Highs Cutting out on Tower Speakers - Help!

[skiguy]

From my tower speaker install this spring I have repeatedly noticed that after jamming some tunes for a while I will hear the highs/treble cut out from my tower speakers. It seems to be both speakers but haven't been able to fully confirm this 100%. It's an obvious change in the depth and quality of the sound when this happens. Something with my amp? (a new Kicker 4 channel amp that I've bridged). I do have a line signal driver in use to amp the signal to my dual zone fader control knob at the helm. I seem to notice this happening at higher volume levels.

[chpthril]

What speakers is the amp driving? Very well could be a tweeter self preservation function. Hows the amp setup.

[skiguy]

What speakers is the amp driving? Very well could be a tweeter self preservation function. Hows the amp setup.

They are Kicker KM8's. Gains on the AMP are roughly 50%. I have hi-pass enabled and the pass-freq set fairly high as I was having bass distortion issues at lower settings.

[chpthril]

50%'ish could be a bit high depending on the line driver's output.

What about the RCAs into the amp, are they bridged properly?

[skiguy]

50%'ish could be a bit high depending on the line driver's output.

What about the RCAs into the amp, are they bridged properly?

Yes. You and I spoke when I was doing the install and made sure they were bridged correctly.

I’ll verify the gains but I followed standard tuning procedure when I did the install. Ie. Head unit at 80%, Tune gains up until distortion and then back them down.


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[skiguy]

I called Kicker and spoke with a tech. What is happening is there’s a protection circuit on the tweeter and it’s sensing distortion and shutting down the tweeter. My setup has an inline signal driver/amplifier with adjustable gains. I put this in place as it was a 40ft run to my helm zone controller and then back to the amps.

I had the line driver gains maxed and the gains on the amp adjusted about 30%. When I was originally tuning the sound I couldn’t hear the distortion (maybe because I’m old and my hearing ain’t what it used to be). To fix, I but simply reduced the gains on the line driver and the amp until the tweeter stopped cutting out.

I will say the overall volume is noticeably lessened. I anticipate hearing the music clearly over the engine noise (I do have fae) will be an issue. This might be the case for HLCD speakers vs the coaxial.


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[skiguy]

I called Kicker and spoke with a tech. What is happening is there’s a protection circuit on the tweeter and it’s sensing distortion and shutting down the tweeter. My setup has an inline signal driver/amplifier with adjustable gains. I put this in place as it was a 40ft run to my helm zone controller and then back to the amps.

I had the line driver gains maxed and the gains on the amp adjusted about 30%. When I was originally tuning the sound I couldn’t hear the distortion (maybe because I’m old and my hearing ain’t what it used to be). To fix, I but simply reduced the gains on the line driver and the amp until the tweeter stopped cutting out.

I will say the overall volume is noticeably lessened. I anticipate hearing the music clearly over the engine noise (I do have fae) will be an issue. This might be the case for HLCD speakers vs the coaxial.


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Following up here. I’m not so sure my issue is with the gain adjustments. I am still experiencing this issue. I do notice the “prt” light will blink on the Kicker amp when volume is up. If anyone has any ideas on what to check I would appreciate it. I’ll use the down time over the winter to figure this out.


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[chpthril]

Battery voltage at the amp or one of the speaker's impedence is dropping very low. You can monitor the voltage with a meter. The disconnect one speaker at a time and see if the protect light comes on under the original conditions.

As to the tweeters still cutting out, whats the EQ settings in the source unit? Is the highs/treble jacked?

[skiguy]

Battery voltage at the amp or one of the speaker's impedence is dropping very low. You can monitor the voltage with a meter. The disconnect one speaker at a time and see if the protect light comes on under the original conditions.

As to the tweeters still cutting out, whats the EQ settings in the source unit? Is the highs/treble jacked?

Tone adjustment is done through the CMD 5 head unit. Treble is up but not maxed. I have reduced bass as I have 2 10 in. Subs that tend to overpower the mids and highs

I’ll be replacing the head unit with a WS 420 BT and retest per your comments above. Can I use my test tool to measure impedance for my speakers?


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[chpthril]

u can measure the static impedance but that may not point to a speaker thats dipping low during use. working impedance fluctuates with the music.so good start, but not an absolute.