ZSKCivic01

Hey everyone, if you all remember, my current setup in the front is a set of JL Audio XR Compoents being run off an Alpine T-420 amplifier. Well, when I have the HP Filter at around 80-100, my tweeters make a loud popping/cracking noise when my HU is turned up in the high 20s. It fix that, I have the HP filter all the way up to above 200 and probably even higher than that. It is hard to tell because it is just a *** and the numbers aren't specific around the ****. But anyways, my front speakers, mainly my mids of course, get no mid bass. I currently have my Bass Eq down to 0. If my HP Filte is set this high, is it alright to add a little Bass Eq in order to get atleast some midbass out of my speakers?

Regularjoe

IMO since they are already on a crossover you shouldn't even have the high pass filter on the amp on at all. The crossover is already cutting those freqs out for you. I'd be cautious of using multiple crossovers. Never know how they could overall effect the system. That might be half the problem.

ZSKCivic01

The professionals and most people on this site say that I need to have the HP filter on the HU and amplifier on. If I turn either off, their is a considerable difference in the way the music sounds. If the amplifier is off, then the tweeters will crack at higher volumes, as for the HU HP Filter, everyone tells me that I need to have that set to 80Hz. Now that you remind me though, the XR crossovers do have settings where you can move a jumper ot a differene setting to increase the midbass.

Regularjoe

That cracking you have at high volume is the system hitting its limits and clipping. Tweeters will crackle at high volumes when they are getting too much power.

Personally I think people go overboard w/ crossovers. Cossovers on the deck, amp, and components. To me thats total overkill. I'd bet that JL took considerable time to setup their crossover to rool of nice and easy. Adding other crossovers messes w/ that.

I like to have some bass out of my components. To me it makes the sound more "full". More bass will cost you some volume though. Of course the less bass I have, the more I can turn it up. Always a battle w/ SPL vs SQ.

I also don't agree w/ this 80Hz crap either. That seems so high and anytime I try it things tend to be really boomy. I have always been a fan of about 65Hz or so. To me that sounds much much better. especially w/ subs.

WhiteRabbit

the HP filter on teh amp should not affect tweeter performance.

are you saying that changing the HP filter on teh amp form 80ish to 200ish eliminates the static crackle on teh tweeters?

ZSKCivic01

yea, pretty much thats what im saying. First of all, my HU cannot go to 65Hz, it is either flat, 80Hz, 120Hz, 180Hz. Secondly, when I turn the volume on my HU to to around 30, I tend not to go higher, and the HP filter on my amplifier is around 80-100Hz, then the tweeters do crack. If I keep the volume up and turn the HP filter on my amplifier up, then the cracking goes away. I have the HP filter pretty high on my amplifier right now, I couldn't tell you exactly since it is hard to read the **** and all.

WhiteRabbit

thats really strange

well, i wouldnt worry too much about a superhigh crossoverpoint on the amp as long as its a 12 dB slope.

the one on the radio id definitely set to 80. its not like that frequency is where the speaker stops anyways!

its just the point where there starts to be attenation. youll still get even 50 Hz signals from an amp set to HPF at 200 Hz, itll just be 24 dB quieter, which may be desireable in the first place!

if you are loosing too much midbass, you can try keeping the radio set to 80 Hz or even set the amp x/o to 80ish as well, then try to set a 6 dB sloped passive filter at 200 or so to see if that can eliminate the crackle.

winISD can help you select proper capacitor values for that kind of ctoff frequency.

I cant imagine why setting hte HPF on the amp would improve the tweeter response

Mystic3030

Setting the HPF on the amp would adjust the crackle from the tweeter, if say, he wired the tweets into the woofer output on the xover and the woofers into the tweet output...but I would think thats not the case. Perhaps his xovers are defective?

rickinthescv

Use one crossover. The best is on the amp.

If it is a 6 db slope, that means that there is a mellow transition from the crossover point to where there is no signal at that point.

Meaning a 6 db crossover set at 80 will still give plenty of bass to the mids.

Most amps need both power and the proper frequencies to deliver sound to the speakers to sound good. Either you have too little power to your mids/tweets or they are simply crossed over too low.

I like 200 to 300 for the mid/high crossover point at a 6 db rating. This will still give you nice mids without sending Bass to your mids. That is what the subs are for. I would also say that anything less than 50 watts is too little to send to the mids/highs.

The reason that you hear crackling is that the crossover is being pushed too hard and distortion is being send straight to the tweeters. Eventually you will blow them

Mystic3030

WHAT? So you are saying the subs are for playing up to 300hz????

First off, the amp HPF should be on, and he should use the crossover that came with the speakers, unless it's a defective one.

My HPF is set at 120, my subs only play up to 66hz. Have you ever heard a sub play 300 hz? a lot of them wont even play that high, and when it does, it sounds horrible.

I think you are getting Mid BASS and Mid RANGE confused...

Anyway, I would say defective crossovers, or it's wired with the tweets in the woofer output.

WhiteRabbit

i think he is referring to underlap, and I agree. id say a 6 dB sloped HPF at 2-300 for his set to eliminate the crackle would be ideal.

then the amp crossover set to like 100ish Hz at a 12 dB slope for that extra attenuation down low.

might do nothing, might fix it, but thats probbaly what id do to try the best of both worlds solution

Mystic3030

ahh, that makes more sense, but that still doesnt explain why his tweets are crackling. I've heard XR's before with the amp on full range and only the supplied xover running the speakers, and there isnt any crackle...he shouldent have to run his HPF that high.

