Recordings damage car speakers

I took the inside of the car door off and took the speaker out. The foam that surrounds the wide end of the cone was missing in several places. If I gently put my finger on the outside of the cone, the rattling/crackling/distortion stopped, and it sounded normal. I dont know anything about speakers but would guess that the cone is loose in some way.

I need to play music loud in the unquestionably best place to listen to loud music, the car. If professional recordings damage the speakers, then I'll live with that, but if my music has too much low frequency in it causing the cone to come loose, then I would like to fix it.

Are there any set rules for how much bass is too much? If my ear is not developed enough to tell just by listening, can I tell with EQ graphs or something like that?
 
Well I tried to post a link to a video to help you but I'm not allowed. Not made 10 posts yet. Youtube 'refoaming speakers' there is your answer.

You can never have too much bass, as long as you can match it with the right amount of mids and hi's. The simple fact is either your speakers corroded with age our you turned your stereo up too much.

Get a sub and replace/fix the door speakers. Using a cross over, only send mid & tops to the door speakers. Cranking the bass on small tiny door speakers will only distort them at lower volumes. These speakers aren't made to produce really low frequencies. You are only boosting/trying to play frequencies the speaker cannot produce.

Use a frequency analyser on your mixes to Visualise the frequencies. Where you can see a massive peak in the EQ spectrum go to your mixer/daw EQ and find that frequency, turn it down. This will smooth out, balance your mix. Don't just turn it down though. Fist of all solo it, boost it, kill it all together, play around with it. This in turn will train your ear to get used to knowing that what that frequency sounds like. Eventually enabling you to ditch the analyser.
 
mitchiemasha said:
Well I tried to post a link to a video to help you but I'm not allowed. Not made 10 posts yet. Youtube 'refoaming speakers' there is your answer.

You can never have too much bass, as long as you can match it with the right amount of mids and hi's. The simple fact is either your speakers corroded with age our you turned your stereo up too much.

Get a sub and replace/fix the door speakers. Using a cross over, only send mid & tops to the door speakers. Cranking the bass on small tiny door speakers will only distort them at lower volumes. These speakers aren't made to produce really low frequencies. You are only boosting/trying to play frequencies the speaker cannot produce.

Use a frequency analyser on your mixes to Visualise the frequencies. Where you can see a massive peak in the EQ spectrum go to your mixer/daw EQ and find that frequency, turn it down. This will smooth out, balance your mix. Don't just turn it down though. Fist of all solo it, boost it, kill it all together, play around with it. This in turn will train your ear to get used to knowing that what that frequency sounds like. Eventually enabling you to ditch the analyser.
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Thank you very much. I watched a couple videos. Very informative. A decent amount of the foam was missing from mine. I'll keep working on the EQing. Thanks.
 
simulation said:
Are there any set rules for how much bass is too much? If my ear is not developed enough to tell just by listening, can I tell with EQ graphs or something like that?
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Listen to reference tracks (preferably of the same genre you're mixing) at the same level as your mix.
 
simulation said:
I took the inside of the car door off and took the speaker out. The foam that surrounds the wide end of the cone was missing in several places. If I gently put my finger on the outside of the cone, the rattling/crackling/distortion stopped, and it sounded normal. I dont know anything about speakers but would guess that the cone is loose in some way.

I need to play music loud in the unquestionably best place to listen to loud music, the car. If professional recordings damage the speakers, then I'll live with that, but if my music has too much low frequency in it causing the cone to come loose, then I would like to fix it.

Are there any set rules for how much bass is too much? If my ear is not developed enough to tell just by listening, can I tell with EQ graphs or something like that?
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the foam being gone has nothing whatsoever to do with your recordings.
Every speaker in every car ever loses that foam at some point. It gets hot as hell in there and degrades the foam.
 
Lt. Bob said:
the foam being gone has nothing whatsoever to do with your recordings.
Every speaker in every car ever loses that foam at some point. It gets hot as hell in there and degrades the foam.
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Good to see you are back Bob. I missed you. What does it mean that when I touch the outside of the cone it plays normally?

Bob: "you have been given the answer over and freakin' over in this thread ...... excessive lows ..... dunno why you can not comprehend that."

Simulation: "Are there any set rules for how much bass is too much? If my ear is not developed enough to tell just by listening, can I tell with EQ graphs or something like that?"

How do I fix the problem? :guitar: :cool:
 
simulation said:
How do I fix the problem? :guitar: :cool:
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Acoustically treat the room you are mixing in so you can HEAR your mixes accurately and make the appropriate adjustments. That is the number 1 bang for the buck change you can make to fix your mixes. "How do I acoustically treat my room?", I hear you ask. Go to the Studio Build forum and learn all about acoustic treatment. Go to Ethan Winer's website and learn. (Google him)
 
simulation said:
Good to see you are back Bob. I missed you. What does it mean that when I touch the outside of the cone it plays normally?

Bob: "you have been given the answer over and freakin' over in this thread ...... excessive lows ..... dunno why you can not comprehend that."

Simulation: "Are there any set rules for how much bass is too much? If my ear is not developed enough to tell just by listening, can I tell with EQ graphs or something like that?"

