I’ve noticed lately that at certain frequencies and volumes my car audio seems to sound tinny or somewhat scratchy.
I have an 8″ subwoofer in a ported enclosure in the trunk, with 6×9 2-way speakers on the rear deck, and 5″ speakers in the doors. I think one of the 6x9s may be on its way out because the tinny sound seems to be coming from the rear but I can’t quite tell from which speakers.
Is there some kind of diagnostics CD out there that might be able to play a range of frequencies that would help me pinpoint a broken or failing speaker?
Car Audio Diagnostics Cd To Test For Failing Speakers?
Car Audio Diagnostics Cd To Test For Failing Speakers?
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I don’t think you really need it to diagnose this problem, but here’s a good diagnostic disc that is handy to have.
it sounds like one of two things:
either loose wiring in one of the speakers
or
a fried voice coil.
Either way, instead of buying a diag. cd, you should be able to adjust the sound from your radio to play on just the rear speakers. if you do it and only notice the ‘bad’ sound when driving over bumps or around corners or something, then it’s probably loose wiring. If you can access the speakers and gently push down on the cone, you should listen very closely for a soft scratchy sound coming from the speaker. if that’s the case, the voice coil has gone in that speaker and the speaker needs to be replaced
Sounds like a fried voice coil. You need to physically touch the outside rim of the speaker, gentley push is down and listen for a crunching or dragging sound. If you hear any such sound it’s a fried voice coil and that speaker need to be re-coned or replaced.
Sheffield Labs makes many good discs for diagnosing and tuning. They have many different frequency tones in one third octaves I believe (31 seperate frequencies) which is mainly used for tuning, but it will also suit your application.
You may also want to consider what may be causing your rear 6×9 to go bad. Your set-up with the sub in the enclosed trunk and 6×9 in the rear deck (free-air), may be cuasing the 6×9 voice coil to seperate from the cone. EX., Your sub is pushing air to make sound. That air pressure is pushing on the rear of your 6×9 cones at a different frequency than the 6×9. This is going to tear the cone from the voice coil. I would reccommend that you isolate the 6×9 by adding an acoustic baffle.
An accoustic baffle is nothing more than a way to “cover” the rear of the 6×9 and isolate it’s own airspace. There are companies that sell baffles for your 6×9 application, but you could also make one yourself. You could use a cardboard box , cool whip container, just about anything that will attatch to the rear of the 6×9 and seal it off of the subs airspace. Just make sure that you have about a 1/2 cubic foot of airspace for the 6×9. Like a 12x12x6 cardboard box. It would be best to purchase a baffel, but temporarily, you could use a box. As for your 6×9 being damaged, it is probably too late to save it.