WhiteRabbit

yeah, theres no scientific reason the HPF in the 80-300 Hz range should be affecting tweeter crackle at 3000 Hz up, thats why I asked him to clarify

hell if I know whats causing it, but if fussing with the hpf helps..... so be it.

i just figure that if its set to 250 now and has no crackle, but no midbass, then he can gain some of his midbass back by reducing the crossover slope with the same cutoff to increase LFE (im sure youve already figured all this out) while still using the amp x/o lower down to still protect the speaker with a steeper x/o

Regularjoe

On my JL's if I crank the bass and have them really really blasting the bass causes everything to distort and I can get crackling in the speakers. I don't have the crossover on the amp or HU turned on. Only the one that came w/ the set.

I have the 5x7 Coax XRs w/ the crossover so its tough to tell if its the woofer or tweeter cracking since the tweet is on the woofer.

ZSKCivic01

Ok, first of all, alot of what you all said just went in one ear and out the other. I do not have an adept understanding of programming this stuff unlike many of you. Ill tell you this though, the installation is perfect, tweeters/mids are plugged into the right places on the XR Crossovers. I have the HP Filter pretty high, im guessing around 200. The LP Filter is off on my amplifier. I have the gain set one notch under half way. On the XR Crossovers, the tweeter jumper is stock, the mid jumper is on "High MIDS" which actually goes give the mids alot more midbass than they had on the stock settings. HP Filter on my HU is set to 80Hz, like I said before, and it can only be put on this, 120Hz or flat. From that, if possibly someone has a solution or something for me to try out to ensure that the settings on my components are proper, then it would be appreciated. For the most part though, the tweeters and mids sound fine w/o any distortion and/or cracking from the tweeters, except with a few songs which I just think were burned as bad MP3s.

WhiteRabbit

if they were just bad mp3's, you probbaly dont have a problem.

otherwise, id put in a 130 microfarad capacitor on teh + line of the signal input of the crossover, the line going from the amp to the crossovers themselves, a 130 microfarad capacitor on each side.

then id set the amp crossover back down to like 100 or 90, and have the radio still set to 80

it might be enough to give you your midbass back yet eliminate the crackle

ZSKCivic01

What is a microfarad capacitor?

WhiteRabbit

a capacitor is one of the basic electronic components. they are rated in farads

like a powercap you use when you add a capacitor to stop headlight dimming, the standard size to use is 1 farad.

the valuse capacotor youll be looking for to use as an audiofilter is much much smaller, however. about 130 microfarads

ZSKCivic01

and where can I get one of these? Honestly, if ther are like $15 bucks then I go for one, but not knowing if it will work for sure or not, then I don't think I want to spend alot of money.

WhiteRabbit

like maybe a buck fifty at radioshack for the cheap ones

ZSKCivic01

Does anyone else think that this would fix the problem?

WhiteRabbit

i dont think many would understand what i suggested, or if they did, the connection to your problem is kinda nebulous.

I myself dont understand how it applies to your problem. but if "crossong yoru speakers over higher" fixes "tweeter crackle" thenm what i suggested may help you out.

Regularjoe

Honestly I think your just overdriving them. You've swapped amps and your components so many times ...... and all have had problems.

Maybe your simply expecting too much from them.

WhiteRabbit

fine, regularjoe, just explain everything in a much simpler and more understandable and more likely to be the case way, BE that way.

your probbaly right....

ZSKCivic01

If you all heard my components, you would understand. The professionals even think that they can go up more when they hear my system. I am not overdriving them. I personally think it is just the type of amplifier that im using and maybe it having something to do with the aluminum tweeters.

WhiteRabbit

tuning can have alot to do with overdriving a speaker versus percieved volume.

play a subwoofer out of its box in the center of a room, can you hear much? do you think you cna overdrive it?

much the same way here. tuning helps

so its definitely possible to overdrive them despite not getting the output they should....

ZSKCivic01

Ok, let me tell you this then. At one point, I had my amplifier professionally tuned with this new set of XRs. Here's what happened at the time that caused me to have to change the settings. Basically, when my car was at rest, in the garage for instance, and I was listening to my components at a high volume, even with the gain half-way set, the speakers didn't make this cracking/popping noise. But when I started driving, the tweeters just start doing it all of a sudden. When I got it professionally done, the people obviously didn't hear the cracking because it was at rest. Well they told me that it didn't have anything to do with tuning, and that id have to pay to get the entire system looked over. Now I know for a fact that the XR crossovers are good, I switched them with my old ones and the same thing happened. I also know that my wiring is perfect, power wire on one side, RCAs on the other. I am just starting to think that it has to do with the type of amplifier that I have as well as the aluminum dome on these tweeters. But whatever, right now I have the HPF pretty high and the gain a notch below half and on the XR Crossovers I have the jumper set to High Mid Bass and I have some midbass coming from them, it isn't all flat anymore in the front. I want to say that for this particular setup, the amplifier has to have a high HPF in order to comply with the components, some amps may work differently with some speakers than others. But thats what I think.

ZSKCivic01

Anyone?

Regularjoe

Something is going on. You might have to pay to have someone look it over. Can't cost any more than the money you already spent replacing speakers and amps.

ZSKCivic01

That is what ill probably do when I get home from school. Maybe this will help though, these are the settings for my amplifier and where I have it set. Some of you all think that I have it too high, but it doesn't seem like I do.

- Min
-
- <-----------------This is where I have my amplifier set to.
- Nom
- 0.5V
-
- Max