Blown speaker with radio, not CD?

[c_hayhurst 10+ year member]

I have Infinity Reference 6012I 6.5" speakers in my door and rear dash which are powered by a 4x50W RMS amp and the speakers are rated to handle 60W RMS.

Recently, the speaker in the front passenger door sounds like it is blown when I play the radio at any level. I've played several stations through it: classical, talk radio, rock, and rap. The "blown" sound is always there. I've even tried it in different parts of the city.

BUT, when I play CD's or my Mp3 player through it, it sounds perfect. I even went so far s to put my ear right up to it, and it sounds perfect with CD's and Mp3's!

Any ideas on what is causing this, or what to do to fix it?

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[Gary S 10+ year member]

I have Infinity Reference 6012I 6.5" speakers in my door and rear dash which are powered by a 4x50W RMS amp and the speakers are rated to handle 60W RMS.
Recently, the speaker in the front passenger door sounds like it is blown when I play the radio at any level. I've played several stations through it: classical, talk radio, rock, and rap. The "blown" sound is always there. I've even tried it in different parts of the city.

BUT, when I play CD's or my Mp3 player through it, it sounds perfect. I even went so far s to put my ear right up to it, and it sounds perfect with CD's and Mp3's!

Any ideas on what is causing this, or what to do to fix it?

- It could be the head unit, but I doubt it... an easy way to check this would be to switch rca's on the amp channels, left to right channel input, etc. - if it still does it playing off the opposite channel, it's the speaker.

The reason you hear the distortion from the speaker on the radio is because that source has a lot more distortion than the CD/MP3. Time to replace the speaker.

 

[kross 10+ year member]

I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there. He says the speaker sounds "perfect" when playing CD's and mp3's. Doesn't sound like it's time to replace the speaker to me. I'd suspect the headunit first.

Also, definitely swap the left and right inputs to the amp, and see if the "blown" sound switches to the other side.

 

[Gary S 10+ year member]

I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there. He says the speaker sounds "perfect" when playing CD's and mp3's. Doesn't sound like it's time to replace the speaker to me. I'd suspect the headunit first.
Also, definitely swap the left and right inputs to the amp, and see if the "blown" sound switches to the other side.

- Kross... I blew a mid once on the way to an Iasca event... it sounded fine on a CD cranked, but garbled on the radio... car got top marks in soundstage and imaging... the judges don't listen to FM, or I would have been in trouble.

 

[kross 10+ year member]

Had no idea a blown speaker would sound good with CD's but not radio. Guess I learned something new. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/graduate.gif.d982460be9f153bb54e5d4cb744f6ae8.gif

 

[c_hayhurst 10+ year member]

It's official: the speaker is blown. it now distorts when playing CD's, Mp3's or the radiio.

That sucks, because it was rated to 60W RMS and 180W peak and it was running off a 50W RMS amp.

I bought it off Ebay in 4-07. Would this be covered under the manufacturer's warranty?

 

[HemiMazda]

Not likely to be covered under a factory warranty. Normally the factory will want to see a receipt showing that you purchased from an authorized dealer.

 

[tcguy85 10+ year member]

amp must have been clipping a lil bit.

 

[c_hayhurst 10+ year member]

amp must have been clipping a lil bit.

Probably. I had all the HU's outputs maxxed out (highs, mids, low, sub) and cranked the volume 65-75% over the course of a few months as a daily driver.

I've since dialed all my HU output settings to "0". The system isn't nearly as loud, but that just means I need a bigger amp to properly handle the output. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/present.gif.046205b11bb0957af93450bd4cc53e1b.gif