How do I fix the problem? :guitar: :cool:
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ok ...... well first off ..... if the foam is degraded on the speakers they are no good anymore. The foam helps center the speaker cone and voice coil and if it's not there or partially not there then the speaker is shot. The reason putting your finger on it might help is you are possibly helping the voice coil or cone to center properly and not rub.
But fi the foam is gone then the speakers HAVE to be replaced or at the very least have the foam surrounds replaced.
And it has NOTHING to do with your music .... yes, music can have too much low end that can under certain circumstances damage a speaker.
But it will not tear off the foam surrounds . that's kinda a normal thing for car speakers to do eventually.

As for telling how much bass to use ..... what are you using for monitors?
IF the monitors don't go low enough (frequency-wise) then there's no way to even hear the extreme lows so how could you mix them or even know if they're there or not? You can't.

So while Chili's suggestions are good ones and a needed thing for any studio (except mine :D) .... the very first thing I'd do is make sure your monitors go low enough to hear the bottom end .... add a sub if they don't.
 
Ok. Now I get that happened. Your speakers have been broken for a while. It just wasn't until you put this acoustic guitar recording, with almost nothing but a little reverb on one side, that you noticed them rattling. Then you blamed it on the recording.

Your speakers deteriorated naturally and need to be replaced. It has nothing to do with your recording or how much low end you have. Plenty of people listened to the recording and no one thought there was too much low end.

Problem solved: replace the speakers.
 
Farview said:
Ok. Now I get that happened. Your speakers have been broken for a while. It just wasn't until you put this acoustic guitar recording, with almost nothing but a little reverb on one side, that you noticed them rattling. Then you blamed it on the recording.

Your speakers deteriorated naturally and need to be replaced. It has nothing to do with your recording or how much low end you have. Plenty of people listened to the recording and no one thought there was too much low end.

Problem solved: replace the speakers.
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^^^^^^^^ this ^^^^^^^^^^^
 
simulation said:
How do I fix the problem? :guitar: :cool:
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I don't know that you CAN fix the problem. You see, all those materials rubbing against each other during deep bass segments are creating friction in an environmemnt that's already "hot as hell" as Bob pointed out. This heat and friction will inevitibly suck the cushiness out of foam surrounds, and melt the magnets in your voice coils.

The only thing you can really do is use a magnaplane or HAMT (Hiel air motion transformer) stlye driver that has no moving parts. :thumbs up:
 
I have now damaged one of my home stereo speakers, essentially with only acoustic guitar recordings. This recent recording is only mono acoustic guitar with reverb and it causes my speakers to crackle at relatively low volumes, while a professionally recorded song played immediately after at the same volume sounds alright.

https://soundcloud.com/scorthine/caves-111-1
 
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simulation said:
I have now damaged one of my home stereo speakers, essentially with only acoustic guitar recordings. This recent recording is only mono acoustic guitar with reverb and it causes my speakers to crackle at relatively low volumes, while a professionally recorded song played immediately after at the same volume sounds alright.

https://soundcloud.com/scorthine/caves-111
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then the crackling is in your recording .... there's no way that at low volumes your recording could have some amazing secret unknown to humanity before this sound that would make the speakers crackle.

It's complete and total bullshit and you're imagining things OR more likely making them up to troll this site.
 
simulation said:
I have now damaged one of my home stereo speakers, essentially with only acoustic guitar recordings. This recent recording is only mono acoustic guitar with reverb and it causes my speakers to crackle at relatively low volumes, while a professionally recorded song played immediately after at the same volume sounds alright.

https://soundcloud.com/scorthine/caves-111
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Nothing at the link. Besides, this is starting to sound a little too much like The Ring. I don't want to play your Evil Song on my system, just in case it damages my speakers.

The crackle may very well be clipping, i.e. your recording levels are too high. I can't imagine any sound produced on an acoustic guitar that could damage speakers.
 
Lt. Bob said:
then the crackling is in your recording .... there's no way that at low volumes your recording could have some amazing secret unknown to humanity before this sound that would make the speakers crackle.

It's complete and total bullshit and you're imagining things OR more likely making them up to troll this site.
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Play it on your own home stereo and then respond. By the way, I don't think you know what you are talking about Bob. You've offered multiple different opinions each time as if they were absolute fact. I don't need your help.

Anyone who knows what they are talking about please respond.
 
simulation said:
...I don't need your help.

Anyone who knows what they are talking about please respond.
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You don't get to choose who offers up opinions, fact, or makes comment. You put your question out there, get responses and filter through what is applicable to you or not. People have been trying to help you in this thread even when you started out a little vague.
 
I'm not getting much help, and if people are going to be belligerent idiots, then I will respond to them as such. You don't get to choose my opinions either. Also, I did not start out vague and have been insulted and laughed at from the beginning. Bob can keep responding. I just want him to know I think he's dumb.
 
simulation said:
I'm not getting much help, and if people are going to be belligerent idiots, then I will respond to them as such. You don't get to choose my opinions either. Also, I did not start out vague and have been insulted and laughed at from the beginning. Bob can keep responding. I just want him to know I think he's dumb.
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I know more about this shit than you will ever know.
What's dumb is the bullshit you keep saying about these being soft acoustic recordings and on some of them you've actually claimed that one side had nothing on it but reverb and somehow THAT was supposed to have damaged your speakers.

You're either a troll or an idiot.
 
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