How to tell if a tweeter is blown?

I am getting some harshness out of my right tweeter when I have the volume up pretty high. The harshness is only coming thru that tweeter and no other speakers. I have done some research and have read that usually when a tweeter is blown they will not produce sound. It sounds fine at low to medium volumes. I have adjusted my gain down and also switched the "polarity" of the connection because I read this works sometimes. I am pretty lost to what it can be.

Thanks in advance!

 

Well I had harshness too and was able to lower a few things in the eq to correct it as well as changing my crossover setting for my front seperates.

I dropped the crossover to -3db for my tweets, it has a range of -3, 0, +3

And for my highs in the eq, I went from 12.5khz to 10.0khz and also dropped the level by 2 points.

Try adjusting your eq and crossovers a little at a time and use the same reference song too.

Another thing to check is your gains to make sure your deck or amp isn't clipping.

I had a lot of help from others tuning my system and am no way an expert, I'm just sharing what my experience has been so maybe it can help you...

Good luck!

Rob

 

Swap the tweeter you think is fine with the one you think is bad. If the noise is the same after the swap you know the tweet is fine and something else up the chain is bad.

Keep swapping until you isolate the problem.

 

Screw me! I didn't read the "ONLY RIGHT TWEETER" part, sorry my information is not specific to your issue...

Rob

 

Tweeters can be blown, just like a speaker, and sound harsh. If its only the one speaker, more than likely its bad.

OR, if you are running it active, it could be a bad channel in the amp, or the crossover is shot. I would try swapping the crossovers if you are not running it active on an amplifier.

 

Sounds like a winner to me.

 

Thanks everyone for the help...I am going to try johnecon2001 idea. I played with it a little at work today. Unplugged the drivers with only the tweets connected so I could pinpoint the sound. Definetlely only the right tweeter.

If it is a bad tweeter will it be covered under warranty? I have only had these installed 2 months and have been using the crossovers.

Thanks again!

 

As long as you bought it from a reputable source and have a receipt they should definitely be covered under warranty!

Rob

 

********* There an authorized Image Dynamics dealer but getting ahold of him will probably be impossible.

 

Oh no, that sucks, I seriously don't know how they stay in business with all the bad reviews I've read about them... Best of luck my friend!

Rob

 

I was an ID dealer. If I can help out in anyway, let me know. Although Im not a dealer anymore, I am good friends with Sean and Jim there. I at least can talk to Sean in your favor and see what he can do for ya.

 

Thanks man! There is an authorized dealer in my town. Would I be able to exchange my tweeter with him?

 

They are really good about honoring their product warranties. I got a dead on arrival IDMAX and talked with the guys at ID for a while and they just sent out a new one. Great guys.

 

It wouldnt hurt to try, as long as you bought it from an authorized dealer, I would imagine it would not be an issue. If it were my shop, I would take care of you in hopes that next time you made a purchase it would be through me. If he doesnt, then he is not very good at customer service.

 

if you got a multi meter go to the good tweeter and do a resistance check on the GOOD tweeter. Remember the Ohms and compare to the BAD. If the bad has less resistance than you can assume its bad but would have to be a bit of a jump. its highly unlikely that you would see a complete open especially since your getting some noise out of the bad tweeter. Compare ohms. Thats how I came to figure I had a bad tweeter.

 

EDIT:

Upon further investigation I found it is not the tweeter. I am thinking a bad crossover. This morning I took a little more time to make sure it was the tweeter and found that when I hooked up the "good" tweeter to the "bad" crossover I could hear the cracking noise and vise versa when I connected the "bad" tweeter to the "good" crossover there was no crackling.

So....Is it a bad crossover? Could it be wiring?

 

Sounds like the crossover. Not uncommon..........normally NOT common for ID though. LOL. But shit happens.