Hey MCO Audio Experts,

I've had my car 6 weeks and the front speakers in my H/K system are already damaged. Any low-mid range makes them crackle badly. I've been using the Mini H/K setting with the bass turned all the way down since day one because it simply pushes too much bass to the front at louder volumes.

I'd like to replace the speakers with aftermarket ones, but I've read a lot on here and it looks like they have to be 2 ohm, I think. Also, the front tweeter is actually a mid-range and tweeter combined?

I was looking at the Pioneer E-Motion 6x9 3-ways for the back, and Infinity Kappa Perfect components for the front, but now I'm not so sure.

I think the checklist is:
2 ohm
Coax Connection
6x9 Dual Voice Coil
5.25" Woofer
not sure about the mid/tweet combo on top

What can I do to replace the blown front speakers? Are they covered by warantee to just get them replaced? I can't believe they're blown. I had the bass turned all the way down. Maybe all the stock front woofers need is an inline passive crossover that cuts off frequencies below 60Hz.

Any tips would be appreciated. What is the size of the mid/tweet combo on top in the front?

 

CornOnTheCob-
Aloha and welcome to MCO,
In your case it didn't sound like you did anything abusive and you don't have many miles on the car. I'd recommend that you take your car back to the dealer and complain that under normal use you think you have a defective HK front speakers. Have them check it and replace as needed. You did not do any upgrades so all is HK stock. If you did do any audio upgrades then your audio warranty is void.

Hopefully you can just have the damaged speakers replaced. They might need to order the parts but it isn't a big deal.
Personally I think you had defective speaker. It happens. Others have added much more powerful amps to the HK system and not blown speakers. Or maybe something else is defective that caused both front speakers to get overloaded. Also worth checking for. If that is the case and you do upgrades but keep all else then the same problem can occur in your upgraded speakers.

Good luck. And let us know what happens. Don't get the upgrades yet.

_________________
ALOHA

 

Thanks for responding. I called the dealer and they said the speakers were under warantee.

To me, it seems like there's WAY too much bass being pushed to the front woofers. When I turn the bass all the way down, it's better for the front, but then the bass loses all its richness.

Here's something odd. I noticed people were talking about changing the treble under the MINI H/K setting. If I do that, it doesn't turn up the treble. Instead, I get a weird high-pass filter effect the further I turn it. It changes the sound dramatically but not in the way you'd expect it to.

I used to use ELECTRONIC with the bass turned down, but one thing I figured out is that the ELECTRONIC setting sucks. It almost completely removes all the mid range frequencies, but the low and top sound great. In contrast, the MINI H/K maintains the mid range, but the low and top end aren't as great.

Then again, I'm using it with the bass turned all the way down in order to keep the front speakers from clipping at higher volumes.

We'll see what happens. :smile:

 

Sounds like the amp might be sick ... it should not have pushed enough signal to damage the speakers. And your description of the treble adjustment is just strange!

Make sure the dealer is on top of the problem - if it is an amp problem then replacing the speakers will just give another failure soon.

When you get it all working again, try "SPATIAL" which spreads the bass around much more fairly!

 

Thanks Ian.

I'm not a big fan of SPATIAL. I prefer the front-stage (is that the term) sound I get when the rear speakers only push bass. First car I've had like that, and I like it a lot. I don't like the DRIVER setting, though.

I'm going to let the dealer figure it out. Maybe one day I'll upgrade the whole stereo. I would like one of the JL Audio Stealthboxes, though... :smile:

 

The JL Stealthbox can be added to the HK system but you will need an amp so $500 for the amp and $700 for the stealthbox (ballpark estimates only). And you will loose storage space in your MINI when you install the amp and the sub. Maybe as much as a third of the rear boot. Great sound though.