# Tweeters crackling. Help!



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

Hello everyone,
I’m getting a bit frustrated with my front tweeters crackling on bass notes at higher volumes. Hopefully someone can help me figure this out! Here we go..
I have a 2016 Jeep Wrangler with the stock 430 HU. I installed alpine SPS-610c 6.5 components in the rear and MTX Terminator65 components in the front. Both have inline crossovers. The speakers are being powered by a Pioneer GM-D1004 4 channel amp that powers 50 Watts RMS per channel. I used a LOC(PAC AOEM-CHR3) to tap into the factory speaker wiring to connect to the amp via RCAs. I have the output speaker wiring from the amp going back into the factoring wiring behind the HU. The amp does not have a gain knob, but the LOC does for each channel. I have to gain set low, and when I turn up the volume, I hear what sounds like distortion or crackling on just the front tweeters. The rear sounds fine, and at medium to low volumes the entire system sounds great. I’ve since replaced the MTX tweeters with Alpine SPS-110TW tweeters but it didn’t improve anything. I’ve checked all wiring and it looks fine. If I turn the gain down really low it goes away, but then my system lacks any bass. Any ideas how to get rid of this crackling? I also activated the high pass filter and it didn’t do anything. Help!!


----------



## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

Only two reasons

1) distortion. Could be over driving them, clipping

2) xover is too low.

How much power do you have for the tweeters?
You mentioned that turning the gain down removed bass. Are all the speakers on one amplifier?

Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


----------



## GEM592 (Jun 19, 2015)

Sometimes the bass amp speaker outputs can "crosstalk" with the high amp inputs. If your bass amp outputs are near your high amp input cables, this might be the issue.


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

minbari said:


> Only two reasons
> 
> 1) distortion. Could be over driving them, clipping
> 
> ...


Ok, Thanks. Each channel is getting 50 RMS. So I guess the tweeter is getting 22.5 and the woofer is also getting 22.5? And yes- all speakers are connected to the same 4 channel amp.


----------



## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

Clemson said:


> Ok, Thanks. Each channel is getting 50 RMS. So I guess the tweeter is getting 22.5 and the woofer is also getting 22.5? And yes- all speakers are connected to the same 4 channel amp.


That's not How it works. Each speaker gets 50 watts if you have a passive xover on it.
What freq is the tweeter set to?

Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

minbari said:


> That's not How it works. Each speaker gets 50 watts if you have a passive xover on it.
> What freq is the tweeter set to?
> 
> Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


Ok. The tweeters have the built in crossover. I can’t adjust it. According to Alline the in-line crossover “provides a 12 dB/Octave slope”


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

GEM592 said:


> Sometimes the bass amp speaker outputs can "crosstalk" with the high amp inputs. If your bass amp outputs are near your high amp input cables, this might be the issue.


Ok thanks. I’ll check this out tomorrow.


----------



## ckirocz28 (Nov 29, 2017)

OP: You said "each set of speakers has an inline crossover", that would be called a passive crossover. I'm not picking on you, just clarifying for others.
You also said you ran your amplifier output back into the factory wiring, you should NEVER EVER TRUST THE FACTORY WIRING. Run your own speaker wire, it's not that hard or expensive. They do downright stupid crap in the factory wiring harness.
I doubt anyone could positively determine what your problem is without dedicated speaker wire, but here's my two guesses:
1) There's something downright stupid in your factory speaker wiring.
2) You're clipping the amp, turn it down.
I lean toward #1. 50 watts rms should get pretty loud before any craziness blasts its way through a passive crossover to the tweeter.

Sent from my SM-G935U using Tapatalk


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

ckirocz28 said:


> OP: You said "each set of speakers has an inline crossover", that would be called a passive crossover. I'm not picking on you, just clarifying for others.
> You also said you ran your amplifier output back into the factory wiring, you should NEVER EVER TRUST THE FACTORY WIRING. Run your own speaker wire, it's not that hard or expensive. They do downright stupid crap in the factory wiring harness.
> I doubt anyone could positively determine what your problem is without dedicated speaker wire, but here's my two guesses:
> 1) There's something downright stupid in your factory speaker wiring.
> ...


Thanks for clarifying the crossover verbiage- I’m still learning. I’m going to wire one set of components directly from the amp tomorrow. We will see if that does the trick. Thanks for the suggestion!


