Speaker Baffle PSA

Like most of us here I've done a decent amount of upgrades to my stereo. Replaced the door speakers, tweeters, added kicker hideaway and an Alpine powerpack to power the speakers. For the last year or so I've been chasing down my driver door and tweeter randomly getting louder or having static.

Redid my entire harness to the amp thinking that was it. Changed the tweeters (where it was most notable) and their connections. Checked my connections to the Hideaway (its on this circuit) and yet it was still there.

Pulled my two front door speakers to find the issue. These have been in for about 2 years (Infinity Kappas). I live in a snowy climate and hit the car wash once a week or so. So that was probably part of the issue.

One of the screws was so rusted it broke and took the terminal with it. So needless to say I'm replacing these and installing Boom Mat baffles this time. I'll be pulling apart the rear doors in a few days to see how they look.

 

was it just that one side?

extremely odd for a 2 year old install from any brand the magnet is rotting out as well.

i live in a snowy climate as well, but don't use the car wash ever. but out o fmy 15 years of vehicle modding, the only time i've seen a speaker that corroded were waterlogged boat speakers that were installed for 20+ years...

that really looks like at least 6-10 years of rot to me..

best to check your door drain holes as well.

 

Drain holes are perfect. I’ve never seen anything like this before. It was both front doors, those are different speakers. Will be checking the back two Sunday.

 

Every pair of infinity speakers I’ve ever seen installed have rusted. Every single set.

I’ve never messed with the expensive kappa perfects, but all of the other ones rust very fast

I had cheap Kicker DS speakers in my jeep for almost 10 years and that thing got rained in almost weekly, and those speakers never had a speck of rust on them. I’ve had JBL in my wife’s car and they’ve never had a speck of rust either

 

It's just funny after someone was giving me crap for my 'home theater grade' peerless hds, and they don't have any signs like this after 2.5 times the install time period

Of course if they did rot out, I wouldn't be shocked.


Seems to me this would be one of things someone posts to infinities Twitter account for public shaming and a free replacement set...

 

Figures. Those speakers cost me a decent amount. Replacing them all with Kicker CS in baffles just to be safe.

 

Dug in a little deeper and the foam around the front speaker was torn/rotted too. Both back doors also showed signs of rust but still worked. Overall really dissapointed in these speakers. Especially for what they cost.

 

That's a rubber surround, which are unlikely and rare to tear like that. the tear would indicate abrasion, and I see abrasion on other areas of the surround that would indicate these were reverse-mounted to the adapter plate. Possibly pinched in that corner. Makes sense as infinity runs their surrounds large as part of their 'plus' sizing, so the adapter might have not exactly worked for that set as it should've.

So I wouldn't say that's a manufacturer fault

 

Could be. I also wasnt careful taking them out and may have done that. Either way the rust is the worst part.

 

This happened to my speakers when I first installed them, its due to water running down the glass and dripping onto the speakers. You need to install those foam speaker "cups" that protect the speaker from water. Just make sure you cut the bottom half off the cup so the speaker can breathe.

Look at the OEM speakers and you will see they have a built in visor that protects the speaker from dripping water.

 

Hmmm. I didn’t cut the foam at all on the baffles. In fact I did my best to seal them up. Should I not have?

I do see the shield on the old ones. Never thought about it though. Never seen speakers rust this fast.

 

The speakers will sound very boomy if you dont open the bottom of the baffles. Infinity kappa (and JBL stadium) speakers are right in the line of fire for water dripping off the windows so they get wet and stay wet without a shield to cover the tops. Leaving the bottoms open wont allow water to drip but still let the speakers breathe like they need to.

Next time your in a car wash, turn the volume down and you can actually hear the water dripping on the foam.

 

Thanks. Looks like I'll be taking the door panels off again in the near future.

 

Working on my new installation now... I thought I'd post a picture of "what you mean" from what I've read. Bonus is the baffles make a nice vibration reducing seal on the mounts...
Now those pesky wires. I have to run them and stop them from vibrating