Audio starting to crackle

[johnappleby]

Hi!

The audio on my 2002 Boxster is starting to go wrong - the right speaker crackles and then goes off, intermittently, usually when the car is warm.

From what I can guess, this could be a fault in either 1) CDR-220 Head unit 2) M490 Amplifier, or 3) the speakers.

Because it's happening when the car is warm, and only on the right side (left sound remains fine), I'm guessing it's the M490 head unit? Anyone got any ideas how to be sure before I start spending money? :-)

Thanks!

John

[thom4782]

As a first step, I would take out the crackling speaker and see if the cone is torn or there is a weak or broken electrical connection. If nothing shows up, then I might try step 2.

In step 2, interchange the left and right speakers to see what happens. If the crackling sound switches sides, then the speaker is bad. If not, then the problem is most likely in the head unit or amp. My car has an aftermarket head unit and amp. The amp has individual input and output wires so this lets me perform a couple of more tests. Not sure what to suggest if you have a stock unit with wiring harnesses.

As step 3, I would switch the amp outputs between the crackling speaker and its similar speaker on the left side. If the crackling sound switches sides, then the problem is likely in amp. I say this for the following reason. The inputs from the head unit didn't change but the cracking sound switched sides. This means the problem occurs somewhere between the amp inputs and its outputs. If the crackling stays on the same side, then the problem could be still be amp channel or the output from the head unit.

So for step 4, I would keep everything the same as the end of step 3. Then I would switch amp inputs from the head unit and see what happens. If the crackling sound switches sides at this point, then its the head unit that has a bad output signal because the problem followed the change in inputs. It the crackling is still on the same side, its the amp because you've ruled out that the problem is related to the head unit's output channel.

Hope this helps