I just had Tweeter install my MB quart dsd216's. I am using a JL Audio 300/2 amp to run them off the factory head unit. The tweeters have a cracking, clipping, kind of sound at low, medium, and high volumes. The driver sounds fine. They are telling me the tweeters are being over powered by the amp. The quarts are rated 50 to 120 watts. That does not sound right to me. Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

Thanks


Jay

 

I am no expert but it sounds to me like it could either be a wiring problem or a problem with the tweeters themselves...

There is pretty much no such thing as too much power from an amp to a speaker (within reason ).

Are your power cables and line inputs/speaker cables (was going to say RCAs but your using the OEM head unit) running along the same section of the car from the headunit to the amp? If so, you should separate them to reduce interference.

Other than that

 

To my understanding too much power will never make speakers behave the way you describe. If the amp has got more power than the speakers can take, the speakers might start to sound strange at the maximum power they can handle (or break right away).

It sounds more like you confused the + and - cables for your tweeter. I suggest you check that.

 

Are you running high-pass filters inline with the tweeters?

 

Wiring tweeters in/out of phase (+, - swapped) has no negative impact, and won't product crackling. Its not uncommon for some people to intentionally wire component tweeters out of phase, as the resulting sound is a little different.

I second MacGyver's part about the high pass filters. You could get some strange result if you're sending bass frequencies to the tweeters. Does the crackling correspond with any drum/bass notes?

If you're already running high pass filters, you need to find out if the crackling is created upstream from the amplifier. Are you using line level converters or does the amplifier accept speaker level inputs? If you're using converters with RCA cables, it's possible that the crackle is being injected into the interconnects.

Are the speaker wires crimped/kinked or has the jacket been scraped off anywhere? You may want to connect a different speaker directly to the amp to see if it plays cleanly. If so, I'd suspect the wire that runs to the tweeters, or the tweeters themselves. If the test speaker is crackly as well, it may be a problem with the amp, interconnects, or head unit.

Sorry so long, just a few random thoughts.

Jeff