Speaker distortion can occur when playing music or watching a video and your car audio speakers sound distorted or mutated. This can be a common problem in modern cars, incredibly complicated wiring.
Like in any other vehicle on the road, the wires in your car carry lots of different electronics. These communication lines are set up to run over one another to stay out of one another’s way. However, this intertwining of wires leads to many electrical signals being altered between them, which distorts your sound system.
There are many reasons why you might have distorted audio when playing your music through the speakers in your car. When you have an issue like this, you don’t want to mess around with it and waste your time. That is why I will give you a step-by-step guide on how to fix the problem. You will be able to do it yourself and won’t need to take it anywhere to get set.
If you find that your car stereo’s sound is starting to distort at higher volumes, then you might be wondering what’s wrong. The most common causes of distorted sound are a damaged speaker cone, interference with the signal, or a short in your system.
To fix the distortion, you will need to inspect the speakers, amp, and signal wire to determine what’s causing it. In this article, we’re going to show you how to fix distortion in car speakers and the best way to get your car stereo sounding great again.
How To Fix Car Speaker Sound Distortion – Step By Step
Car speaker sound distortion can be a real pain. It can make it impossible to hear the music and even make it uncomfortable to drive with the windows open. Fortunately, there are several ways that you can fix this problem. Here are some of the most common causes of car speaker distortion and how to fix them:
1. Check The Car Speaker Wire Connections
If your car speaker is making a popping noise, you’re likely dealing with a bad power connection. The problem can be as minor as a loose wire or as significant as a blown fuse in the power line.
To identify where the problem lies, check the car speaker wire connections. Check your fuses if the wires are correctly connected, and your speaker still exhibits distortion. If there are no problems with the cables or fuses, you may need to replace the car speakers themselves.
2. Disconnected Ground Wire
Car speakers sound distorted when the amplifier cannot deliver enough power to them. Check the ground wire located in the back of your speaker; if it is loose, then tighten it.
It might be good to change all your old speakers with new ones. You can also try to clean the connectors or change all the wires. If you have an aftermarket amplifier, you should check the RCA cables and make sure they are not damaged.
If none of these solutions work, you will have to buy a new amplifier.
3. Misconfigured Amplifier & Head Unit
First, turn up the volume on your head unit until it’s maxed out. You should see minimal distortion at this point. If there’s still a lot of distortion, you need to replace the amplifier wiring or the amp and speakers themselves.
If you’re using an aftermarket stereo system and you don’t have an amp, bypass the head unit and test each speaker by connecting them directly to a 12V power source one at a time. They should sound clear when powered individually. If not, they may be defective.
4. Disconnected Factory Amp
If your system has a factory amplifier, turn the volume on your radio down low. Turn up the bass and treble settings on the stereo as high as possible. Slowly turn the volume up until you see distortion or hear crackling or popping sounds from one or more of your speakers. Check the connections where your speaker wires connect to your amplifier and reattach them if necessary. If this doesn’t resolve the problem, you may need a replacement amp.
5. Poor Power Supply To The Radio
If the speakers in your car sound distorted or fuzzy, it could be due to several reasons. The first thing you will want to do is make sure that the radio itself gets power from the battery. You can check this by simply turning on the ignition and seeing if it works. If there is no power, you may need to replace or repair the wires that carry power from the battery to the radio.
6. Bass At High Volume
The bass frequencies that come out from the speakers resonate in the car’s body, which can cause a buzz. There is a solution to this problem, depending on your type of car. If your vehicle has a subwoofer, you must buy a separate subwoofer. If not, there are some things you can do to reduce the bass at high volume and increase it at low volume.
To reduce the bass at high volume, it’s recommended to use an equalizer. There are many different types and models of this audio device on the market, but they all have one thing in common: they can provide more bass and lower the overall sound quality.
But all this is just theory and not applicable to everyone; however, there are certain things you can do to prevent that from happening.
