Tweeters Not Working: What to Do?

Introduction

Most tweeters are durable. But chances are they could stop functioning. Especially if they’re used quite often without break.

So what to do when you find your tweeters not working?

The first step for you will be to troubleshoot. Check the fader control, the wires connected to the amplifier, or the crossover that connects to the car stereo. If there is no damage found, find out if the crossover is faulty. Or if the amplifier has power and provides perfect signals to the tweeters. If none of this helps, start looking for a new one.

These are all the steps required to save your tweeters in a nutshell. If you’re still looking for an in-depth explanation, read along and find out.

Let’s begin-

Tweeters: The Basics

If you’re not familiar, tweeters are essential in a sound system. They generate sounds of a higher range (specifically 2-20000 kHz) that other speakers usually can’t.

The main function of tweeters is to compliment the rest of the speakers in a sound system.

tweeters
Image: Axiomaudio.com

Basically, tweeters are the reason for a detailed music experience in your car or surround system.

Before jumping into the steps, let’s take a look at the reasons why tweeters stop working.

Reasons Why Tweeters Stop Working

By now, you might’ve asked yourself- can tweeters go bad?

It’s simple. Turn on the tweeter and play any sort of music in low volume. Put your ears right next to the tweeter and listen to the audio. If it’s not making any sound then your tweeter is blown.

Tweeters are the most vulnerable speakers in a speaker system. That’s why they need the most attention.

Keeping an eye on your tweeter while playing it will help you save it before it’s too late. Still, the tweeter can go haywire in many ways. 

There are multiple reasons a tweeter gets blown. Your focus should be to find out the source of the problem.

Some of the reasons for the blown tweeter are explained below-

Reason 1: Loose Wires 

You might’ve taken your tweeter out for some pool party. And when you brought them home, you forgot to wire them properly.

Or you’ve taken the car out for a long time. And your car hit a bumpy road. It might be that your tweeter connections got loose. 

Loose wires are responsible for fried tweeters. So the first step would be to check if the wires are properly connected or not.

The connections often get loose, especially in a car. If one of your tweeters is not working, check the wire. That might be what’s causing the problem.

Reason 2: Crossover Problem

If you own a home theatre and your tweeter has never left its spot, it’s time to check the crossover.

Because chances are you’ve connected all the speakers with crossovers.

In case you were wondering- what is a crossover for tweeters? Crossovers are wires that help to send sound signals to all the speakers of a system. These wires make sure that the speakers are playing in the frequency they were designed for.

If you’ve connected all the wires of the speakers through a crossover, you might want to double-check. Your crossover might be faulty.

As a result, the crossover might be sending out the wrong signals to all the speakers. Thus, your tweeter is not producing any sound.

Reason 3: Amplifier Clipping

When people say party hard, they don’t mean playing tweeters at 100% volume. Because that’s when you overdrive the amplifier.

And overdriven amplifiers always clip the tweeters. So what exactly do we mean by that?

The answer is simple. We know that an amplifier amplifies the signal received from the sound source. But the function of an amplifier is not only that.

It also controls the high-frequency signals to protect the speakers.

So when tweeters are played for a long time in high volume, the amplifier cuts the tweeter off.

So after your party’s over, you’ll find your speakers dead. Therefore, it’s better if you limit the volume to 70% at your parties.

Otherwise, you’ll be deprived of the perfect audio experience.

Reason 4: Faulty Tweeter

If none of the reasons explained above help you out then, unfortunately, you’ve had bad luck with your tweeter.

It’s probably ill-designed and thus didn’t last long.

There are some tweeters with faulty designs. In order to find out if your tweeters are faulty or not, you have to test them.

There are many bass tests that would help you find out the tweeter’s condition.

Now that you’ve found out the reasons your tweeters are not working. You can move on to the next step. That is fixing your tweeter.

What to Do When Tweeters Aren’t Working

If you find out that your car tweeters are not working, the first thing you need to do is remain calm. There’s no need to panic, even if your tweeters are new.

One of the above reasons might be responsible for this. There’s a ray of hope if your tweeter produces some sort of sound rather than no sound at all.

In that case, testing out Bluray audio or SACD audio in the tweeters might help.

tweeters
Image: Crutchfield.com

So, can tweeters be repaired?

