Speaker level matching issue

[Seattlemagpies]

I own a pair of YG acoustic’s Kipod II speakers I bought used. I love them but have had some issues.

I recently noticed (not sure if they were always this way) that one speaker is significantly quieter than the other (some rough spl measurement looks like 10-15db quieter or more. I haven’t tried to isolate it, but I believe this applies to both tweeter and woofer.

I did some trouble shooting, swapping amps, wires, and even drive units and the one speaker is still a lot quieter in all scenarios.

I’m not a technician, but logic is pointing me to the crossover. Problem is, I didn’t think a crossover fault could only affect volume. But the fact remains, something g has happened to one of the crossovers (could be the loud one of the soft one).

Has anyone heard of an issue like this? Are there any tests or measurements I can do to verify the issue?

Thanks in advance for your help and advice.

 

[staticV3]

Hi @Seattlemagpies! Welcome to ASR.

If you can get to it, a basic multimeter could be used to measure the voltage at the crossover's input and output, confirming whether it is the culprit or not.

If so, then you can use it or an LCR meter to measure each component of the crossover to find which part specifically is broken.

If you can get the schematics from YG Acoustics, then only the defective crossover would need to be removed to find the out-of-spec part.

Without schematics, you'd have to measure both crossovers to find the part that doesn't match.

 

[Seattlemagpies]

when measuring voltage, do I need a battery power source and where to connect?

 

[Blumlein 88]

when measuring voltage, do I need a battery power source and where to connect?

No sending a tone thru it and measuring is what I think staticV3 had in mind. That speaker is a 3 way. So a low tone for the woofer, a tone that goes to the midrange and one for the tweeter. Keep levels low. Especially for the tweeter.

Actually scratch that. After looking at the speakers in a review, maybe not something you should do. Does yours have the powered sub? It has some connections and options which might be the issue. Possibly some settings and switches are amiss. Also as they are quite expensive you might wish to pay someone who knows what they are doing to check out your problem. It could become one of those situations where you can damage them if you aren't sure about all this. Which it sounds like you are not.

You might send a -20 db 400 hz tone to them and check at the binding posts to make sure both speakers are getting the same voltage. Again it need not be very loud, and you aren't going to damage anything with that tone.

 

[Golf]

I recently noticed (not sure if they were always this way) that one speaker is significantly quieter than the other (some rough spl measurement looks like 10-15db quieter or more.

I wonder how one could have listened to that speaker set (for days, weeks?) without becoming aware of an issue of that sort pretty soon. Won’t for instance the »stereo-location« of most singers’ voices be dramatically de-centered?

 

[Speedskater]

For a multi-meter, you would need a Digital Multi Meter (DMM) with a sensitive 2 Volt AC range.
It doesn't need to be accurate or have great frequency response.
You would just be comparing the Left and Right values.