Ear bleed-inducing Treble ... Help :)

[absalom]

Vehicle: 2010 VW Jetta Sportwagen

Symptoms: Painful treble at mid-to-higher volumes. Muddy, unclear treble. Very little apparent midrange. Cold overall sound.

My build:

Boston Acoustics SR60 Components (Front & Rear)

Orion XTR2504 4 channel Amp - 50w @ 4ohms (x4)

JVC KWNT3HDT Navigation Headunit

Story:

I purchased the vehicle about a week ago. When purchased, there was an 8 each sub bridged on channels 3&4. The 4 speakers were spread out between the two remaining channels on the amp. At this stage, the sound was punchy but highly unpleasant due to the muddy, earpiercing treble.

I chalked it up to bad wiring and poor tuning. So I reset everything to "zero" or "flat" and removed the sub (temporarily) from the system. I then gave each door it's own channel on the amp. I also set the tweeter attenuation to max on each individual tweeter crossover.

With the sub removed, I've lost my low end, and still suffer from the same terrible high end notes. It's downright painful at mid-to-high volumes.

My Question:

Is there a setting I'm missing? Are the SR60 components just shoddy speakers? Which single piece of my system can I replace to remedy this problem?

Click to read more...

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Vehicle:Is there a setting I'm missing? Are the SR60 components just shoddy speakers? Which single piece of my system can I replace to remedy this problem?

where are the tweeters placed?

Have you used the EQ to lower the 5000 hz to 8000hz range yet?

if all else fails, you will need to go active crossovers using the amp's crossovers.

 

[absalom]

where are the tweeters placed? Have you used the EQ to lower the 5000 hz to 8000hz range yet?

if all else fails, you will need to go active crossovers using the amp's crossovers.

I've lowered the treble on the HU. So while the treble does get attenuated, I'm still left with a very muddy, harsh sound.

The tweeters are in the factory location; on the inside of where the mirror sits on each door.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

I've lowered the treble on the HU. So while the treble does get attenuated, I'm still left with a very muddy, harsh sound.
The tweeters are in the factory location; on the inside of where the mirror sits on each door.

Try to reverse the polarity for the tweeters by switching pos and negative, it might be a tweeter phasing issue.

Do you have a home theater receiver? If you can in anyway power the speakers through the home theater receiver, we can narrow it down to a speaker problem, or an amp/receiver problem. I know my old setup suffered from a bad head unit signal that gave the worse harsh SSS sound.

 

[absalom]

Try to reverse the polarity for the tweeters by switching pos and negative, it might be a tweeter phasing issue.
Do you have a home theater receiver? If you can in anyway power the speakers through the home theater receiver, we can narrow it down to a speaker problem, or an amp/receiver problem. I know my old setup suffered from a bad head unit signal that gave the worse harsh SSS sound.

I bought some $30 SSL 6.5 components from Fry's today. Swapped the BA's out ... massive difference. Beautiful notes from low to high. The BA's are going on ebay.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

I bought some $30 SSL 6.5 components from Fry's today. Swapped the BA's out ... massive difference. Beautiful notes from low to high. The BA's are going on ebay.

You are doing what? You must be trolling

 

[absalom]

You are doing what? You must be trolling

I wish I was, it would have saved me 4 hours of rewiring and reinstalling.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

I wish I was, it would have saved me 4 hours of rewiring and reinstalling.

Tweeter must have been blown or settings where jacked up. Those BAs where always very smooth. The SSLs are pure flee market. Right beside BOSS.

 

[absalom]

Everything was set to flat. Blown tweeters, didn't even think of that. While I was installing, I compared the midwoofer from each and the SSL's sounded better.

Unfortunately, during the install I picked up a sweet alternator whine so I got yet another project on a brand new car. /sigh

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Did you check the gain and grounds?

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Might have just been something seriously defective with his set or major abuse along with improper install by the old owner if a direct swap to a low end line of speakers is an improvement. w/e op's happy case closed.