Hey guys,
One of my JBL 6x9's cuts out. It was working fine but then all of a sudden it would cut out (whilst playing music, almost sounds like it's distorting at times). Sometimes it crackles when it cuts out. So i moved all my sound to the front for awhile (and i could still hear it crackle abit, sounds like bass distorting is prob the best way of describing it). I saw some real cheap speaker at JB today and nearly bought them, but thought i'd give them one last go, and they work! :shock:. Been playing them all day today and haven't missed a beat. I wiggled some wires and nope, didn't cut out at all.
What would cause a speaker to have an intermittent cutout/distortion? I thought loose wires going to the cone, but after wiggling them they seemed ok. Could a speaker overheat and then show these symptons? Is it likely the speakers will eventually die all together? I might buy these 6x9's that are going cheap while i can and then just replace the jbl's when they go caput.
Any thoughts?

Are they running from an amp?

are these speakers running off an amp or off the head unit? did you play the same song that caused the speaker to cut out after they started to work again? i cant think of anything that will cause a speaker to cut out. do you run them hard? cause im think they are trying to tell you that they are on their way out

Yeh these speakers are playing off an amp. It's got me stumped. Nah didn't play the same song that made them cut out, might try that actually see if it does it in the same spot, could be something to do with a certain frequency. Hmmmm i'm thinking they might be on their way out, bought them 2nd hand so no idea how they were driven before me, but i wouldn't say i drive them hard (well hard for me, but they are 100wrms and my amps channel is 100wrms, never been driven near that though, less than 60wrms for sure.

if there arent any loose wires anywhere then i'll say that they are on their way out. has it just started to happen? or has it been doing it on and off? sorry i should have been more clear on how i said "do you drive them hard" what i ment was do you always turn you system up when just driving along or do you have it set to a level so that the car next to you isnt shaking?

if there arent any loose wires anywhere then i'll say that they are on their way out. has it just started to happen? or has it been doing it on and off? sorry i should have been more clear on how i said "do you drive them hard" what i ment was do you always turn you system up when just driving along or do you have it set to a level so that the car next to you isnt shaking?
My subs are shaking but thats about it :P. The speakers are only running HPF but it almost sounds like bass distorting which is wierd. And yeh when i first started hearing it, it would be off and on. Then they did it all the time which was a week ago. Only just started listening to them again now. I think they must be on their way out. I'll see how they go tonight, try and drive them hard with some of the songs it was doing it on last week and see if it makes a diff :) .

if you say that it sounds like bass distorting then yeah your speakers are on the way out and its time for some new ones. but just to be sure turn your subs off and changed the setting so that the sound is only coming from the rear. turn the volume up and if it starts to distort then they are stuffed

if you say that it sounds like bass distorting then yeah your speakers are on the way out and its time for some new ones. but just to be sure turn your subs off and changed the setting so that the sound is only coming from the rear. turn the volume up and if it starts to distort then they are stuffed
Yeh did that today when i was testing them out at JB to see if they were truly dead and they played perfectly, no matter what volume. That's what i don't understand. It comes and goes. But i'm thinking it will become more frequent with time so i might grab these speakers while i still can :).
Cheers for your help mate.

have you checked all you speaker cables man? and is you amp still mouted on a piece of wood flying round your boot? maybe the connection is loose?

haha yeah sounds like speakers have a mind of there own when you think of replacing them and rock up outside of an audio shop they start working find, but as soon as you drive off the stay to distort. do you hear any crackling or is it just the distortion?

hey dude. yes it dose sound like you speakers are about to sh*t it's self. have you seen any sort of smoke rising from them at all cause you might be frying your voice coil.. generally it is silly to run your rear speakers off you amp (unless they are top of the range your H/U should be offering plenry of power). yes it could be your frequency yes you probly are pumping them to hard it may not seem it but after 4 years of experience with car audio it happens. have you ever thought that the cabin pressure in the boot may be pushing the 6"x9"s driver to far this can cause painfull destortsion. try opening you boot with sub's and all runing and see if ther is a differnece if so just buy a pod and put it in your shelf. :)