----------



## Hillbilly SQ (Jan 26, 2007)

ckirocz28 said:


> OP: You said "each set of speakers has an inline crossover", that would be called a passive crossover. I'm not picking on you, just clarifying for others.
> You also said you ran your amplifier output back into the factory wiring, you should NEVER EVER TRUST THE FACTORY WIRING. Run your own speaker wire, it's not that hard or expensive. They do downright stupid crap in the factory wiring harness.
> I doubt anyone could positively determine what your problem is without dedicated speaker wire, but here's my two guesses:
> 1) There's something downright stupid in your factory speaker wiring.
> ...


As long as the factory speaker wires are 18g (they are in my Grand Cherokee and I tapped into them for the JL Fix82 I had and now just tapped in for rearfill without issue) he should be fine. I realize they do some crazy stuff with wiring bundles from the factory but it's highly unlikely it's the op's problem. He can run 50rms of music (NOT FULL DUTY) all day every day through them even in a tight bundle without issue. My guess is the inline passive crossovers aren't providing enough protection at higher volume OR the amp is clipping.


----------



## ckirocz28 (Nov 29, 2017)

Hillbilly SQ said:


> As long as the factory speaker wires are 18g (they are in my Grand Cherokee and I tapped into them without issue) he should be fine. I realize they do some crazy stuff with wiring bundles from the factory but it's highly unlikely it's the op's problem. He can run 50rms of music (NOT FULL DUTY) all day every day through them even in a tight bundle without issue. My guess is the inline passive crossovers aren't providing enough protection at higher volume OR the amp is clipping.


The craziness in factory wiring that I speak of is not the closeness of wires in the bundle, it's the things that they think are okay to run through the same conductor, different colors on each end of the same wire, etc.
The bundling and size of the conductor is certainly not an issue, but I guarantee there is something really stupid going on in there. My question is "Is that the problem, or is it something else?".
I have traced enough factory wires to determine that cars should not work correctly with the wiring in them, but they do.

Sent from my SM-G935U using Tapatalk


----------



## OneGun (Jun 15, 2018)

I agree, and can personally attest to tapping into factory wiring being totally fine, but in a case like the OP's where he's troubleshooting a possibly difficult issue, I'd want to run all my own quality 16 gauge OFC to each driver in the system. 

This way, all possible speaker wire issues are taken out of the equation as a possible cause of the problem. So it's a diagnostic step as well as a quality upgrade. And as has been stated, it isn't as difficult as you think, it just takes time to pop some panels off, maybe remove the seats (usually just 4 bolts and a few connectors), then fish some wire under the carpet/sill plates/etc. 

If after new wire is ran, the issue persists, my guess would be that whatever is the root cause will be easier to identify and repair/replace as finding a wiring issue, especially one that's potentially part of a factory harness/connector bundle can be very challenging, even for an experienced technician. 

But I must confess, I'm OCD about wiring and often go too far ensuring everything is quality material, routed correctly, wrap wiring in loom, heat shrink, etc., so my advice is colored by my own compulsiveness.

Just my .02.


----------



## Holmz (Jul 12, 2017)

Clemson said:


> Ok, Thanks. Each channel is getting 50 RMS. So I guess the tweeter is getting 22.5 and the woofer is also getting 22.5? And yes- all speakers are connected to the same 4 channel amp.


The input to the passive sees 0-50W depending on the volume.
The woofer gets the lion's share, and the tweeter typically on,y needs ~15% for typical music.

In reality the amp is supplying a voltage, and the woofer freqs gobble up the majority.
Then the tweeter signal ride on top of the woofer's low frequency and that is when clipping happens.


----------



## SPLEclipse (Aug 17, 2012)

It's clipping or an inadequate/malfunctioning crossover network on the tweeters.

You said this happens on just the MTX set correct? You replaced the MTX tweeters with the Alpine tweeters and the same thing happened? Did it happen right away when you swapped the tweets or did it take some time for them to start distorting? I can't find much info on the MTX set, but from what I can gather they have a simple passive inline with the tweeter and nothing on the mid. If that's the case it might not provide an appropriate slope/frequency to adequately protect them at higher volumes or on particularly dynamic peaks. It might be that there was a batch of bad capacitors (which provide a high pass filter) that have failed due to heat or something.