Tweeters can’t always be repaired. In some cases, there are no alternatives to fixing it other than replacing it with a new one. However, before deciding on the latter, there are a few steps that you might want to try out. 

So here are the 4 steps guide to help you troubleshoot your tweeter problems-

Step 1: Check the Fader Set-Up

The first step would be to check the fader control of your stereo. Now, we often forget to check the various setups of our sound system or car audio.

The control should be set from the back to the front. This is so it provides sound to the middle of the car or a room.

Otherwise, no sound would be coming into the tweeters. But other speakers will be working just fine.

If the fader setup is alright, then you can move on to the next step-

Step 2: Check the Wires

If there are no issues with the fader control, it’s time to check some wires!

So, if you find your car tweeter not working

For that, you’ll need to know the wiring of a speaker system. Simply check the wire that connects the tweeters to the crossover. And then look at the connection of crossover to the amplifier or the car stereo system. For that, you need to know about car audio systems from A-Z. Make sure none of the wirings are loose or coming off.

While you’re on the lookout, do check for wire damages especially in a car. Wires can get damaged due to oxidation, rain, and snow.

If you do find any damage, just replace the wire. Fixing your tweeters can be as simple as that. 

Now, you can proceed to the next step only when you’re sure, there are no damages to the wires-

Step 3: Check the Amplifiers

If your surround sound system is connected to any external amplifier, check if it’s powered or not.

If the amplifier does not have power, the tweeters will not produce any sound. So power up your amplifiers and check if the tweeters are okay.

In case they are not okay, the final step would be-

Step 4: Replace the Tweeter

The last step, before declaring the tweeter as faulty, is to cross-check the tweeters. Check the tweeter of both the car and your sound system.

And how would you do that?

Simply swap your crossover box and check all the speakers around in your car or home individually. This’ll help to pinpoint the damaged or dead speakers and tweeters.

Another easy way to test a tweeter is to take it out from its setup. Then check its label to see the resistance rating.

Now set your multimeter to find resistance. After connecting the wires with the multimeter, check the value in ohms.

If it’s zero, you’re going to need a new tweeter. 

Now if you don’t have a multimeter handy. Here’s some we think you might consider getting –

Plus, a multimeter is pretty useful. You can easily check any electrical device at any time. Especially your tweeters in this case.

But it’s different for a piezo tweeter. So, what to do if you find your piezo tweeter not working?

Use an amplifier to play some music by connecting the tweeter. If there’s no response, you can now look into what we suggested before. Which is to check the crossover wires.

Finally, you can replace the dead/blown tweeters with a new one. And voila, you’ll have the perfect sound system back again.

What to Look for in the Perfect Tweeter Setup?

Tweeter enhances the high-frequency notes of music. If your surround system misses the high-frequency notes, then using tweeters will fulfill this requirement.

However, a tweeter needs to be checked every once in a while.

So these are some of the factors of tweeters you need to keep in mind for the perfect setup-

  • The power of a tweeter should be between 100-500 watts
  • The tweeter’s material should be durable enough to go through wear and tear
  • The impedance of the tweeter should be the same
  • The crossover should not be faulty

Say you always maintain these conditions while getting a tweeter. You best be sure that you probably won’t find your tweeter not working.

Have troubles with your Blue Yeti mic? Find out how to fix Blue Yeti mic button issues.

FAQs

How do I know if my tweeter is blown?

Play any tone at low volume and try to listen. If there’s no music from the tweeters then your speakers are blown. However, if it produces the slightest of sound, you might have a chance to repair the tweeters.

Can blown tweeters be repaired?

Unfortunately, blown tweeters have no alternatives or fixes. You’ll have to change the tweeters with a new one if all of the steps mentioned previously are not working for you. Before buying a new one, try and troubleshoot the causes of your blown tweeters.

What is a crossover cable in a speaker used for?

Crossover boxes or cables are used to connect similar devices together rather than connecting them directly. So your amplifiers, front heights, rear back, woofers, and tweeters are all connected to the crossover box.

Conclusion

Having your tweeters blown can be quite frustrating. But hopefully, you’ll be able to troubleshoot the source of the problem.

All you have to do is follow the 4 step guide we have structured for you. These steps will help you take any decisions regarding replacing the tweeters.

Let us know which of the steps have helped you find the reason why tweeters not working by leaving a comment below.

Until then, happy listening!

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