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Author Topic: Speaker Popping Noise  (Read 12413 times)

Bubba No name Manson

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Speaker Popping Noise
« on: July 07, 2011, 02:25:20 PM »

Lately one of our subwoofers has been making a loud 'popping' or 'snap' kind of noise. It's pretty loud too.

Typically it happens when we have the amp cranked way up, and when our bass player hits certain notes. It's a Yamaha SW118V (crap, i know... we get very little sound as it is), and the amp is a QSC RMX 2450. It's an 8ohm speaker rated for 600w, and the amp is pushing 500w at 8 ohms.

If i turn the amp down some, then the problem seems to go away for a while. We have a matching speaker running on the same amp (different channel), and it doesn't appear to have any problems. We switched channels, and the same speaker 'pops'. Sound still comes out, though these speakers seem to suck... don't get hardly anything out of 'em for the amp i'm using them with (at least it seems that way).

Took it down to the music store twice, and they couldn't figure it out. They called Yamaha, and was told that i need to run these with a crossover, which doesn't make any sense to me.

Any ideas?
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Pat Latimer

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Re: Speaker Popping Noise
« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2011, 04:32:20 PM »

Lately one of our subwoofers has been making a loud 'popping' or 'snap' kind of noise. It's pretty loud too.

Typically it happens when we have the amp cranked way up, and when our bass player hits certain notes. It's a Yamaha SW118V (crap, i know... we get very little sound as it is), and the amp is a QSC RMX 2450. It's an 8ohm speaker rated for 600w, and the amp is pushing 500w at 8 ohms.

If i turn the amp down some, then the problem seems to go away for a while. We have a matching speaker running on the same amp (different channel), and it doesn't appear to have any problems. We switched channels, and the same speaker 'pops'. Sound still comes out, though these speakers seem to suck... don't get hardly anything out of 'em for the amp i'm using them with (at least it seems that way).

Took it down to the music store twice, and they couldn't figure it out. They called Yamaha, and was told that i need to run these with a crossover, which doesn't make any sense to me.

Any ideas?

When I first started, I had two of the same speakers. They were acting exactly as you are describing.

Not too long ( actually, immediately) after I started hearing that noise, they gave up the ghost. Magic Smoke Expelled!!

Good luck and start saving now for some better speakers.

Pat

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Bubba No name Manson

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Re: Speaker Popping Noise
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2011, 06:10:09 PM »

When I first started, I had two of the same speakers. They were acting exactly as you are describing.

Not too long ( actually, immediately) after I started hearing that noise, they gave up the ghost. Magic Smoke Expelled!!

Good luck and start saving now for some better speakers.

Pat

Great.. just what i wanted to hear. LOL

This might sound stupid, but... do speakers ever wear out? Not in the sense of blowing up, but in the sense of 'it just don't perform like it used to'.
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g'bye, Dick Rees

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Re: Speaker Popping Noise
« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2011, 06:27:56 PM »

Great.. just what i wanted to hear. LOL

This might sound stupid, but... do speakers ever wear out? Not in the sense of blowing up, but in the sense of 'it just don't perform like it used to'.

Nothing lasts forever.......
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Tony Martin

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Re: Speaker Popping Noise
« Reply #4 on: July 07, 2011, 06:28:53 PM »

Over time speaker can degenerate to some degree. Cones grow soft, surrounds and spiders weaken, but none of these things would cause the sound you're getting.
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Steve Hurt

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Re: Speaker Popping Noise
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2011, 11:05:28 PM »

.....
They called Yamaha, and was told that i need to run these with a crossover, which doesn't make any sense to me.
Any ideas?


If you aren't using a crossover, you should get one (Regardless of whether it fixes the popping noise)

It would not surprise me at all if a crossover does fix the problem by keeping frequencies above 100 hz out of the subs.
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Bubba No name Manson

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Re: Speaker Popping Noise
« Reply #6 on: July 08, 2011, 07:16:35 AM »


If you aren't using a crossover, you should get one (Regardless of whether it fixes the popping noise)

It would not surprise me at all if a crossover does fix the problem by keeping frequencies above 100 hz out of the subs.

