Schu Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I am wondering what the issue could be other than bad diaphragms. On my system, Cornwalls and Heresys, the speakers perform for the most part flawlessly but there are a few specific songs in the list where the horns on all the speakers crackle/buzz like a mother F*cker... so much I think my speakers are blown(maybe they are). this happens are even very moderate levels. If I had to guess, it's mostly the middle horn and partial tweeter(I just upgraded to crites 125's) HOWEVER, the other 99.9% of the time the speakers perform very well with no sign of issues, even at extreme levels. is this a horn issue as in going bad, or is there some other issue going on here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Richard Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I had my Khorns stored and when I fired them up I noticed a distorted sound from both speakers. I ran test tones through the system and found that at 2.5 kHz there was a definite buzz that I traced to both midrange horns. I removed and disassembled the K-55s and found crud in the voice coil gaps. I cleaned the gaps with a folded post-it, adhesive side out, and put the diaphragms back in to cure the problem. Run a frequency sweep off of a test disc and see if a particular frequency range causes the buzz, that will give you a place to look in the speakers. Otherwise the electronics could have a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeFord Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 One speaker, both speakers, both the same? Check the amp feeding them,cables etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 thanks... but if it was the wiring, wouldn't it be doing this all the time? this is ONLY on a few albums, and it does it everytime I put those tunes on. the rest of the times I play anything, all speakers work perfectly even at very high levels. I am wondering if these albums are pushing through some type of frequency that is causing these horns to crackle, even though it's the mid and tweet, not the woofer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 Have you tried playing tohse albums on a totally different system? Or playing a much lower level? If the noise occurs at exactly the same spot each time, it could be the albums. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pite Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 I have few songs that causes speaker to make 'crackling' noise. First I thought, hmmm...the Klipsches have trouble playing these frequencies. Then, I listened them through headphone and those 'unwanted' sound were present and played at a very specific min:sec time for a given song. All these identified songs/albums are recording defects or damaged albums... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyrc Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 If the crackling noise was on the original master, the recording engineers might not even know it was there, if they have speakers that are less revealing than your Klipsches or pite's headphones. I have a recording of a soprano whose necklace rattles ... although I've heard the recording on several speaker systems, I only hear the necklace on my Klipschorns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 Ya, I would check the source material first and if it's not that, then I would check for anything that could vibrate in the speakers or even in the room. Test tones are a great way to find rattles. Before taking drivers apart, I would double check that everything was bolted down securely since that's a lot easier to check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted August 10, 2011 Author Share Posted August 10, 2011 thanks... I will do all that today. maybe I will take a video to show the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 I've long suspected that strong low bass can move the woofer or even the midrange to their mechanical limits. It is surprising how much treble a woofer can make when bottoming out. I also wonder about the first order high pass crossovers on mids. They might not be sufficient for today's music. There might be a possibility that infrasonics is driving the amp to clipping and doing other bad things. Is there some chance you're playing that sort of music? WMcD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gagelle Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I had a similar issue with one particular CD but it only happened for a few seconds. When I tried it on a completely different system, I heard the same distortion. So I attributed it to the particular pressing. When I play the same song on a record, I can hear the distortion if I listen hard, but it's much more subdued--it could easily be missed. The ironic thing is that the CD causing the problem is an expensive SHM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted August 11, 2011 Author Share Posted August 11, 2011 Is there some chance you're playing that sort of music? WMcD It does seem to be that this is happening on music where the production qualities are very high. this happens all the time on my Radiohead collection, but does not happen on my Phillip Glass collection even though BOTH cd's have about the same level of piano and musical projection in the movements where this is occuring. the best thing is to get a video and show you guys what exactly is happening/. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted August 11, 2011 Author Share Posted August 11, 2011 okay, I made three short videos of about 30 seconds each. the first two illustrate the issue, buzzing/crackling. the third is a control video that is played at about 30% higher volume but suffers NO issues during play back. Example1 cracking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q0vIrlDwIQ Example2 cracking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKMHx7JOYxI Example3 no cracking at 30% more volume. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4QZLYYqNJ0 again, these sounds appear to be coming from the mids and tweets. perhaps they are trying to play lower frequencies? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyrc Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 okay, I made three short videos of about 30 seconds each. the first two illustrate the issue, buzzing/crackling. the third is a control video that is played at about 30% higher volume but suffers NO issues during play back. ..... Very weird sounding.... does it happen on both your Cornwalls and your Heresys? Do both models have the same mid and high drivers (which would be the case if you have the Heresy I)? I'm still curious to know if you can hear it through headphones, or some other type of speaker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted August 11, 2011 Author Share Posted August 11, 2011 yes... all four speakers seem to do it...the heresys slightly less, but they still do it. Also, I do have that same source musicon my ipod and another computer, the playback is fine on those through both external speakers and headphones. I will have to try it via headphones on the pioneer. To me it sounds like a blown speaker, but everything else plays wonderfully Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyrc Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 I will have to try it via headphones on the pioneer. Good idea. Some headphones, the Heresy, and the Cornwall are fairly articulate, but most computer speakers are not ..... and it's conceivable that the lower quality of the iPod would obscure the buzz. What I can hear from this end sounds like a spurious electronic sound, rather than a misbehaving speaker, but maybe others are receiving it clearly enough to come to a different conclusion. On the other hand, have you put too much power through the speakers? Did they have a previous owner? Most damaged speakers I've heard make a fairly mechanical scraping sound, or something close to a pop, rather than the electronic-like sound with quite a bit of high frequency harmonic content like (it sounds like) you are getting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted August 12, 2011 Author Share Posted August 12, 2011 UPDATE... ^this is indeed what has happened gary. The sound is CLEARLY audible by using my image one headphones through my pioneer.... it's just that the Klipsch speakers are so good at reproducing, imaging and projecting the source material that what was not audible before is now PAINFULLY clear through the klipsch horn system. what an eye opener, these speakers are so good, they are also good at reproducing and amplifying bad source materials. it could be the actual disk information, or it could be the way it was copied onto the HD... but at any rate, it IS NOT the speakers fault... whew My bad folks, sorry about all this balderdash. how embarrassing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted August 12, 2011 Author Share Posted August 12, 2011 one additional question for those much more experienced than I... does playing this material put my speakers at risk? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeFord Posted August 12, 2011 Share Posted August 12, 2011 it could be the actual disk information, or it could be the way it was copied onto the HD. Ack, classic example of a bad rip. When a PC reads a CD turns out it is LOUSY at locating the same spot on the CD due to maybe the CD being a spiral, not a set of fixed distance from the center tracks like a hard drive. Early ripping software (reads the CD and puts the data on the hard drive) would read a segment, process it, then attempt to read the next segment, but only get "close" to the point where it stopped reading the last segment, and that would put a few milliseconds of bad data into the hard drive file. Data errors were MUCH more common than consumers were led to believe, and it was hidden by the players instantly muting when bad data was detected. Worked ok for very short segments, your ear doesn't notice the mute if its short enough, but the errors from bad rips are HUGE in comparison, and if long enough they contain out of sequence data that isn't seen as bad and isn't muted, but sounds yuck. Find a new clean rip of the source material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted August 12, 2011 Author Share Posted August 12, 2011 I know... it sucks. the idea of a centralized location, or cloud, from which you can draw your music library's a good one. It's funny because I use my PS3 for some storage and I rip at the top setting. My album files are from 700-900mb each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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