Wow.. I'm PISSED
 

Well it wasn't the happiest of days for me... I got out of bed this morning with excitement.. Like a 6 year old waking up on Christmas morning.

I FINALLY GOT TO TUNE MY STEREO!!!!! I had been waiting for this day for a long, long time. I let the car warm up for a good 15 minutes, and hopped in to head outa town so I could turn 'er up. Half way down the street, I had turn the volume up to about 1/3 of the way.

Something sounded odd.

a rattle?
a bad air leak?
something touching one of my speakers?

I carried on with my drive until I parked the car in an empty parking lot. Here I started to search for the mysterious noise. Being that I got my new front stage in, this was the first place I decided to look.

The tweeter? nope.. everything looked good there...
The mid-range?....

yes. At a medium volume I could see something wrong with the surround.
The outer part of the surround had torn from the basket of the speaker I had installed only three days earlier.

No biggy, I return it, and get my over the counter warranty.

I forgot about one detail. They're not a regularly stocked item.

GREAT! Now I get to wait until they can get one in, find time over the holidays to pick it up and install it, then find another day to start tuning.

Not fun.
Well tonight I've come to terms with the fact that something went wrong. But what happened? Was it my fault? Or was it defective?

This is where I need some help from you guys. I have a Sony XM-7547 bridged to each woofer. Rated at 300 watts @ 4 ohms per side. The gains are at rock bottom as I've yet to fool around with them. The enclosure for each one is the entire door. That wasn't apart of my plans, but at the moment it's the only thing that will work. The crossover is set at 50 hertz, only because the manufacturer boasts of its low frequency response. This is what I believe was the culprit. I guess the make/model of the speaker would help also. It's from the Hertz MLK 165 set. Any thoughts?

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its a sq product

1st break in your drivers - I'm a firm believer of breaking in any speaker no matter if it home, car ect. Others will disagree

When you get the new set go fab up so custom temp boxes - shoe boxes work great. Play some Rock music something that has a wide variety of frequencies.

If you place them face to face make sure you invert the phase. so they do cancel each other out.

Make sure you are not driving your home amp into clipping. Do this for a period of 48- 96 hours straight.

optional
On the last day of burn in is remove the x-overs and tweeters and run the midrbass/midrange direct and play BASS MEKANIK's - Electronic Music - Quad Maximus CD at a moderate volume and do this for 12 hours.

2nd Bring you freq response from 50 up to around 70-90 or higher. And listen to you drivers with a very loud CD - not MP3's and set your levels from there!

This formula has worked many times 4 me but it's your stereo :smokin:

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deffective no doubt

Cant tell if its torn or unglued but looks unglued, I'd say manufacturers defect.
Break in or not, this shouldn't have happened, I think break in is for sound not for any kind of structural integrity.....does suck though.

...
 

ripped or unglued its still manufacturers defect. To me looks "unglued" although more likely it probobly wasn't glued in the first place because that isn't exactly a high stress area. The glue machine probobly got clogged lol

it's not unglued.. it's in fact torn. And I'm also skeptical about breaking in a speaker. What does it actually do?

it loosens the suspension of the driver so it can play a whole range of sounds , I actualy like them tight if you know what i mean LOL

Come into the store and I'll A/B you a set of B&Ws that are broken in and unbroken. You'll be a believer then!

They sound 10x better broken in.

Speakers move - they have parts that a glued in, etc. Everything changes when you get a bunch of hours of movement into it...

Guys, breaking in the speaker would not make a difference in this case... I saw this first person, its a defect. Hertz either had a bad batch of surrounds or they designed this speaker incorrectly.

Did I read that right, you have 300w rms going to each woofer in each door? They are also crossed over at 50hz? as in 50hz hp or 50 hz lp?

I have an amp capable of 300 watts RMS.. by all means, it's not feeding that to them... yet. I have them crossed over so they dont play anything under 50..

I would not drive a mid range speaker without an appropriate size enclosure at that low of a frequency, I`m sure they might be capable of it but not without a proper box to keep then happy, more than likely they have excursion`d to far and tore the surround.

It dont take much power and a low frequency to do damage especially in a basically free air environment.

It could be that one is defective but I would adjust your crossover up a bit to avoid future problems.

Just my .02

Garett

Well the other one did the same thing last night. I've come to the conclusion that it's from the Saskatchewan cold.

I am really unhappy.

But it's not....

Blaine, I have the right to assume what I want...

haha yep you do.

I'm pissed
 

I have the same speakers. I've never crossed them below 70hz, with a 24db slope, running 150 watts per speaker. What crossover slope are you using at 50hz? Check the fs spec on the mids in your users manual. Normally you can safely crossover at double the fs. 50 hertz is pretty low for a 6 1/2 " driver, especially when you have that kind of power available. Your crossover slope makes a huge difference also.

saskatchewan cold? so does that mean i can burn my house down and blame it on the ontario heat?

its at a 12 db octave, that's the sharpest my head unit can go. And hott-nix, yes.. you can go ahead and burn your house down :smilie_da

cold weather probably didn't help as the foam would be less elastic at low temperatures, but I think you would have damaged them sooner or later anyway...


The way I see it you have three options.... turn your amp's gain down, cross them over at a higher frequency, or find a more robust driver to use...

The Hertz MLK165 is one of the best drivers you can buy at any price, and they will handle tons of power, but you can't cross at 50hz, with a 12db slope at 300 watts. I wouldn't cross at less than 100hz with a 12db slope. Not many 6 1/2" drivers can handle 150 watts continuous, and 300 watts peak. Crossing at 50hz and being able to play down to 50hz are two different things. Crossing at 50hz with a 12db slope means that the speakers are playing down to 25hz at -12db. Some subs don't play that low.

alright, I appreciate the advice guys.. When I get the new set in I'll definately turn the X-over up.. As for turning the gains down.. well... I've yet to turn them up!

And in this case I need some advice. I have an RE8 up front in place of the center console, do I keep it, or get rid of it? The other woofer I have is an RE SX18, so it's not exactly getting the highs that great.