If the crossovers are to blame it's entirely possible that both sets of tweeters are now blown, especially if you noticed things were fine at first and progressively got worse with only a little bit of volume making them distort.

So you still have the complete set of Alpines in the back or did you use the tweeters from the Alpines in the front? You didn't say if you bought a new set or just swapped them over. You might try swapping the passive filters and tweeters from the Alpines to the front and see if the problem resolves. If so you know it's bad passive crossovers on the MTX. If you don't have any tweeters left that you know for sure are still good you'll need to buy some new ones. It might require a bit of swapping things around the narrow down what is good and what is bad.

There's one more thing I can think of, and that's the front mids. When mids blow, you can get bad crackling sound as you describe from them, and you wouldn't be the first person to mistake that sound as coming from the tweeters instead. I know this probably isnt' the case, but it's something to double check.


----------



## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

Holmz said:


> The input to the passive sees 0-50W depending on the volume.
> The woofer gets the lion's share, and the tweeter typically on,y needs ~15% for typical music.
> 
> In reality the amp is supplying a voltage, and the woofer freqs gobble up the majority.
> Then the tweeter signal ride on top of the woofer's low frequency and that is when clipping happens.


Unless they have the tweeter padded down. That is not how it works. They both get the same voltage, same wattage

Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

SPLEclipse said:


> It's clipping or an inadequate/malfunctioning crossover network on the tweeters.
> 
> You said this happens on just the MTX set correct? You replaced the MTX tweeters with the Alpine tweeters and the same thing happened? Did it happen right away when you swapped the tweets or did it take some time for them to start distorting? I can't find much info on the MTX set, but from what I can gather they have a simple passive inline with the tweeter and nothing on the mid. If that's the case it might not provide an appropriate slope/frequency to adequately protect them at higher volumes or on particularly dynamic peaks. It might be that there was a batch of bad capacitors (which provide a high pass filter) that have failed due to heat or something.
> 
> ...


The distortion was present from the start. I bought new alpine tweeters(did not move them from the back) to replace the MTX tweeters and right from the start I heard the same distortion/crackling on bass notes. It definitely the tweeters. When I disconnect them the noise goes away. I’m going to wire directly from the amp today and see if that solves anything. Thanks for your help


----------



## gijoe (Mar 25, 2008)

ckirocz28 said:


> I have traced enough factory wires to determine that cars should not work correctly with the wiring in them, but they do.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G935U using Tapatalk


I think it's more likely that you didn't do the best job in tracing the wires. You'll never convince me that the millions of cars on the road shouldn't work because the wiring is wrong, haha. 

Factory wiring is almost always perfectly fine, and is in a lot of ways better than running your own wiring. The factory will do a better job running the wiring safely without getting damaged, whereas the average DIY installer won't have easy access to where the wire should be ran. 

Also, there isn't really anything that a wire could be doing to cause distortion. OP, I can say with almost certainty that your OEM wires aren't the problem.


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

One more thing- when I activate the amps high pass filter, it doesn’t completely solve the problem, but it gets noticeably better. Another thing I noticed is when I turn the volume knob up and down at loud volumes, it seems to cause the same clipping sound in the tweeter.


----------



## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

Clemson said:


> One more thing- when I activate the amps high pass filter, it doesn’t completely solve the problem, but it gets noticeably better. Another thing I noticed is when I turn the volume knob up and down at loud volumes, it seems to cause the same clipping sound in the tweeter.


What freq does the HPF effect? Unless it is 5khz (which would cut the misbass off entirely) it wouldn't have any effect

Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


----------



## 04quadcab (Dec 31, 2017)

Clemson said:


> The amp does not have a gain knob


What? That's odd so I googled it. This is one of those small power bricks that are intend to hide under the dash. I am not sure exactly what Pioneer was trying to accomplish by leaving off the gain control.

Anyway, I have a ton of questions and a few suggestions.

1) Why are you using a line output converter? Apparently that amp can accept speaker-level inputs.

2) Is this your only amp in the system? Someone above commented that you may have cross-talk between the inputs/outputs of this amp and a bass amp.

3) Where is the amp mounted?

