 hz, but in my system they sounded just fine and way better than the old tweeters untill I crank the volume. I was looking for something really efficient. Should i look for different tweeters? Thanks.

 

[TLS Guy]

I don't know what the old tweeters were, but the new ones are dayton audio DSN25F-4. The low end stops at 2500 hz, but in my system they sounded just fine and way better than the old tweeters untill I crank the volume. I was looking for something really efficient. Should i look for different tweeters? Thanks.

The problem is that you think this is a simple problem it is not.

I have no idea of the construction of this speaker system and especially no idea of the crossover circuit or slopes.
Can you copy the crossover circuit and provide pictures?

The tweeter you sight is a cheap low powered tweeter. Its free air resonance Fs is right at your crossover point of 1500 Hz. The tweeter is very high Qts 1.42. So the way you are using it it is going to be set into violent resonance and destroy itself if you keep doing what you are doing. So this tweeter actually needs a pretty steep roll off at 3000 KHz and not 1500 Hz.

Since I have no details of your system I can not begin to recommend a tweeter for you, except to say that it needs an Fs below 700 Hz and the crossover needs to have pretty steep slopes, preferably fourth order, for a 1500 Hz crossover. If the slopes are not steep, then you are looking for a tweeter with Qts below 0.3 as well with high power handling. With the crossover where it is there is a lot of energy the tweeter has to cope with.

Under any circumstances you are looking at a far more expensive unit than the Daytons you have bought. If you need low Fs and low Q you are looking at an unusual and expensive item.

 

[bobdehunt]

The problem is that you think this is a simple problem it is not.

I have no idea of the construction of this speaker system and especially no idea of the crossover circuit or slopes.
Can you copy the crossover circuit and provide pictures?

The tweeter you sight is a cheap low powered tweeter. If free air resonance Fs is right at your crossover point of 1500 Hz. The tweeter is very high Qts 1.42. So the way you are using it it is going to be set into violent resonance and destroy itself if you keep doing what you are doing. So this tweeter actually needs a pretty steep roll off at 3000 KHz and not 1500 Hz.

Since I have no details of your system I can not begin to recommend a tweeter for you, except to say that it needs an Fs below 700 Hz and the crossover needs to have pretty steep slopes, preferably fourth order, for a 1500 Hz crossover. If the slopes are not steep, then you are looking for a tweeter with Qts below 0.3 as well with high power handling. With the crossover where it is there is a lot of energy the tweeter has to cope with.

Under any circumstances you are looking at a far more expensive unit than the Daytons you have bought. If you need low Fs and low Q you are looking at an unusual and expensive item.

Thank you, this is very helpfull. I will take photos of the crossovers.

 

[cesarmnzn]

Did you end up fixing the problem? I have the same problem with my right tweeter on a 3-way r series system (alpine) they sound great except when I turn up the bass on something like around 60hertz the tweeter makes a cracking sound, as if something inside was rattling, only when bass knob is turned

 

[j_garcia]

Did you end up fixing the problem? I have the same problem with my right tweeter on a 3-way r series system (alpine) they sound great except when I turn up the bass on something like around 60hertz the tweeter makes a cracking sound, as if something inside was rattling, only when bass knob is turned

Crackling sound is indicative of over driving the tweeter; aka driving the amp to clipping, usually meaning it has already been damaged. That "rattling inside" is the damaged coil rubbing inside.

 

[cesarmnzn]

Crackling sound is indicative of over driving the tweeter; aka driving the amp to clipping, usually meaning it has already been damaged. That "rattling inside" is the damaged coil rubbing inside.

I figured, but I swapped the tweeters around and still only the right side is still making the cracking noise. Don't know if the crossovers have anything to do with it.


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[j_garcia]

I figured, but I swapped the tweeters around and still only the right side is still making the cracking noise. Don't know if the crossovers have anything to do with it.


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That is exactly the test to do if it is only one. Since it remained on the one side, it could be an issue with the amp itself. I am not sure a bad x-over would cause that issue specifically. Does this setup have an external x-over or is it just a cap on the tweeter? Since it is Alpine, I presume it is in a car?

 

[TLS Guy]

Did you end up fixing the problem? I have the same problem with my right tweeter on a 3-way r series system (alpine) they sound great except when I turn up the bass on something like around 60hertz the tweeter makes a cracking sound, as if something inside was rattling, only when bass knob is turned

If the problem is 60 Hz it is not the tweeter.

As far as I can tell this is a car speaker kit. Is it in a car.

I suspect something mechanical is rattling in the car set off by the woofer. May be the woofer is blown.

 

[cesarmnzn]

That is exactly the test to do if it is only one. Since it remained on the one side, it could be an issue with the amp itself. I am not sure a bad x-over would cause that issue specifically. Does this setup have an external x-over or is it just a cap on the tweeter? Since it is Alpine, I presume it is in a car?

Yeah it has passive crossovers and yes in a car. I would have to see if changing the crossover would fix that then I believe


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[TLS Guy]

Yeah it has passive crossovers and yes in a car. I would have to see if changing the crossover would fix that then I believe


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This is not going to be the crossover or the tweeter. This is a car body problem or a blown woofer.

 

[cesarmnzn]

This is not going to be the crossover or the tweeter. This is a car body problem or a blown woofer.

Well I know it isn't blown by switching it to opposive side and it performed good, it's mostly a signal issue. But don't know if after the line output converter or after the amplifier


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[cesarmnzn]

Crackling sound is indicative of over driving the tweeter; aka driving the amp to clipping, usually meaning it has already been damaged. That "rattling inside" is the damaged coil rubbing inside.

Hey man, ended up finding the problem. It was a peeled cable that was making contact with something I guess? Rattling on tweeter stopped


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[j_garcia]

You eliminated the driver as the cause by swapping them, and good find! Pretty much an issue like that means process of elimination.