The first thing you should do is to turn down the volume knob of your radio or any other audio device that emits loud music so that you don’t exceed the maximum allowed level for your car.
Next, you should install equalizer systems to boost/cut bass frequencies to stimulate vibration throughout your vehicle’s body and create resonance. This will help reduce noises coming from your radio or other devices.
7. Use An Amplifier
If you are hearing these distorted noises in your speaker and you don’t have an amplifier yet, you have to understand that Cars have a lot of power under the hood, so it’s almost inevitable that you’ll need an amplifier. A good car amplifier will reduce the sound quality coming from your speakers, and if you don’t have one yet, it’s worth investing in one.
Amplifiers come in all shapes and sizes, but they usually fall into two categories: tube (or “high-current”) and solid state. Tube amplifiers are generally thought to deliver better sound quality than their solid state counterparts, but there are many exceptions to this rule. The most important thing is to make sure your amp will fit where you want it to go.
8. Use High-Quality Music Files
High-quality files are critical to enjoying crystal-clear sounds from your car’s audio system. If you use low-quality music files that come from unsecured sources (e.g., compressed files or copyrighted music), the chances are that your car’s speakers will distort at some point. To avoid this issue, always try to use high-quality music files whenever possible and buy only licensed music online (e.g., iTunes).
9. Check Your Amp Gains
Get a DMM, set it to AC voltage, turn your head unit up to 3/4 volume, and slowly turn your gain up on the amp until you see 2 volts. That will give you “unity gain.”
After you have unity gain set, bump your stereo up to max volume and turn your amp gains up slowly until they start to clip (distort), and back them down until they quit distorting.
At this point, I hope you’ve found the information presented here informative, helpful, and, most importantly, valid. I also hope it has given you some insight into why your car speakers sound distorted and what you can do about it.
Know your speakers. If speakers are meant to replace the stock ones, it would be better if you had a rough idea of what they sound like beforehand. This way, it would be easier to compare the difference between the stock and replacement speaker outputs. Ask somebody else to listen with you as well. Just because you think that your car speakers sound distorted doesn’t mean it is the case. The human ear is sometimes prone to embellishments.
If you are experiencing a rattling noise from your speakers, it may be due to a distortion in the sound. This is usually caused by a lack of power and a clipped signal. If you are experiencing this type of noise, you can generally fix it by removing any obstacles that could be blocking the sound.
If your car speakers are rattling, it may be due to a distorted signal from an amplifier or head unit. If the password is being sent through too many wires, this may distort. You can try using a shorter wire or changing the setting on your head unit to make sure it isn’t sending out too much sound.
If your car speakers are rattling, it could be because they are not adequately secured in place. Some cars have speakers mounted inside panels, such as doors and trunk lids, which can vibrate and cause the speaker cone to rattle if they aren’t tightly screwed in place. To fix this problem, tighten up any loose screws around where your speaker is mounted so that there isn’t any room for movement when playing music at high volumes.
If you have aftermarket speakers in your vehicle, they may also be causing the rattling noise because they don’t fit.
The answer is yes, you can usually fix a blown speaker, but it depends on the type of damage. There are two types of failure in speakers: mechanical and electrical.
Mechanical failure occurs when the cone or surround is torn or has rotted away over time due to age. The surrounds are made of rubber, foam, or fabric, depending on the quality of the speaker and how much it costs.
Electrical failure occurs when the voice coil burns out. This happens when too much power is being drawn through the speaker and gets too hot. If you listen to your music too loud for too long a period, this can also happen.
This can be a nasty problem to fix. Some speakers will sound distorted even when the volume is turned down. This usually happens when too much bass is in the room, or your speakers are not designed to handle low frequencies. Here are some things that might help:
- Try turning off subwoofers and bass enhancers.
- Turn up the volume on smaller speakers (like bookshelf models) before turning down larger ones (like floor standing).
- Move your receiver away from walls and corners where low-end notes can bounce off them, causing problems with distortion or buzzing sounds