My hypothesis is that you have the gain on the line output converter to high and/or the passive crossovers have failed. You can verify that it is not the wiring by uninstalling the speakers (and the crossovers) and then hooking them up directly to the amp. If the problem goes away then the problem is between the speaker and the amp. I would also consider disconnecting the line output converter and using speaker-level inputs to see if that resolves the issue.


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

minbari said:


> What freq does the HPF effect? Unless it is 5khz (which would cut the misbass off entirely) it wouldn't have any effect
> 
> Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


The high pass crossover frequency on the amp is 80 Hz.


----------



## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

Clemson said:


> The high pass crossover frequency on the amp is 80 Hz.


That will less than zero effect on the tweeter. It will, however, help the midbass. I would leave it on.

Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

04quadcab said:


> What? That's odd so I googled it. This is one of those small power bricks that are intend to hide under the dash. I am not sure exactly what Pioneer was trying to accomplish by leaving off the gain control.
> 
> Anyway, I have a ton of questions and a few suggestions.
> 
> ...


1- using the LOC so I have gain control. Also it’s an adapter specifically made for my vehicle. I don’t have to cut into any of the factory wiring- just the LOC wiring. So if I sel the car I take take the amp out and leave the factory wiring untouched. 
2-yes this is the only amp. 
3- the amp is mounted on the driver side kick panel area.


----------



## OneGun (Jun 15, 2018)

gijoe said:


> I think it's more likely that you didn't do the best job in tracing the wires. You'll never convince me that the millions of cars on the road shouldn't work because the wiring is wrong, haha.
> 
> Factory wiring is almost always perfectly fine, and is in a lot of ways better than running your own wiring. The factory will do a better job running the wiring safely without getting damaged, whereas the average DIY installer won't have easy access to where the wire should be ran.
> 
> Also, there isn't really anything that a wire could be doing to cause distortion. OP, I can say with almost certainty that your OEM wires aren't the problem.



You'd be surprised how many wiring problems occur in cars, even modern vehicles. You can engineer and design wiring all you want but at the end of the day, there are often human beings/factory workers installing them. Even in modern vehicles, there are several wiring issues that occur on thousands of vehicles. 

How do I know? I've worked for auto OEMs for the last 15 years. Many, many problems are due to wiring/connection issues. 

With regard to "crackling noises", I can assure you that a loose connection can cause this. Albeit, this is more likely to occur at a connector and could be just a loose connector or, even more difficult sometimes to locate, a bent or loose pin/terminal. 

In fact, I just had this problem in both of my front doors on my Honda CRV. I bought the vehicle used in March and replaced both door speakers with RF Punch. Shortly after, I began to notice that the passenger side wasn't playing intermittently... it could come and go. So I swapped speakers from right to left and vice versa to see if it was the speaker. 

The issue stopped altogether for a while until a couple weeks ago when I began doing sound treatment on that door and had the speaker out again. Luckily, I still had the door panel off when I noticed the issue. As soon as I put my hand on the connector, the speaker would cut in and out. So I cut the OEM connector off and replaced it with heat shrink butt connectors. 

Then literally the next day, it happened on the drivers door (I did the Noico on that door the next evening). Same exact connector, so i did the same fix there. 

Not saying the OP's issue is wiring, but just want to make the point that factory wiring is definitely not perfect and that a connection issue can definitely cause abnormal noise(s).


----------



## Pb82 Ronin (Jun 6, 2018)

Crappy thing OP, you may have already smoked the new tweeters. It only takes a second or two of incorrect frequencies to kill them. Pics of amps, wiring, and speakers would help this thread greatly.


----------



## gumbeelee (Jan 3, 2011)

Hillbilly SQ said:


> As long as the factory speaker wires are 18g (they are in my Grand Cherokee and I tapped into them for the JL Fix82 I had and now just tapped in for rearfill without issue) he should be fine. I realize they do some crazy stuff with wiring bundles from the factory but it's highly unlikely it's the op's problem. He can run 50rms of music (NOT FULL DUTY) all day every day through them even in a tight bundle without issue. My guess is the inline passive crossovers aren't providing enough protection at higher volume OR the amp is clipping.




