Highs turn down on their own

[dgalindo1987]

I just bought a 1999 tige 2100i, great shape good boat 500hrs 13,000$ my problem is when I cruising around with the stereo on (it has alpine in the boat and bazooka on tower with a Memphis amp pushing all of it) the high will be crystal clean then after about a min of being loud they will basically turn off.. It just sounds like the mids are working.. If I lower it for about 30 sec they will come back and come on for about another min and go away...

It has a Sony deck no sure what kind...
Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thx guys

[Timmy!]

It could be that the battery can't keep up or maybe some sort of protection on the speakers or the amp.

[bryce2320]

If your amp is under powering the speakers, when the speakers try to pull to much power it will temporarily kick the amp off, once you turn it down it'll kick back on. That's what my 2 jlw6s do in my truck when I turn the bass knob all the way up and that's with a 1000 watt mono block JL amp. That would b something to check for starters my two cents.

[philwsailz]

Many loudspeakers have a little device connected to the tweeter to protect them from over-powering or heavy clipping. the device is called a poly-switch. The poly-switch is typically activated by over-powered amplifier clipping. How loud are you trying to play your stereo?

A few tips:

1. Your in-boat speaker amplifer needs to have its crossover engaged to hi-pass and the crossover frequency needs to be above 100 Hz typically
2. Bass boost needs to be totally off for the in-boat speaker amplifer. Save bass boost for the sub and sub amp but still use it sparingly
3. Make sure head unit has the Loudness control if equipped turned off
4. If your bass and treble on your head unit are maxed or close to it, take them back to flat, or only slightly boosted.
5. Have a more realistic expectation of how loud your stereo can really play.
6. Listen for the obvious crunchy crackly, (sounds like your dad's 80's sedan stereo with the volume maxed) sound of clipping distortion and turn the radio back down a little until it goes away.


I may be totally off-base and you may not be cranking your stereo hard, but all of the time I spend on the water has convinved me a lot of people just don't know what to listen for to tell when a stereo is being over-driven. I would be the biggest jackass on the lake in a lot of people's eyes, but I really want to go to each and every boat that has the stereo cranked to clipping and go give a quick lesson in basic audio and stereo theory. It is unfortunate, but there is a generation or two of people who have grown up listening to nothing but recorded music without experiencing live. These same people have grown up thinking that a heavily-clipped and distorted stereo sounds just right turned all the way up; they have never heard loud CLEAN music or if they have don't recognize it is loud, primarily because it doesn't hurt their ears.....

Try checking all your amp settings aas outlined above, and then try running your stereo a little less hard and see if the tweeters stop cutting out. My hunch is that they will.

Phil
Kicker

[laserfish]

One other thing that I have learned from Phil is not to use the amp gain as a volume knob. Set the gain properly and leave it alone and you will be much happier.

[dgalindo1987]

Ya I'm fairly ok with stereos.. I like clean music also, the loud is off the bass on the deck is way down almost none.. I've even tried to turn the amp down a little bit to see of that helps also. It didnt. We wakeboard and surf so it's pretty loud at first but then it turns down so I just kept it down trying to figure it out.. I'm turned the bass boost on an off on the amp the in boat speakers are on hpf as they should be.. Something just isnt right.. I might need either a new amp or deck.. I've even thought about maybe who ever wired it up did it wrong but it's sounds really good when it's about 1/4 turned up...

[philwsailz]

Where are your amp gains set? What percentage of max?

[dgalindo1987]

The amp gains I've played with To try to figure it out I have it about half way..

[chpthril]

and bazooka on tower with a Memphis amp pushing all of it

We wakeboard

What head-unit, Bazooka speakers and Memphis amp do you have?

[dgalindo1987]

Not sure the model of deck it's a Sony marine. The amp is a Memphis 4.50 for the speakers there's 4 in the boat and two on tower. I even unplugged the tower speakers to see if it would help.. Nope

[chpthril]

Not sure the model of deck it's a Sony marine. The amp is a Memphis 4.50 for the speakers there's 4 in the boat and two on tower. I even unplugged the tower speakers to see if it would help.. Nope

Your Sony head-unit has a 2 volt max line level, so anything past 75% of max volume is getting into clipping territory.

What model Bazookas. Are they the coaxial or the HLCD?

[dgalindo1987]

Does that mean I need a better/newer deck ? How do u tell the difference between coaxial an hc ?

[dgalindo1987]

HLCD Sorry

[dgalindo1987]

Sony® CD/MP3 Marine Stereo - Model CDXM60UI is my deck.. Good or replace?

[chpthril]

Sony® CD/MP3 Marine Stereo - Model CDXM60UI is my deck.. Good or replace?

75% of the marine head-units out there have a 2 volt max line level. It just means that when the volume is turned up past 75%, the signal quality/strength drops like a rock and clipping is eminent. You also couple this with the poor quality of an MP3's AUX/headphone jack, and clipping the signal is easy.

I would not replace. But as Phil noted, you need to make sure you are not asking more from the gear that its capable of. I havent checked the amp's specs yet, so let me look into it. An HLCD with the right power and correct tuning, should be able to be heard at the end of the tow rope. But, if there's not proper power, then we tend to push the volume higher and higher trying to get whats not there. This is where the signals clip and the distortion is heard and if there are safeties in place, the tweeters power off.