Steve - Obviously, i'm doing something wrong then, as I didn't know you were supposed to dump all frequencies above 100hz (is this standard, or is it simply a cruddy Yamaha design flaw?). I don't have a crossover, but i do have a 31 band in front of the amp. Do i simply dump all the frequencies above 100hz?? Is this method the same or different than what a crossover actually does?
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Pat Latimer

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Re: Speaker Popping Noise
« Reply #7 on: July 08, 2011, 07:53:25 AM »

Steve - Obviously, i'm doing something wrong then, as I didn't know you were supposed to dump all frequencies above 100hz (is this standard, or is it simply a cruddy Yamaha design flaw?). I don't have a crossover, but i do have a 31 band in front of the amp. Do i simply dump all the frequencies above 100hz?? Is this method the same or different than what a crossover actually does?

Hey Shawn, read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_crossover

These may help also: http://www.rane.com/library.html

This may help you understand things a little better. Great info to be had with a little searching.

Hope it helps.

Pat

« Last Edit: July 08, 2011, 07:57:50 AM by Pat Latimer »
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Bubba No name Manson

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Re: Speaker Popping Noise
« Reply #8 on: July 08, 2011, 09:28:38 AM »

Hey Shawn, read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_crossover

These may help also: http://www.rane.com/library.html

This may help you understand things a little better. Great info to be had with a little searching.

Hope it helps.

Pat

Pat - It did help some. I'm not all that bright when it comes to all the terminology here. Most of which leads me to believe that i need a degree in sound engineering. LOL!

When i compare that information (at least, what i can understand), to the rig that i am running, I'm getting the following...

1) A snipet in one of those articles mentions the limitations of a passive crossover. My mains have a built in passive crossover, at 1800hz. Although functional, I should REALLY have an ACTIVE crossover as the mains have the option in the back to run them separately (the woofer from the tweeter). In theory, i could get a lot more out of my speakers this way, as the article pointed out that you could get a lot of power loss if the passive crossover is built with cheap components.

2) A crossover isn't the same as an EQ since the x-over nearly completely removes all specified frequencies, rather than simply dropping the level of specific frequencies on an EQ. If i don't completely eliminate the unwanted frequencies, then i could get a 'muddy' effect as the speaker is trying to reproduce frequency signals that it's not meant to handle in the first place. Therefore, a x-over would allow the speaker to focus on the frequencies that it's physically built for, giving the speaker a much clearer, more definite sound.

This does raise another question though - My subs say they have a frequency response of 30hz to 2khz. If i cut off everything above 100hz like you guys said, then won't i effectively have a frequency range of 30hz to 100hz? It seems like such a minimal amount to work with. If i can't get enough of that low frequency to the subs, then they would seem nearly useless. What am i missing?
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Tim McCulloch

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Re: Speaker Popping Noise
« Reply #9 on: July 08, 2011, 11:13:30 AM »

This does raise another question though - My subs say they have a frequency response of 30hz to 2khz. If i cut off everything above 100hz like you guys said, then won't i effectively have a frequency range of 30hz to 100hz? It seems like such a minimal amount to work with. If i can't get enough of that low frequency to the subs, then they would seem nearly useless. What am i missing?

You want to limit the frequency range sent to each pass band, that's what crossovers do.  They don't remove *all* material outside of the pass band, but attenuate (turn it down) according to the slope of the filters... 12, 18, & 24db per octave are common slopes.

The only way you won't get information to the subs is if there is none to put there.  Also, you have independent control of each pass band output level, so you can adjust your sub level "to taste."  If you have a Celtic band, for instance, the only instrument likely to be in the subs is the bodhran... but what else would you need?  Almost every instrument or voice has it's lowest fundamental pitch near or above 100Hz.  That's the nature of the program material; yours will be different... but there's no issue with "not getting enough" to the sub if those frequencies exist in your music.

The other thing digital crossovers can do is set a high-pass filter for your subs.  This helps keep LF content that the sub can't reproduce out of the sub's signal path and can prevent the speaker from "unloading", trying to reproduce signals below the box tuning.  The presence of these frequencies could account for what you're hearing.  Why the other sub doesn't do it is something for another post (by people smarter than me).

HTH.

Tim Mc
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Re: Speaker Popping Noise
« Reply #9 on: July 08, 2011, 11:13:30 AM »


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