I completely agree witht this


Sent from my iPhone X using Tapatalk


----------



## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

^^^^ x2

Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


----------



## ckirocz28 (Nov 29, 2017)

gijoe said:


> I think it's more likely that you didn't do the best job in tracing the wires. You'll never convince me that the millions of cars on the road shouldn't work because the wiring is wrong, haha.
> 
> Factory wiring is almost always perfectly fine, and is in a lot of ways better than running your own wiring. The factory will do a better job running the wiring safely without getting damaged, whereas the average DIY installer won't have easy access to where the wire should be ran.
> 
> Also, there isn't really anything that a wire could be doing to cause distortion. OP, I can say with almost certainty that your OEM wires aren't the problem.


Tear a few wiring harnesses out and you'll know what I'm talking about. Until then, try to comment on the issue at hand, the OP's problem.

Sent from my SM-G935U using Tapatalk


----------



## Holmz (Jul 12, 2017)

minbari said:


> Unless they have the tweeter padded down. That is not how it works. They both get the same voltage, same wattage


What is the output side's power consumption of a capacitor when it is presented with DC?

If the OP I running a passive cross over, and it is doing something... then the output of the passive will be different for the highs and lows.

If they were identical, then there would be no purpose for the passive cross over... and why run it?


----------



## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

Holmz said:


> What is the output side's power consumption of a capacitor when it is presented with DC?
> 
> If the OP I running a passive cross over, and it is doing something... then the output of the passive will be different for the highs and lows.
> 
> If they were identical, then there would be no purpose for the passive cross over... and why run it?


A capacitor power consumption in dc or ac is zero! Always has been. If it is consuming power the cap is shorted.

If there is DC on his speaker outputs his amplifier is broken, end of story.

A cap on ac works because impedance rises below the f3 point. Causing the voltage past the cap to be lower.

Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


----------



## Holmz (Jul 12, 2017)

minbari said:


> A capacitor power consumption in dc or ac is zero! Always has been. If it is consuming power the cap is shorted.
> 
> If there is DC on his speaker outputs his amplifier is broken, end of story.
> 
> A cap on ac works because impedance rises below the f3 point. Causing the voltage past the cap to be lower.


Yep... Exactly.

The idea that a passive cross over outputs 22-1.2 watts to the tweeter, and another 22-1/2 watts to the woofer... is not reality.

If one swept an increasing tone then 50W would go to the woofer, and somewhere in the cross over region the tweeter would start getting more than zero... Then in the middle 22-1/2 and eventually all the power would be at the tweeter and none to the woofer.

If the volume was low during the sweep, then it would be 1 Watt at the woofer and eventually 1 watt headed to the tweeter.

Real music might be 1 W RMS, and still slipping occasionally.


----------



## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

Holmz said:


> Yep... Exactly.
> 
> The idea that a passive cross over outputs 22-1.2 watts to the tweeter, and another 22-1/2 watts to the woofer... is not reality.
> 
> ...


Ok, then what the Hell were you talking about before?

Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


----------



## Mlarson67 (Jan 9, 2015)

Quick question did you make sure the assive crossover was wired correctly amplifier in and tweeter out? It makes a difference meaning it will distort with volume exactly as you describe


----------



## Hanatsu (Nov 9, 2010)

Crackling speakers can be damage to the driver itself (touching the magnet gap) or faulty wiring/amp, could also be overpowering or too low set/too shallow highpass filter (again related to overpowering). If it's a supplied passive, they tend to be 1st order crap filters if it's a cheap system. They are not optimized at all for high power handling and can send frequencies right through the driver's Fs if you play high enough.

You can overpower the driver mechanically without reaching the thermal power rating with incorrectly set crossovers easily when it comes to small tweeters with non-existent X-max. Amp clipping is possible but unlikely to cause the typical crackling noise.


----------



## Holmz (Jul 12, 2017)

minbari said:


> Ok, then what the Hell were you talking about before?


These two following posts... (Which both seem wrong to my thinking)



minbari said:


> *That's not How it works. Each speaker gets 50 watts if you have a passive xover on it.*
> What freq is the tweeter set to?





minbari said:


> *Unless they have the tweeter padded down. That is not how it works. They both get the same voltage, same wattage*



Now the idea that when the the OP clicks the HPF, and it makes the badness reduce... then that points to your earlier conjecture that it could be clipping.
That is a conjecture that I do concur with as being likely or probable.

