Jump to content

Troubleshooting mids and tweeters


Champion31337

Recommended Posts

Hey guys, Im finishing up my build been working on for 2 years getting ready for slamology.  I have a couple questions if you guys could possibly help me on.

I recently added 4 DS18 mids and 4 DS18 tweeters.  275 watt rms and 225 watt rms.  Driving them with Taramps MD1200.1 1ohm.  I have the tweeters wired in parallel to each 8.  I have a kenwood HU, DS18 6 way active crossover and 4 amps.

The amp crossover for mid/tweets is set to full.  The ds18 crossover channel is set to full.  My headunit is set to 120hz 12 octave.

My problem is that while the speaker are super loud they aren't remotely as clear and defined quality audio as my polk audio 6x9's or my infinity 3.5 Apillar mids.  They just sound hollow and weird and cheap.  The tweeters aren't loud at all I can turn it up 2/3 volume and literally press my ear up to them.  Any advice would be much appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ds18 isn't really known for their quality equipment. It might just be as simple as those drivers and tweeters aren't great and the ds18 crossover is sending a bad signal. 

Troubleshooting though, I'd start (if you haven't already) checking for distortion with an o- scope or DD-1

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Dafaseles said:

Ds18 isn't really known for their quality equipment. It might just be as simple as those drivers and tweeters aren't great and the ds18 crossover is sending a bad signal. 

Troubleshooting though, I'd start (if you haven't already) checking for distortion with an o- scope or DD-1

Yeah I have a DD-1 I already checked it's clean.  I'm thinking about connecting just 1 speaker to my skar 150x4 class AB amp and see if there's a difference but I doubt it.

 

Good God I had a bad feeling DS18 was garbage but took a chance anyway.  That's a big nasty pill to swallow of a waste of money.  Anyway.  What 8 inch mid and tweeters do you guys recommend?  I'm looking at RF and pioneer now.  It appears that the DS18 packages (I bought 2) are past he return period but I'll have to call them and see what I can do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Champion31337 said:

Yeah I have a DD-1 I already checked it's clean.  I'm thinking about connecting just 1 speaker to my skar 150x4 class AB amp and see if there's a difference but I doubt it.

 

Good God I had a bad feeling DS18 was garbage but took a chance anyway.  That's a big nasty pill to swallow of a waste of money.  Anyway.  What 8 inch mid and tweeters do you guys recommend?  I'm looking at RF and pioneer now.  It appears that the DS18 packages (I bought 2) are past he return period but I'll have to call them and see what I can do.

Ds18 speakers on 1200 watts should be loud if nothing else. I'm thinking it might be the crossover maybe choking the signal? 

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Dafaseles said:

Ds18 speakers on 1200 watts should be loud if nothing else. I'm thinking it might be the crossover maybe choking the signal? 

All other speakers (polk 6x9 and 6.5 in doors and infinity 3.5 mesos and alpine tweeters in pillars) sound amazing.

 

Your 100% correct, like I said they are loud as hell.  Volume is certainly not an issue they just sound like a 50 year old speaker.  Detail badly lacking.

 

On another note I actually have debated removing the crossover completely and doing without.  Only thing it's actually used for is the infinity 3.5 mids in the pillar for bandpass crossover 250hz-8hz.  I'm not 100% sure but I assume allowing all high freq to any speaker is not an issue its the bass/lower that is damaging.  If this is correct I can just remove it.  I will need an rca splitter though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, Dafaseles said:

Ds18 speakers on 1200 watts should be loud if nothing else. I'm thinking it might be the crossover maybe choking the signal? 

Sorry forgot to re-mention, yes the 8 inch mids are loud as hell but it's the tweeters that seem very lacking.  Again, they are wired in parallel with the 8's they do not have their own run from the amp.  14 gauge ofc wire per door.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So the tweeters are seeing the same crossover as the 8's? 

It's not good for some speakers to play too high of a note. You can damage them, though it's not as easy as a low note. But what you will get is called beaming. When a speaker is playing within its range, the sound waves move and expand smoothly in a cone type movement. When the speaker starts playing too high, that cone shape made by the sound waves get extremely smaller and now narrow, which will hurt your sound quality by quite a lot. Especially in a car where the speakers aren't right in front of you. 

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Dafaseles said:

So the tweeters are seeing the same crossover as the 8's? 

It's not good for some speakers to play too high of a note. You can damage them, though it's not as easy as a low note. But what you will get is called beaming. When a speaker is playing within its range, the sound waves move and expand smoothly in a cone type movement. When the speaker starts playing too high, that cone shape made by the sound waves get extremely smaller and now narrow, which will hurt your sound quality by quite a lot. Especially in a car where the speakers aren't right in front of you. 

The tweeters have a passive incline capacitor as there crossover at 3.5khz I believe if I'm not mistaken my headunit is merely crossing the mids over at 120hz and everything above.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Who's Online   1 Member, 0 Anonymous, 371 Guests (See full list)

×
×
  • Create New...