S’s making a hissing noise

I have a Clarion DRZ9255 Headunit, JL Audio zr525cSi's, a JL 300/4 pushing those.

Using the headunit as an active crossover; has 8 channel preouts, each with high and low pass x-overs. Built in 5 band equalizer which you can chose your eq points.

My question is that nearly everytime someone in a song says an S it is kind of harsh. I have adjusted the gain on the amp, the x-over points, the polarity, the gain of each driver, the q of each driver, pretty much every function on the amp and decks. Was wondering if anyone has seen or heard of a fix for this.

Thanks!

Scott

Where is your upper-end eq focused? 12.5kHz and higher can cause some of this hissing. Try 10k

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A guess would be a very harsh tweeter. Metal domes are known to be harsh. When you audition a pair of speakers this is one thing you listen for. Certain brands, like MB Quart, are know to have this harness. Some people like that sound. All the processing in the world won't overcome design flaws without adding other problems. Find another comp set or try a silk dome tweeter.

yeah i thought it might have been the tweeter, and yeah my upper eq is at 12.5k, i tryed lowering the band 4 eq which i have focused around 8k. didnt think it would be that high. but ill try that and if not ill look into new tweeters. but other then the hissing noise the sound is amazing. highly recommended head unit.

anyone else?

did that not fix the problem?

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MANY things could be happening here. (I'm gonna get some flack for this, but I have seen these issues first-hand)

1: Head unit might not be really good for highs - it happens. D/A conversion, poor output devices, etc.
2: REALLY cheap RCA cables. GENERALLY the cables might not make a difference, but in extreme cases, a poor or cheezy dielectric could cause issues similar to this.
3: Amplifier (either internal deck amp, or external power amp) might have poor high-frequency performance capabilities. Oh, sure they RATE it to 20K, but what is the real slew rate? THIS will determine the quality of the high requency performance. I know RF amps have always had this sound to me, even though they SAY they'll do 20K...
4: Speaker wire. Same as number 2, although you'd have to be on the EXTREME low end of cheezy, here.
5: Improper setup. If your gain is improperly matched, you COULD be causing clipping - either in the HU, in the amp front-end, or overdriving the speakers themselves.
6: Poor attention to detail in the supplied crossover. (And this happens with pretty much every manufacturer) Electrolytic caps used without poly "bypass caps" can exhibit hash on the top end. This is the very reason I never use electrolytic caps in my crossovers. Electrolytic caps are SLOW... too slow to pass high frequencies undisturbed.
7: Finally, the drivers themselves. I H-A-T-E metal domes. I've never heard an exception to this blanket statement. Silk or ribbons for me.

Now, is this noise you are hearing... (those are called sibilants, by the way) does it happen ALL the time, or is it only when running WFO? All the time would point to mechanical, see 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. WFO would point to electrical, see 1, 3, 5 and 6.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

I've got a 1300 dollar head unit, 100dB dynamic range, 112dB s/n ratio, 4v preouts, copper chassis, 8 channel preouts for high, mid, low, and sub for a active 3 way up front + sub. there is a seperate Q, gain, eq, t/a, x-over (high and low pass), for all 8 channels.

I've got silver plated rca's that were way to much each, so I doubt it is that.

All amps are JL's throughout my system.

NO passive crossover, everything is electronic in the headunit. So no caps or inductors used.

14g silver played speaker wire from knukonceptz. don't think it is that.

I think it might be either the recordings or the tweeters themselves. It only hisses occasionally, like on s, z, ch, sh, some j's and some consonants that are dragged. Doesn't do it all the time but when it does it is noticiable. Most noticiable is on 50 cent tracks lol. But then when I listen to something like linkin park or something of that nature it rarely happens. So i'm not sure what it is.

If it helps anyone my head unit is set toooo:

3.15khz High pass, 18dB slope for the tweets
2.5khz low pass, 12dB slope, 80hz high pass 18dB slope for my mids
63hz low pass 18dB, 20hz high pass for subwoofer

xover is cut off on all amps. and the eq on the headunit is fairly flat.

thanks!

Informative post, haemphyst!

nocc1n, use a couple of high quality recordings of music material that you wouldn't ordinarily be caught dead listening to...like symphony music.  Get the sound right with those sources instead of trying to use the over-processed hip hop and rap recordings.  You can't rely on them for setup purposes. 

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Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

Yeah I just spent 45 minutes outside fooling around with stuff again. I think one of my mid-woofers might be mentally challenged. I set it to each channel playing the song that did it the most and looks like all along my passenger speaker is the problem. Dunno what it is but on every other channel nothing sounded to harsh. Put it on that one and boom it sounded awful. And its only in the mid region. Midbass is still but anything over prbably 2khz sounds bad.

I knew i shouldnt have spent so much money on speakers when i didnt know anything about them last year =(

Now thats thats settled, I thank all of you. Who knows some very good sq 3-way setups?

Tweeters is all that's left, or as stevdart suggested, recording. MAYBE level matching...

You have good gear, and obviously know what you're talking about, so... tweeters or recordings.

As I said, metal domes suck...

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

wow i feel stupid lol. i jusssttt realised there is an eq for left and right per channel, and to copy you have to hold enter not hit it. now the horrible hissing is gone from the passenger side. thanks for everyones help1