If the speakers in question are playing higher freqs only... then some 80, 100, 120+ high pass filter between the HU and the amp would also aid in further reducing the clipping.
_This is because the lower frequencies take up the lion's share of the voltage excursion... then the higher frequencies ridding on top start hitting the rails.
Removing the low frequencies give headroom needed to avoid clipping._

Of course some proof that it IS clipping would be good. Like an oscilloscope measurement..
However the anecdotal evidence seems to point us to either clipping, overdriving the speakers, or sending too low of frequencies.

Ideally the OP figures out a strategy for determining which one(s) if the mechanisms is at play. The optimal way is using an oscilloscope.

The method used by many is to rip it all out and start over... which doesn't make use of a scientific method to work out the cause and effect.

As the effect is being caused by something, and the OP has shown some repeatability and discovered clues as to ways to reduce the effect... He has shown he has gone a fare ways down the path using some good methods to correlate the effect with some likely causes.

Since the speakers can sound good at lower volumes, and changing the HPF setting makes them better, it appears that it is likely the signal going into the amp. However Hanatsu, MLarson,, and others, have pointed out the passive cross over as being another area where gremlins can lurk.

Taking it to a shop that has an oscilloscope could allow for the input signal going into the amp to checked for clipping, as well as the passive-cross over's outputs to be looked at for frequency ranges, etc.

If the output of the passive is deemed as being good, then the speakers (and wires) are the only 'thing' that follows the passive cross-over.

There may be other strategies, but they may not yield knowledge to be obtained as readily.


----------



## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

Yes and in thier pass bands, they both get the same wattage. Obviously below the pass band the tweeter will get less voltage and hence the wattage will be less. But the passive does not split the wattage between them

Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


----------



## Holmz (Jul 12, 2017)

minbari said:


> Yes and in thier pass bands, they both get the same wattage. Obviously below the pass band the tweeter will get less voltage and hence the wattage will be less. But the passive does not split the wattage between them


I suppose semantics come into play as we are not playing tones very often.

In typical music, the passive does split wattage as the power spectral density is sloped downwards to the right.

It is seeming like we are back in the same page - with your pass band mention... (in which case they both get exactly 1/2 the total wattage.

But neither the tweeter, nor the woofer, usually gets the full 50W.
There's is only 50 W, and maybe less I feel the battery is bad.
So the woofers gets more than the tweeter unless the OP is listening to dog whistles or bat sounds, or flute and piccolo tracks.


----------



## qwank (Aug 4, 2013)

I've had the speaker wires come loose at an amp and cause the tweeters to crackle. Make sure all your connections are tight.


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

OP here.. Thanks everyone for your comments and advice! Great to see so many good people out there willing to help a stranger. 
I did some more trouble shooting and unfortunately still have not located the root cause of the crackling tweeters. I bought a new set of passive crossovers from Amazon (CRX-203). I hooked up the crossover WITHOUT messing with the wiring behind the HU. The tweeter crackling on bass notes was still present. I then pulled out the HU and ran the wiring directly from the amp to the crossover and then to the speakers. Still hearing crackling/static on bass notes. I then hooked up a brand new alpine tweeter.. and still hearing the crackling. This leads me to believe it has nothing to do with the wiring or the passive crossovers. I guess it could be clipping- but I'm really not pushing the speakers very hard when I start to hear the noise. And it is still strange it only occurs in the front 2 tweeters. I may take Holmz's advice and take it to a shop that has an oscilloscope. Stumped!


----------



## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

Clemson said:


> OP here.. Thanks everyone for your comments and advice! Great to see so many good people out there willing to help a stranger.
> I did some more trouble shooting and unfortunately still have not located the root cause of the crackling tweeters. I bought a new set of passive crossovers from Amazon (CRX-203). I hooked up the crossover WITHOUT messing with the wiring behind the HU. The tweeter crackling on bass notes was still present. I then pulled out the HU and ran the wiring directly from the amp to the crossover and then to the speakers. Still hearing crackling/static on bass notes. I then hooked up a brand new alpine tweeter.. and still hearing the crackling. This leads me to believe it has nothing to do with the wiring or the passive crossovers. I guess it could be clipping- but I'm really not pushing the speakers very hard when I start to hear the noise. And it is still strange it only occurs in the front 2 tweeters. I may take Holmz's advice and take it to a shop that has an oscilloscope. Stumped!


