Need some help with speakers

Hey, I need some help with my speakers. Just this past week i've noticed them start to crackle at higher volumes. Then just yesterday they completely cut out. I have reason to believe that the problem is on the deck side, not the connections to the speaker, but I don't know. I'm not too good with car audio. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas what it could be, to save me some time of figuring it out. Thanks in advance.

try pulling the wires off of one of the speakers, and connecting another one to the wiring to see if it's the speakers or the head unit

Thanks, i'll try that later today.

Originally posted by 90CorollaSR5
Hey, I need some help with my speakers. Just this past week i've noticed them start to crackle at higher volumes. Then just yesterday they completely cut out. I have reason to believe that the problem is on the deck side, not the connections to the speaker, but I don't know. I'm not too good with car audio. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas what it could be, to save me some time of figuring it out. Thanks in advance.

sounds very possible that you turned the volume higher than the speakers could handle, they usually only do exactly what you said when this happens, if you are not careful, you will blow out those speakers by doing this over and over again.

Solutions(assuming these are not subs)

A. Get a amp for those speakers that can handle your head unit

B. Get new speakers that can handle more power.

Hmm, I don't think it was from me playing them too loud, highest i'd goto was volume 34, and that was on a quiet song, I usually played at around volume 28. I'm not too good with car audio, but they are 135 watts peak, and 45 RMS I believe, they are JBL GTO525s. The sound quality at volume 30 was still pretty good, so wouldn't they have to be distorting pretty bad for them to be played to loud?

since they are jbls that shouldn't be a problem... do these come with tweeters if so, try turning down the bass, and see what level distortion stops, when you have tweeters, it is good to keep bass at -2, which is why you should buy components or seperates.

Ahh, ok. Yes they do have tweeters, so i'll try lowering the bass. Thanks

Originally posted by 90CorollaSR5
Hmm, I don't think it was from me playing them too loud, highest i'd goto was volume 34, and that was on a quiet song, I usually played at around volume 28. I'm not too good with car audio, but they are 135 watts peak, and 45 RMS I believe, they are JBL GTO525s. The sound quality at volume 30 was still pretty good, so wouldn't they have to be distorting pretty bad for them to be played to loud?

most head units (especially factory ones) go into clipping when the volume goes past half way

im having the exact same problem so instead of cluttering up the forum and opening up a new topic i thought id post in an old topic. :)

On all volume levels my highs are crackling.This has been happening off and on for a long time.Until a few days ago until it is now permanent.
My volume level normally doesnt go past 30 so its not like i was seriously cranking it. My bass level stays on 2 always.
I have a jvc head unit with jvc 12 disc in the trunk.I also have an 600 watt amp with 2 12" pioneers in a box in the trunk.
There are 2 unknown tweeters up front that came with my car with possibly stock 6x9s in the back and stock 6 1/2s in the doors.

Im just wondering is it maybe that the stock speakers cant handle the wattage my HU is puting out ?
(wich isnt much) 45x4.

From my experience with stock speakers, and most cars before 99, I would say it is highly likely you need new speakers, since 45 watts is more than a lot of the old cars could handle, 45 watts is the rms I would guess of the head unit, which means it can surge at higher levels. I would take the car into an audio shop and look at new speakers. or install some yourself. If you go to a shop though, they can tell you what is wrong. Most likely that your stock speakers are pieces of crap.

I don't know of ANY headunits that put out 45x4 rms. Most put out around 50x4 peak and around 27x4 rms. The top of the line Alpines and Pioneers don't even put out 30rms, not even close to 45. Chances are the speaker sucks or the wiring sucks. Somewhere in the system there's some suckage going on :D

I would recommed taking another speaker (maybe a friend's) and hooking it up to the speaker leads where you're having the problems. This will tell you if it's the speaker or the wiring/head unit. Another possiblity is that the head unit is taking a crap on you. The only way to really test this (that I know of) is to get a new one and see if it still does it :shrugs:

Just cause your head unit goes up to say, 50, and you only have it at 30, that doesnt mean you're only putting out half the possible volume. Especially with aftermarket audio, the head unit has no idea what the speaker capabilities are. It is a relative scale, not an absolute one. In other words, '50' may correspond to the highest your head unit can go to, but '30' may be the max for the speakers. So how do you decided where the limit is? Listen for distortion, if the sound begins to distort, whatever the volume setting, you have reaches the max volume of your speakers and need to back off. Now another interesting factor. Many people play CD's that they have burned themself. Many of these CD's have songs that are at very different volume levels from other songs on the disk, just due to the nature of the electronic MP3 file you used. Some songs may be soft, so you turn it up to '30', and then the next song may be significantly louder, and suddenly you've overloaded your speakers. So basically, ignore the numbers the head unit gives you. You have to listen with your ears to tell where the real limits on your system are.

most stock speakers (unless they are part of a premium package like a bose or infinty or something) are high efficiency speakers with relatively low power ratings. An aftermarket head unit that says 45W X 4, is typically around 20W RMS ... which is easily enough power to blow a set of factory speakers. And as stated before, the power is NOT linear - most of the power is being put out by the unit at like 1/2 to 2/3 of the volume. So if you're volume control is 1 - 50, by the time you hit 30-35, you are probably already putting out 18 of those 22 watts.