Tweeter Fade

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ejpristia

Member - Posts: 9

Joined: April 30, 2002

Location: United States

Posted: September 01, 2003 at 12:54 PM / IP Logged

I have a pair of Boston Acoustic 5.5 Pro Series components running off of a jl audio 300.2 amp. When I turn up the volume (not even that high) for a short period of time the right tweeter starts to fade. After a awhile the other side starts to fade also. I have played with the gain on my amp to stop this but nothing has seemed to work. I have my highs turned to -1 on the deck and the gain is set at 1/2. The speakers are about a year and half old. I used to have a PPI A404 running these components and they did the same thing. What is going on? Also, what are your opinions on these speakers. I like crisp highs and durable speakers and these have been pretty durable. I am up to ideas on other component set ups that are better(Durable is the most important to me because I used to blow up speakers on a monthly basis). Thanks!

DYohn

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Joined: April 22, 2003

Location: Arizona, United States

Posted: September 01, 2003 at 1:48 PM / IP Logged

A number of things could be happening here, and I doubt it is your amp. First, please explain more what you mean by "tweeter fade." Do the highs disappear? Completely, or just lowered in relative volume? Second, I assume you are using the crossover that comes with the BA 5.5 sets and that they are connected properly? No polarity mis-match, and the same connection right and left? Are the crossovers mounted somewhere that they are exposed to a heat source?

Also you say you used to "blow up" speakers on a monthly basis. How did you do that? I assume this is why you purchased the BA's, to stop "blowing up" cheaper sets?

ejpristia

Member - Posts: 9

Joined: April 30, 2002

Location: United States

Posted: September 01, 2003 at 2:07 PM / IP Logged

The highs do not disappear completely, but they are very quiet. The crossovers are mounted on the floor on a piece of carpeted wood. There is a pretty large amount of floor space so I am pretty sure they are getting enough air. The crossovers are being used and are wired correctly. This is something that had started to happen recently. I bought the jl amp thinking that it was related to a distortion issue and wanted to run more clean power. I went thru several speakers before these. I think some of it was my inexperience with things and some of it had to do with the other audio gear I had. I went thru: Polk, Eclipse (These sounded great but blew like no tomorrow. I thought it was me but my friend went thru 4 pairs just running on deck power), infinity (kappa and ref.), jl audio (sounded good but not enough high), kenwood, rockford fosgate (fanatic Q) and the Boston Acoustics. I had good luck with the sound and durability of the Boston coaxial (Only one that didn't blow). My new truck came stock with tweeter speaker pods so I decided to go with the Pros. I just hope that the problem is something I can fix without having to get new ones (They are spendy).

DYohn

Moderator - Posts: 10,741

Joined: April 22, 2003

Location: Arizona, United States

Posted: September 01, 2003 at 5:27 PM / IP Logged

OK, one last question. Do the tweets sund fine at first them "fade" out over time? Oh, and I lied, one more question: I assume you are running both the BA woofer and the tweets, using the xover, one set on each amplifier channel? If so, you should not be in any overpower situation, although you COULD clip the amp with those speakers if you drive it too hard.

It still sounds to me like this is a heat related problem in the Xover, and the crossovers are attenuating the sound (adding resistance) or the crossover point is changing (sounds like up) due to a bad capacitor in the Xover. Usually this sort of problem is because the crossover is getting hot either from an outside source like the engine or because of bad connections or shorting out, because of too much amplifier power (which should not be the case here if you are running the BA Comps off your JL amp as stated) or due to age. It is not a distortion effect from your amp... although if you are pushing it into clipping regularly, it MIGHT be a cause for "blowing" your tweets... and your other speakers, too.

If you have another crossover from, say, the Fanatic Q components, try it temporarily and see if the same problem occurs. If not, see if the BA set is still covered by the factory warranty and get it replaced. Or build a proper Xover yourself!

ejpristia

Member - Posts: 9

Joined: April 30, 2002

Location: United States

Posted: September 01, 2003 at 8:48 PM / IP Logged

The tweeter does sound fine at first and then starts to go quiet. The woofer and the tweeter are each wired to their own xover network. I would have to agree with you at this point that the problem probably lies in the xover. If you have any other advice with the other information I just gave you, that would be great. Thanks for the information!

Ketel22

Silver - Posts: 976

Joined: August 23, 2003

Location: United States

Posted: September 01, 2003 at 10:15 PM / IP Logged

when i have problems with my crossovers in my home system hitting them always seems to work :)

Quad L Handyman services

Lebult

Copper - Posts: 66

Joined: June 13, 2003

Location: Canada

Posted: September 02, 2003 at 5:13 PM / IP Logged

I'm gonna jump in here

I recently started having the same problem with my Infinity's.

It'll play very quietly, and after about 2 seconds, fade out completely.

I have the crossovers mounted in the glove box, so maybe its a heat issue.

I'm gonna try to cool them down with some fans or something, and see how it goes.

imagefreek

Member - Posts: 6

Joined: August 07, 2003

Location: United States

Posted: September 04, 2003 at 11:49 AM / IP Logged

The cross overs are the main component you should be looking at here. The cross overs control the tweets attenuation and could have some internal problem. Just make tripple sure you have them wired the same (+/-). You also may want to run new speaker wire to the tweetws and see what happens for grins. if still problem I would send both X overs to boston to have checked over for internal problems. Just make sure the install is done correctly first because thats the first problem they will ask you. Good luck and let us know what the out come is

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Tweeter Fade

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