if you have any further questions feel free to ask me

cheers mate

haha yeah sounds like speakers have a mind of there own when you think of replacing them and rock up outside of an audio shop they start working find, but as soon as you drive off the stay to distort. do you hear any crackling or is it just the distortion?
lol haha that's right mate!
Well good news (i think) is that on the way home the speaker started doing it again, so i'm definitely replacing it now.
Here's a better way of describing it:
Randomly it will crackle, it's not a loud crackle, but it is noticeable. During bass hits (only some, it's totally random, keep in mind the speaker is running at HPF) it wont cut out, but it sounds like it goes to cut out, almost sounds like the person singing has lost their voice and can't hold a note. Also comparing the 2 6x9's, the faulty one appears louder than the non faulty one. It played one whole song perfectly fine, then the next song was horrible, replayed the same song and it came good for abit then went dodgy again. It definitely is a wierd problem. I might try replacing the speaker cable on the way up to JB tomorrow just to test it out.

hey dude. yes it dose sound like you speakers are about to sh*t it's self. have you seen any sort of smoke rising from them at all cause you might be frying your voice coil.. generally it is silly to run your rear speakers off you amp (unless they are top of the range your H/U should be offering plenry of power). yes it could be your frequency yes you probly are pumping them to hard it may not seem it but after 4 years of experience with car audio it happens. have you ever thought that the cabin pressure in the boot may be pushing the 6"x9"s driver to far this can cause painfull destortsion. try opening you boot with sub's and all runing and see if ther is a differnece if so just buy a pod and put it in your shelf. :)

if you have any further questions feel free to ask me

cheers mate
No smoke, but i have smelt a slight electrical burning smell, so maybe? I don't get why it would fry though. The speakers are rated at 100wrms and the amp wouldn't be putting out that much (but it can). The speaker doesn't really distort, described in previous post.
That's why i'm thinking its the speaker, as the other 6x9 is as good as gold.

hey man . before you go and buy some speakers try my little hints above

yeah, well the voice coil could of **** its self but i still wouldn.t run the 6"x9"s off the amp. run them off the H/U for now untill the amp is required for the 6"x9"s

cheers mate

yeah, well the voice coil could of **** its self but i still wouldn.t run the 6"x9"s off the amp. run them off the H/U for now untill the amp is required for the 6"x9"s

cheers mate
Until the amp is required for the 6x9's? Sorry don't get what you mean. If i run them off the headunit the broken speaker will probably still be broken and play up.
I'll chuck the new ones in and see how it goes.

you should just replace the 6x9's as they are as good as gone. all the sounds you are hearing means that the voice coil wont hold up for to much longer. replacing them will save you alot of stuffing around and then you'll be one happy man :D.

Gently push the cone in.
Is it smooth or scratchy?

If only one speaker is distorting try swapping them over and see if the problem swaps sides.

Do you have access to a multimeter?
Is the speakers impedance(ohms) correct?
Partially fried voice coils can read a lower impedance.

If these check out ok and there is no visible damage the problem is unlikely to be the speakers themselves.
It could be resonance in panels or trims near the speakers.
A speaker wire rubbing through to metal could cause intermittent distortion.
Your amp could have a problem.
Is the amp being fed a clean signal?

Gently push the cone in.
Is it smooth or scratchy?

If only one speaker is distorting try swapping them over and see if the problem swaps sides.

Do you have access to a multimeter?
Is the speakers impedance(ohms) correct?
Partially fried voice coils can read a lower impedance.

If these check out ok and there is no visible damage the problem is unlikely to be the speakers themselves.
It could be resonance in panels or trims near the speakers.
A speaker wire rubbing through to metal could cause intermittent distortion.
Your amp could have a problem.
Is the amp being fed a clean signal?
I'll try replacing the speaker wire and swapping over the channels tomorrow morning on the way (will take about 20 mins to get to jb so should be plenty of time to test it out :)).

*EDIT*
Actually when i first bought them i had a problem with one of the speakers doing the exact same thing. That was with a diff amp but same hu/rca cable. It would cutout when running full frequencies but was fine on HPF. Could have sworn it was the other speaker though not the one that's playing up now.

Ok the funniest thing happened today, when i turned off the subs (via hu) it would come good, turned them back on it would cut out again. Thought this was rather strange indeed. Turned subs off and ran the speakers at LPF and the 1 playing up started again. So it has something to do with playing low frequencies, so must have been stuffed since i've bought them. No matter, i've just replaced them and my new speakers actually sound alot better :). No cutting out which is great. Cheers for your help guys :).

good to hear mate. hope you and your new set of speakers bring you many years of happiness and better sound quality