What freq/slope are you crossing them?

Only time I have seen this was when the cross was to low or shallow.

Have you tried a different source into the amplifier?

Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


----------



## Hanatsu (Nov 9, 2010)

Faulty amp then?


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

minbari said:


> What freq/slope are you crossing them?
> 
> Only time I have seen this was when the cross was to low or shallow.
> 
> ...


Here are the specs from the crossover. I don’t think it’s adjustable. 
Gold Plated Screw Terminals
150 Watts RMS/300 Watts Peak
Tweeter Frequency: 3.39~20kHz
Woofer Frequency: 20~4.3kHz
High Grade Polymer Capacitors


----------



## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

Clemson said:


> Here are the specs from the crossover. I don’t think it’s adjustable.
> Gold Plated Screw Terminals
> 150 Watts RMS/300 Watts Peak
> Tweeter Frequency: 3.39~20kHz
> ...


Ok, what do the tweeters need? Is 3.4khz high enough?

Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

minbari said:


> Ok, what do the tweeters need? Is 3.4khz high enough?
> 
> Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


Not sure... here are the tweeter specs. 
Minimum Frequency Response
1000 hertz
Maximum Frequency Response
22 kilohertz
Impedance
4 ohms
Sensitivity 88 decibels

Also- another very interesting thing I noticed- when I turn on the amps low pass filter and crank up the volume, the tweeter STILL makes the crackling noise. Shouldn’t the passive crossover for the tweeter block all of the notes when the LPF is activated?


----------



## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

Look, just throwing parts at the problem and hoping for the best is not usually very successful.

And yes, depending on the lpf freq and how much "cranked up' means. It will bleedover.

Find out what freq those tweeters need. And set it up correctly. Then set the gains so that you are not paying past clipping. 

Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

minbari said:


> Look, just throwing parts at the problem and hoping for the best is not usually very successful.
> 
> And yes, depending on the lpf freq and how much "cranked up' means. It will bleedover.
> 
> ...


How do I determine the frequency the tweeters need? I checked the manual an didn't see anything.


----------



## SPLEclipse (Aug 17, 2012)

Virtually every tweeter will be able to handle 3khz and up with a 12dB slope. I searched for the crossovers you are using and it looks like they are second order with a padding resistor inline so I don't think the crossover is the problem. Given that the tweeters are new, crossovers are new, and speaker wire is new I don't know what's causing it. It has to be the amp or the source unit.


----------



## Hanatsu (Nov 9, 2010)

I’ve run my tweeter fullrange during setup without any weird noises except excessive nonlinear distortion. It’s most likely faulty wiring or a faulty signal, i.e amp/dsp/hu


----------



## gstokes (Apr 20, 2014)

You need Bass Blockers or readjust crossover for a higher frequency better suited for the frequency range of your tweeters


----------



## GEM592 (Jun 19, 2015)

Hanatsu said:


> I’ve run my tweeter fullrange during setup without any weird noises except excessive nonlinear distortion. It’s most likely faulty wiring or a faulty signal, i.e amp/dsp/hu


Yes to that.

OP, you may have answered this already, but if you play only the tweeters do you still get the noise, or do the lows also need to be running?


----------



## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

gstokes said:


> You need Bass Blockers or readjust crossover for a higher frequency better suited for the frequency range of your tweeters


. "bass blockers" is just a term for hpf for the technically challenged

Sent from my LG-LS998 using Tapatalk


----------



## Alrojoca (Oct 5, 2012)

I was going to say the amplifier also.

If it is a 4 ch amplifier, you can start by reversing the channels or use the other 2 channels.
What HU is being used?


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

GEM592 said:


> Yes to that.
> 
> OP, you may have answered this already, but if you play only the tweeters do you still get the noise, or do the lows also need to be running?


If I only pay the tweeter- I still get the noise. When I am only playing the tweeter- I realize how bad they sound. So much static and crackling on bass notes. I may just take this thing into a shop and let them figure it out. I'm getting tired of taking my dash apart.


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

Alrojoca said:


> I was going to say the amplifier also.
> 
> If it is a 4 ch amplifier, you can start by reversing the channels or use the other 2 channels.
> What HU is being used?


The HU is the Wrangler stock 430. It is made by Mopar. This could very well be the culprit. It sounds like no matter what kind of HPF I use for the tweeters, it tries to play every low end bass note.


