6x9's Rattling from new

Jebus · Post by **Jebus** » Fri Nov 25, 2011 8:05 am

I bought a pair of Alpine SPJ 6x9's a couple of months back and installed them yesterday.

When I fired them up the voice coil(i think) is rattling really bad with bassy songs.

They were brand new but ive lost the receipt, so I dont know if paralell will do anything about it.

Is there anythng I can do to fix them? they sound fine other than the rattling, on most songs they will be fine ,but on some they will rattle like crazy. They sound blown but still seem to make alright bass :S

Thanks

DeeCee · Post by **DeeCee** » Fri Nov 25, 2011 8:40 am

Are you sure it is the speakers, not some other part of the car that is rattling? Licence plates are a common rattle, along with retention/spring bars of boot lids

Put your hand on the speaker when playing to feel if it is actually the speaker rattling.

Jebus · Post by **Jebus** » Fri Nov 25, 2011 8:54 am

Yeh definately the speaker, if I apply a little bit of weight to the main cone while its playing the rattling stops and it sounds good.

DeeCee · Post by **DeeCee** » Fri Nov 25, 2011 9:18 am

are the speakers vertical or horizontal aligned?
do teh speakers rattle on when you turn the volume up eg how loud do you play them?
what are you powering them from? headunit or amp

Jebus · Post by **Jebus** » Fri Nov 25, 2011 1:50 pm

Theyre flat on my parcel tray and securely fastened to it,

Theyre just running off a new 50x4 Panasonic headunit, the noise happens at any volume, I dont listen to it excessively loud.

kiwi4agze · Post by **kiwi4agze** » Fri Nov 25, 2011 1:51 pm

Could it be your parcel tray vibrating in its mounting points?

Jebus · Post by **Jebus** » Fri Nov 25, 2011 1:57 pm

No, ive tried all this stuff, its definately the speakers.

DeeCee · Post by **DeeCee** » Fri Nov 25, 2011 2:15 pm

generally when a speaker "rattles" the voice coil is out of alignment and rubbing on the inside. This could be due to:
a) speaker has not been assembled properly
b) speaker surround and spider has failed and the suspension only allows moves a certain direction pushing the VC to one side
c) a foreign object is rubbing against the VC inside

generally you have to open the speaker up and realign it. This has happened to competition subwoofers of mine where they have been rebuilt and not aligned correctly.

if you paid by eftpos or credit card, you may have a statement with the purchase on it, which you could show you purchased the speakers on the date, at the store. Otherwise you are bit out of luck as it isn't easy to rebuild a generic speaker like you have.

Could always put some blutack on the speaker with a small weight on top to try and balance it out, but it wouldn't last.

whynot · Post by **whynot** » Fri Nov 25, 2011 9:30 pm

I have had a few speakers over the years that have been rattley and it usually turns out to be a bit of dust or grit stuck in the coil which is making all the noise. I have either carefully used compressed air to dislodge it, flexed the cone by hand (can damage them even worse though) or even ran them upside down for a bit and had them working fine again. I only did this as i didn't care if they were binned. this problem was also only with open core speakers where the mids and tweeters are mounted out the middle of the woofer.

Jebus · Post by **Jebus** » Tue Nov 29, 2011 9:41 am

Yeh it being out of alignment definately sounds like what it is, I tried loosening off the mounting screws, although they are mounted to a flat parcel tray but that didn't help.

Ill take them out and try get them swapped for another pair,

Thanks!!