stereo problem, speakers cut out while sub and deck seem ok

turbohoje · Outlaw Joined: 14 Aug 2008 Posts: 117 City: thornton

this happend out of nowhere, but all of a sudden my 6x9's stopped working above a certain volume. at a point it would cut out for about 3 seconds and come back. the song may hit again and it would do the same thing.

the subs are driven off a separate amp, so when the 6x9's cut out, the subs did not.

to diagnose, i turned the gain up a little on the amp. at this point they would cut out sooner than before. i figured i had this narrowed down to the amp until i put a new amp in there and it is doing the same thing again.

my next thought is that its the deck. picking up a cheap headphone to rca cable i decided to run the amp off an ipod instead to test that the same thing doesnt happen.

well it still does, at a higher volume this time but it still cuts out. either amp doesnt show a fault on their power led when this happens.

my next thought is that it a power supply problem. my deck is powered off of two car batteries and 10 ft of 6 ga wire. i hooked a charger up to the batteries to top them off and give them 10A of extra just for testing... no change.

i have some kmt6's on the way and would like to have this problem worked out before i add something else to the mix.

the speakers are a little blown from moisture but not bad enough to replace yet. i didnt figure that would have anything to do with it.

any ideas? this seemed to happen out of nowhere, and now its like two amps have the same problem.

jonyb · Addict Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 844 City: Paducah

If the speakers are blown, it's a dead short to the amp. Unplug 1 speaker to see if it still does it. If it does, plug that one back, then unplug the other one. You can do this at the amp.

Another thing could be that a speaker wire is pinched or shorted somewhere.

turbohoje · Outlaw Joined: 14 Aug 2008 Posts: 117 City: thornton

i dont understand, how a blown speaker is a short or somehow it looses resistance.
by blown, in my description, i mean that they are dragging a little and make that scratching noise as they drag (from moisture).

i'll ohm out my wires and see if there is a pinch or something somewhere. i suppose the speakers are a fit thing to blame since i have tried two amps and two sources.

i'll give the disconnection thing a try. i should be able to go full-loud on the ipod and just have a whole bunch of distortion right?

if it does turn out to be the speakers, are there any 6x9's out there that fair weather better than pioneers? they are in a box so they should be relativly safe from moisture expect fro their face.

Skywalker022 · Outlaw Joined: 25 Mar 2009 Posts: 205 City: Tuscaloosa

I have had a sub amp shut down because I was playing the crap out of it and it over heated. I don't really know if this could be happening with 6X9s though, unless the amp is realy to small for them. Does it happen right out of the gate or do you have to be playing them for a good while before it happens?

turbohoje · Outlaw Joined: 14 Aug 2008 Posts: 117 City: thornton

it can happen right out of the gate, i would highly doubt an overheat unless i have a short and i'm pulliing WAY too much juice. even then, there is no fault displayed on the LED.

i suppose i'll try some speakers. thats the only thing that hasnt been switched out. sadly the holes are 6x9's (not my doing).

hopefully the jbl marine speaker is decent.

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if all this fails, then i guess i'll have to get an axis

brianinpdx · Newbie Joined: 24 Aug 2009 Posts: 3

Hey guys -

This to me sounds like a bad speaker. Sometimes when a speaker is going bad due to fatigue it can short in a way that leaves it open, or closed. Most people are used to seeing the closed speaker that feels crunchy.

I didnt catch how many pairs of 69's there are in the install. You could also try rotating a pair in and out and see if this problem goes away. I suspect you'll find a bad speaker somewhere.

Note: this is not the amplifiers fault. its seeing a bad load and trying to save its own life. ya know what i mean?

-Brian
Exile Audio

P hat in Cincy · Posted: Aug 25, 2009 5:55 pm Post subject:

turbohoje · Outlaw Joined: 14 Aug 2008 Posts: 117 City: thornton

so as it turns out, i think it was the speakers.

the current speakers + wires ohmed out correctly and also didnt show any signs of being warped by pressing on them with my fingers.

thanks anyway for the suggestions. i have some infinity marine speakers now. i swear any and every time i get something pioneer i say to myself "why am i doing this, last time they let me down huge". i had never had a speaker or a pair do this to me before.

the new speakers didnt behave the same after a quick test, so i think that must have been it. the wire would have been the only last piece that had not been switched out or accounted for.