----------



## OneGun (Jun 15, 2018)

Alrojoca said:


> I was going to say the amplifier also.
> 
> If it is a 4 ch amplifier, you can start by reversing the channels or use the other 2 channels.


After re-reading the whole thread, I think we all should have recommended this earlier considering the rears are static/distortion free at all volumes and are also component systems. 

This is a very non-intrusive/time consuming test that can immediately confirm or rule out the amplifier as a cause. 

However, and I thought about this as I'm typing, if he swaps the front-channels to rears and vice versa, then the issue follows the swap (ie now the rears are distorting), I think that the HU, the LoC, and all wiring/connections before the amp are still possible causes. 

This is because you'll then know it's those amp channels that are affected, but I don't think that completely incriminates the amp because whatever is feeding those affected channels are still possible root causes. 

Nevertheless, everything after the amp will be ruled out, so at least you'll have the problem isolated.


----------



## GEM592 (Jun 19, 2015)

Not possible the tweeters are just blown? Have you played them on some reference amp just to eliminate the possibility (maybe already mentioned this ... ?) As you probably know, just because a speaker still produces sound doesn't mean it isn't blown/faulty.


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

OneGun said:


> After re-reading the whole thread, I think we all should have recommended this earlier considering the rears are static/distortion free at all volumes and are also component systems.
> 
> This is a very non-intrusive/time consuming test that can immediately confirm or rule out the amplifier as a cause.
> 
> ...


So I switched the RCAs for the front and rear channels. And the static noise on bass notes is gone from the front tweeters. The weird thing is- the noise does not go back to the rear channel. Does that make any sense?


----------



## OneGun (Jun 15, 2018)

Clemson said:


> So I switched the RCAs for the front and rear channels. And the static noise on bass notes is gone from the front tweeters. The weird thing is- the noise does not go back to the rear channel. Does that make any sense?


IIRC, you have a set of components in the front and rear. So now if you have no crackling in the front, the only things that make sense are: 

1. Your settings for the rear are different from the front and the rear components didn't exhibit the issue that the front set did for whatever reason. 

2. There was some sort of connection issue that the physical swap you made resolved. 

I'd be curious to see, now, if you again swap them back, does the noise return in the front. 

If so, option 1 seems the most likely and I'd look to see what my x-overs, etc. are set to. 

If not, you may have fixed the issue during diagnosis, which is not uncommon when dealing with strange automotive electrical issues. 

Or you could just leave it as is and drive off into the sunset, crackle free.


----------



## Clemson (Aug 9, 2018)

OneGun said:


> IIRC, you have a set of components in the front and rear. So now if you have no crackling in the front, the only things that make sense are:
> 
> 1. Your settings for the rear are different from the front and the rear components didn't exhibit the issue that the front set did for whatever reason.
> 
> ...


Thanks OneGun- so I switched the channels back and the crackling comes right back in the front. The issue is the crossover is not adjustable. It’s an I line passive crossover. I may need to invest in a better amp with crossover functionality.


----------



## Alrojoca (Oct 5, 2012)

I suggest to remove the amp, maybe use a hard bristle brush to clean the terminals, the ground and also the amplifier ground connector and scrape some bare metal for the existing ground.
Clean the area where it is mounted well

It probably has to do with some static or something in the amp, I've had similar issues that are hard to explain, once I removed it clean the area and the connections once I installed it, it went away.


----------



## Ese Trav13so (Mar 25, 2020)

Why are my power acoustic tweeter making either static or crackle not sure wat the noise is exactly I have subwoofers hooked up to a sub amp replace all 6'9s and front door round speakers and hooked up second amp for those and they are working fine...
I disconnect my Deck to try and return to get a new one walmart didnt allow me to do the return so I rewired everything exactly how it was before I had my tweeters wired to my deck bcuz everything else as far as door and back speakers are wired to an amp and subs wired to their own amp also but now tweeter making either static or crackle noise all of a sudden I did have tweeters wired to 2 different crossovers one for each side left n right but idk why they are making that noise I'm talking bout can anyone on here help me out let me kno wat I did wrong or wat it could possible be and also tweeters have a smaller gauge of wire than all other speakers jus to throw that in there


----------

