clippping sound at high volume, cant stand it, i miss my quality even at high volume

[macantley]

at first i thought it was the factory tweeters in the doors clipping, so i added a 3.3UF capacitor to them to make sure there was not too much bass going to them, the caps didnt make a change.

i have a Sony mobile ES xm-3546 amp running my sound stage, the front doors consist of two infinity kappa 62.1i speakers, the same in the rear doors, and now the front door tweeters were replaced with old school Lanzar DCT neodynium tweeters.

anytime the volume is turned up above 70% of the headunits max volume i start hearing the crackle sound, its almost like the sound of a small voice coil bottoming out, its not near as thuddy as a subwoofer voice coil, its just a very annoying crackle, it happens worse if i do turn the bass up (i have three 12" woofers in a sealed box at 1CF of airspace each in my trunk. this is a new install and its using an american bass XD-1800 amp for the subwoofers. the ONLY thing i can think of is possible low voltage, right now there is only one battery, the main car battery, also the stock alternator. i have not done the big 3 to the car yet either. Im thinking that a second battery might solve the issue, but im not sure yet, I hate to add the weight if its not going to change anything.

any suggestions would be appreciated.

matthew

Click to read more...

 

[jrdnhsnbrg 10+ year member]

Turn down the gains and keep the volume down

 

[Loudmp5 10+ year member]

so many factors but maybe your hu starts clipping above 70% how did you set your gains?

 

[Loudmp5 10+ year member]

whats your hi pass x over set to?

 

[macantley]

high pass is set to 80HZ for the door speakers, I need to test the headunit to see what the voltage output is so i can properly set my gain, but the Sony amp is set at half gain for the rear doors, and about 60% for the front doors, the American bass amp is set at 50% gain, i would assume that isnt pushing it too far, right now im using the stock Bose headunit its a 2004 infiniti G35 with the bose 6 disk in dash unit, with the stock amp it never clipped even at max volume, but the factory amp had crappy sound, the stock headunit will be replaced as soon as i can afford it, but just the dash install kit is $200 for the 2004 G35 sedan, the Steering wheel controller is another $70, and the headunit i want is $350 (pioneer PRS-80) i had that headunit in the last car i had (sold it with the car) and loved it. I also need to get the multimeter out and actually test the voltage on the system when its loud, but i dont suspect that its below 12V, its at 14.1V at idle with the system turned off, the battery is approx. 4 months old.

im also using the stock low level outputs from the headunit that went into the factory amp.

 

[Side Show 10+ year member]

do you have an inline crossover between your amp and front splits (tweeters and mids) does it have a -3db on the tweeter, worth trying that. and retune your system

 

[macantley]

I put the 25V 3.3UF capacitor in line to the tweeter, it should cut the frequency to only 12,000HZ and above, the tweeter is rated at 1.3 KHZ - 24 KHZ so i should be fine. at 12 KHZ and above (ill probably change to a 6.3 UF cap soon so its around 6 KHZ and above that goes through.

the clipping sound appears to be coming from both the tweeter and the door speakers at the same volumes, so im thinking that the problem lies somewhere in the amp, or voltage. The only other amp i have to try in the car is an american bass 4 channel amp, its rated 40W RMS x 4, its a VERY old school amp i cant remember the model # on it.

matthew

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

How are you crossing the tweet over? If your using a passive crossover that's most def the wrong cap. You want a cap lower than where the stock crossover takes over so you don't mess with the frequency response of the system. However, that won't hurt tweeter or make it crackle.. Generally speaking, the crackling sound you hear on the tweet is the first major "turn me down" sign. It generally just means your overpowering it. Also are you using a LOC? A detailed description of the signal chain could be useful.

 

[Side Show 10+ year member]

has got to be something todo with the signal

 

[Babykinns 10+ year member]

at first i thought it was the factory tweeters in the doors clipping, so i added a 3.3UF capacitor to them to make sure there was not too much bass going to them, the caps didnt make a change.
i have a Sony mobile ES xm-3546 amp running my sound stage, the front doors consist of two infinity kappa 62.1i speakers, the same in the rear doors, and now the front door tweeters were replaced with old school Lanzar DCT neodynium tweeters.

anytime the volume is turned up above 70% of the headunits max volume i start hearing the crackle sound, its almost like the sound of a small voice coil bottoming out, its not near as thuddy as a subwoofer voice coil, its just a very annoying crackle, it happens worse if i do turn the bass up (i have three 12" woofers in a sealed box at 1CF of airspace each in my trunk. this is a new install and its using an american bass XD-1800 amp for the subwoofers. the ONLY thing i can think of is possible low voltage, right now there is only one battery, the main car battery, also the stock alternator. i have not done the big 3 to the car yet either. Im thinking that a second battery might solve the issue, but im not sure yet, I hate to add the weight if its not going to change anything.

any suggestions would be appreciated.

matthew

Test the voltage on your component amp while your subs are hitting. I'll almost guarentee 3 twelves is robbing power from the components when they're hitting hard causing your problem.