Crossover crackle

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Hi, I thought that was the first thing you had tried and the problem shifted to the other tweeter, that's proves it's the crossover, unless you swapped the outputs in which case it may be distortion on that one track

i'm fairly certain it's the crossover but I tend to forget alot and I can't actually remember if I switched it or not and I can't remember if I remember it.
 
Maybe you can switch the complete crossover, if it does the crackle on the other speaker, than it's the crossover parts.

You use Dayton caps, not exactly the best choice - they are Chinese made (Bennic), certainly not bad, but they can have failures.
If you have money (use your holiday pay...), buy some Mundorf, they are manufactured in France by SCR.

- dan
 
Maybe you can switch the complete crossover, if it does the crackle on the other speaker, than it's the crossover parts.

You use Dayton caps, not exactly the best choice - they are Chinese made (Bennic), certainly not bad, but they can have failures.
If you have money (use your holiday pay...), buy some Mundorf, they are manufactured in France by SCR.

- dan

That's what I was saying.

Dayton caps are great value for price though. If something goes wrong you can just RMA it or often just get sent a new one because they're not very expensive. if I can, I'll see if I can buy some better caps for the ones that are most heavily used power wise.
 
That's what I was saying.

Dayton caps are great value for price though. If something goes wrong you can just RMA it or often just get sent a new one because they're not very expensive. if I can, I'll see if I can buy some better caps for the ones that are most heavily used power wise.

I agree: good value for money, but Mundorf sound better!
 
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Dayton caps are more than suitable. The only benefit from boutique caps will be seen in the tweeter circuit and you only need to upgrade the series caps. I don't waste my money unless because I don't have golden ears - I have never heard a real difference (YMMV).
Sounds childish - but writing down what you try is standard for me when I have a problem. After trying 10 things, no one could remember all the combinations.
 
That's another post about problem determination. What you need to do is to find where the problem really is, and not where do you think it is ;)
So you have 2 set of drivers and 2 crossovers. Mark the drivers of the first set with 1 and the drivers of the other set with 2. Mark one crossover with A and the other with B. Connect set 1 with crossover A and set 2 with crossover B out of the box. You hopefully should have only one group drivers-crossover with a problem. For the next steps lets assume that the group 1-A has the problem and the group 2-B hasn't. Then something in the set 1 or crossover A is not good.
First isolate the problem in connecting only one driver at a time, then you will know if the problem lies either in the low pass section/woofer or the high pass/tweeter. Again lets assume that the problem is in the high pass section/tweeter, so either the tweeter 1 or the high pass A are bad. Finally connect tweeter 1 to crossover B and tweeter 2 with crossover A. If the problem is in the group 1-B then it is the tweeter, if the problem is in the group 2-A it is the crossover.
If the problem is in a driver search for a replacement, if it is in the crossover search for a bad contact and/or bad wire.
The last case is the one in which both group sound good outside the box and bad inside. In this case the problem is in the terminal(s).

Having said all this I think the most probable cause of the problem is a bad contact in one of the solder joints.

Ralf
 
Dayton caps are more than suitable. The only benefit from boutique caps will be seen in the tweeter circuit and you only need to upgrade the series caps. I don't waste my money unless because I don't have golden ears - I have never heard a real difference (YMMV).
Sounds childish - but writing down what you try is standard for me when I have a problem. After trying 10 things, no one could remember all the combinations.

Read this, interesting: Humble Homemade Hifi - Cap Test
 
I think you might have a dry joint on one of the coils, or possibly a capacitor or resistor:

On the prototype I built I heard the tweeter crackle like clipping, in the pattern of "the lack of dithering". However, when switching the crossovers around the sound followed along to the other speaker. The one troublesome crossover also has some weird harmonics that sound like a damaged diaphragm.

623733d1498939846-urgent-slot-ported-version-tango-humbledeer-xo-2.jpg


You know you must scrape the enamel off coils wires and tin them well... they are tough as old boots and rarely fail. As are resistors. Capacitors are more fragile with excessive heat. The chocolate block connector is not the most reliable thing in the world either. FWIW, those spade or ring (what do you call them?... :eek: ) connectors sometimes don't make a great connection either. Tighten them well.
 
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I think you might have a dry joint on one of the coils, or possibly a capacitor or resistor:



623733d1498939846-urgent-slot-ported-version-tango-humbledeer-xo-2.jpg


You know you must scrape the enamel off coils wires and tin them well... they are tough as old boots and rarely fail. As are resistors. Capacitors are more fragile with excessive heat. The chocolate block connector is not the most reliable thing in the world either. FWIW, those spade or ring (what do you call them?... :eek: ) connectors sometimes don't make a great connection either. Tighten them well.
I'm actually aware of the enamel. I would've removed it if it weren't for Jantzen Audio helping out the true beginners that wouldn't know by pre-tinning the leads. Trust me on soldering. I'm an advanced electronics maker and breaker. Just not in audio-grade as far as electrical knowledge goes. :)

I've had a similar experience before and found it highly frustrating.

Try loosening the fixing screws around the tweeter faceplate by a turn or so.

My crackling issue was caused by over tightening these screw and distorting the tweeter frame....

This can't be the case, as the tweeter's face plate is completely separated from the main frame. :)

I nailed it down though: The tweeter's voice coil gap has defects. Apparently I'm not the only one. The RS28-A is, supposedly, notorious for voice coil rubbing.
 
I consider it defective because I actually took Diaphragm A from Tweeter A and put it in tweeter B, and it still scratched. I hooked up my ND-series tweeters from something else and it went completely away.

I already am way past the switch-crossover-and-see-if-problem-switches stage
 
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