Sunfire Speaker help

[smiley04]

We recently put new Kicker speakers in a 2004 Pontiac Sunfire. When the music starts playing and the volume gets up to about 25 the start popping. It has a aftermarket stereo in it, and it was put in about 2 years ago. What could be causing this popping?

[MLA]

New problem that only pooped up after the new speakers, right? What model speaker specifically and did you just swap out for the original factory or did you add to what what already there?

[smiley04]

New problem that only pooped up after the new speakers, right? What model speaker specifically and did you just swap out for the original factory or did you add to what what already there?

Yes it was right after the new speakers were put in. They are model number DSC693 . We had put in Sony Explode speakers first, but took those back because they were also popping and thought that they were blown. The speakers were just swapped out, and the factory plug was left.

[MLA]

Is there any way at all that there is a pair of speakers wired in parallel per chnl? What you describe really sounds like a low impedance issue.

[smiley04]

Could you elaborate on that more?

[MLA]

For simplicitie's sake. Your head-unit has 4 channels. Each chnl, or speaker output, is intended to power only a single speaker. If two speakers are wired to a single chnl or speaker output, the head-unit is not going to like it very much. It may do as your head-unit is doing, or it may just power those speakers until the internal amp burns out.

The fact that the problem has occurred with 2 different speaker brand and models, indicates that the problem is up stream of the speakers, like a grounded speaker wire, 2 speakers on one chnl or an issue in the head-unit.

[philwsailz]

What is the bass tone control set at? Is the loudness feature, (if the radio has it) turned on or off?

Most of the time, popping speakers in a head-power-only setup is due to tone controls that are maxed out.

ALSO.....


What source are you using? Many times people will use a MP3 player, (iPod/iPhone) from the headphones output to an AUX input on the radio. Many radio AUX inputs are not designed for full-tilt volume from a MP3 player headphone output, especially if the MP3 player's volume is maxed out.

If you are complaining of popping from the AUX input you may be clipping the input of the AUX input. Try turning your MP3 player down to between 50% and 75%.


So, in summary, set tone controls to flat and use FM radio as a source first to test it. Then when using portable players throught he AUX input, make sure the portable player is not turned all the way up.

Phil
Kicker

[David Analog]

Several easy causes come to mind that would cause popping and maintaining that everything at the head unit end remained the same as the original and that all speakers behaved the same.
*Too low of an impedance load. This could also be caused by a short. All it takes is one tiny stray wire strand. You would simply disconnect one speaker at a time until you found a speaker/wire connection/combination that played without popping.
*Like Phil mentioned, a saturated input. So try different sources such as FM.
*A head unit with a poor ground or voltage supply.
*A speaker that doesn't exactly fit the opening and as a result is not airtight in its immediate mounting. In that case the speaker is undamped and can slap or pop....especially if you apply a little extra bass tone control or loudness control.

You have got to differentiate between a.) is this the speaker making a foreign sound that seems to coincide in time with perhaps prominent bass material, or b.) is this sound originating from the head unit and strictly tied to volume level.