how can you blow out you're tweeter??!
 

OK, so recently i have been doing a full rebuild of the steroe system, after install new wires to all my new (used) speakers and the new head i noticed something....

My door open light wont go off and the interior lights stopped working, granted i removed the door ham sensors, the door open warning light never came on before. fuse? help?

OK, so i just put in a 3-way mb quart system (old school Q series) the tweets went in the dash, u front where the defogger vents go, on the left and right side.

So after the install my tweeters are declared dead? WTF? i am wondering if the tweeter grounded out on the metal underneath if it that would cause a blown tweet? if so when i get replacements, which is damn near immposible, what can i do to protect it from getting blown out?

Jahan..
sorry for the long post.

as for the door lights, yes check your switches first. disassemble them and clean as needed. (usually the eraser of a pncil works for light corosion on the contacts of a switch)

as for the speakers there are a couple of things you can do, the first is commonly reffered to as a "bass blocker" or High pass filter. what these little $10/pair beauties do is limit the frequency wave that is sent to the speaker. ie, cutting out the bass. you simply wire them in line to the positive side of the speaker. *simple protection*

as for grounding out againts the frame you could cheese it be putting the speaker in a plastic bag, but nobody does that any more. there are also foam cups that Crutchfield sells in different sizes. really nice.

also to test your speakers, remove them, take a 9v battery and touch the positive to the positive and neg to neg you should hear a little click. if you don't hear anything the speakers are shot because the magnet went bad. and one more thing. DO NOT LET THE MAGNET HIT OR TOUCH THE FRAME OF YOUR CAR ONCE INSTALLED. hitting a magnet alignes the molecules and makes the magnet start to lose power. and if the magnet is sitting on anything metal it it putting more power into attracting that metal than vibrating you speaker. this means poor sound.

hope that helps, and long posts are good. that way you don't get alot of posts asking questions.

Ryosuke

Door light open issues= Blown room fuse.

The MB Quarts normally come with a crossover. Did you not use it??? How much power are you running through the speakers???

Yes the mb quart Q series 3 way compenents came with a 1" tweeter, 4" midrange, 6.5" midbass woofer and crossover. The crossover is obviously connected to separate the amplified signal (80W RMS per channel) through a Pioneer GM-374? (something like that) the crossover is sending signal to the tweeter line, cause i checked with another speaker.

SO... the crossover is fine, the actual lines are fine. tweeters seem to be blown? actually i don't know what blown tweeters sound like, but my tweeters aren't making any sound whatsoever. I am going to try the 9V test Tak suggested. I'll post on the finidings.

BUT my concern was that the place that i placed the tweeters, well its very cramped. So there is more than likely chance maybe the magnet or the speaker terminals may have come on contact with some metal under the vinyl/sheetmetal dash portion.

Just for those wondering, i placed the tweets to the left and right of the defogger vents, flush mounted. The midrange is in the stock position, by the knees. And the midbass is in the rear speaker towers. I plan on replacing the rears with some 8" midbass speakers instead. Sound staging sucks of course with the midbass coming from the rear, but the tweets and midrange actually sound quite good. doesn't sound like the speakers are at your knees...

Thanks for all the help so far. all input is welcome.

I just want to figure out why the tweeters went dead, so i don't go and make the same mistake again. The tweeters were functioning before the install.

Jahan.

The body of the tweeter can rest against metal, however the top (dome/cone) can not, nor can the wire terminals for the speaker leads.

OK. well the tweeters are dead. i did the 9V battery test, and nothing happened.

Icemark, the actual cone is enclosed in the tweeter housing, and also there is the layer of vinyl between the metal of the dashboard and the tweeter housing. But the bottom magnet of the tweeter may have been in contact with the underlying dashboard support (metal).

So, what kind of solutions can u think of ppl? how about just wrapping the tweeter in a few layers of electric tape?

Jahan

From your description I don't think the tweeters were blown by your mounting. More likely not crossed over correctly. Could you have mixed the High output with the mid range?

And are you sure the amp is not Peak 80 Watts? Most MB Quarts need at least 50 watts nominal and 150 watts peak

Firstly thanks for all the help, it's really appreciated. I will take a few pics tomorrow to show you how it was mounted...adn hopefully someone will see the obvious i didn't.

The crossover was fine, i checked to make sure the polarity was correct, and i did check with another speaker to see that the line was carrying the heights...they were.

Icemark, i know you were involved with the IASCA some time ago, i appreciate the help. What do you think about the sound staging with the midbass coming from the rear? i know lower frequencies are less directional (harder to tell where it's coming from).

Jahan

Yes I was a IASCA judge for a couple years as well as work about 17 years in the car audio biz.

Mid bass from the rear is fine if the sound stage in the front is strong enough. In my old Sport, I hade tweets and a 6 inch mid bass in the doors with a 4 inchs in the stock dash locations, and then additional tweets mounted through perfed locations on the clock radio trim panel firing into the windsheild (gave it great front sound stage). Then in the rear I used 7 inch mid basses running full range (with sealed and ported fiberglass enclosures in the stock towers) and tweets time aligned and crossed over at 3K to 10K. 12inch sub mounted in a quasi-transmission line/ 5th order band pass fiberglass and MDF enclosure where the drivers bin was with the exit line actually coming near the bottom of the rear hatch area.

Not saying that it was the best way to do it, but it lead to a very strong front sound stage, and really only rear fill, rather than the typically quad corner sound stage.

ok rechecked specs...the amp puts out 70W RMS @ 4 ohms bridged 2 channel mode. 400W Max mosfet (dynamic).

Jahan

That should have been fine for power then. Did the tweets ever work?

prior to this install yes they did...and sounded great too...anyway, let me get the pics up and you can give me your opinion.

Jahan

thanks

Pictures!!!!
 

Of my car and the stereo install...

More pics
 

OK so this is where the problem is.... check out the pics and see if you see some obvious mistake i made?

Last pic in the last post is of the dashboard metal support that is underneath where the tweeter sits....so i wonder if there is some contact going on over there or something?

not even a comment on the install? hmm...

looks like more likely that it shorted through the dash panel.

Two words for next time you mount tweets like that:

Hole Saw

If you meter the tweeter, what does it meter out at??? 3 ohms, 4 ohms???

not tryin to be an ass here,but have you tried a bit of tape on the Connections on the speaker(tweeter,whatever) to cover them and make sure that A short would not Happen ..oh,also check the tweeter itself,the Wires on it, to make sure thay may not be Contacting when you installed in the new space..(could have been Jarred By mistake?)

Well now that i've already cut the hole....i think ill just wrap as much of the new tweeters as i can with some electrical tape...and maybe even put a layer on the dashboard support and the underside of the dash panel.

I'll have to check but i am pretty sure they are 3 ohms, the midrange is 6 ohm, and the woofer is 4 ohms. i think...ill check it again.

ALSO, just a word of warning i cut my hands really badly when i tried to pry that dash panel off, please use some gloves and a screwdriver to pry....I didnt stop bleeding for like 2 days, cause i hit a artery and there was no skin left to suture the wound. Just a word of caution.

Jahan

I tried the speakers after taking them out, and they are both dead. i didnt bother with any tape on the connections because i used female connections that were crimped on.

Thanks for the replies.

Jahan