HLCD Guru Questions!!!!

[MK_Deuce]

I have my four 8" HLCD on a separate 2 channel 1000 watt kicker amp (should be plenty of power). Last night we rode for about 3.5 hours total. The amp never thermaled & didn’t seem overly hot too the touch. We were getting enough battery power due to the running boat. Every so often my speakers would let out an “air horn” noise during the music. I actually thought one of the fellow tubers was blowing an air horn at me but found it to be the speakers. I did find out I had a faulty speaker wire connection at the amp. Once I get the connection lined out I hope it clears this “horn” sound up. I’ve never heard of this can you provide any input as to why they would do this. I’m new to the HLCD technology. Thanks

P.S. I have my whole system (3 amps) on 3 different switches. So I turned my towers off & turned only the cabin speakers on they seemed fine so I dont think its the deck.

[seeajgo]

It's not going to a problem with the speakers. Probably a simple issue with a cable, wire, or other simple hardware but not the speaker

[Kevin Taylor]

sounds like the amp was just going into protection... if the loose wire touched another wire of the opposite polarity... that would be the effect..

good luck..

[MK_Deuce]

Rode last night for about 4 hours. It was the connection & RCA cables.

[kartman]

not to jack your thread, but im looking for some tower speakers and am wondering what hlcd speakers are, and how they are different.

[brichter14]

In order to understand why an HLCD offers a unique solution to the demands of projecting 80 feet to a wakeboarder you first have to understand the unique challenges.

There are multiple factors that affect the upper frequencies when projecting over a long-distance behind a wakeboard boat.

* The non-linear absorption rate of air, which is multiplied with distance
* Air turbulence caused by wind and chop.
* Masking caused by the engine exhaust plus close and long range sources of ambient noise. Masking is most prominent at coincidental frequencies.
* Diffraction of upper frequencies off the irregular surface of choppy water.

Again, all of these factors have a non-linear impact. Its impossible to predict the exact impact and how it varies over the audio bandwidth given that these conditions are different with each boat and on any given day. Technically, even humidity and air temperature can have an impact plus a large discrepancy between the air and water temperature can play a role, although temperature and humidity have a negligible effect in this context of much larger issues. So the best that a tower speaker manufacturer can do is approximate what the average listening distance and volume will be and what the average environmental conditions will be. You can't compensate for everything when the acoustical landscape is forever changing.

Another challenging factor is that sound loses about 6 dB of output as you double the distance. It takes four times the power to make up for a 6 dB loss. A speaker is likely to lose at least 25 dB over an 80 foot distance plus another 4 or 5 dB of high frequency absorption plus the losses due to noise masking and other environmental conditions.

For speaker manufacturers, this application is loaded with design conflicts.



taken from http://earmarkmarine.com/articles/HLCD_tower_speaker_anatomy.htm

[brichter14]

for your case kartman, who rides behind an I/O, you could get away with a high quality coaxial speaker like a 6.5".

I ride at 45-50 feet behind my boat (a sea ray I/O) and we use 4 alpine type-s speakers on the tower and i can hear the music great. but at 80 feet behind a v8, that would be a different story

here is a crude picture of the difference in sound projection

[kartman]

ok, that makes great sense. i am planning on purchasing 4 infinity kappa 6x9's for the tower. with each one on 150 watts rms, it should be fine.

[Kevin Taylor]

If you can swing the dough... get the wetsounds... make sure you have the power and that they'll fit.