You are here to know the testing procedure of your car speakers and it’s definitely the right place. We install car speakers with a lot of effort, because for better output we put an amplifier, DSP and maybe buy an aftermarket headunit etc. But very rarely people install their car speakers on their own. Professionals do the work for them. It’s definitely a costly procedure. So if the speakers are not proving the sound you expect, diagnosing them from professionals will be costly too. It’s better if you can do it by yourself using the useful methods you are going to show here.
Here, we have a few methods to describe how to test car speakers like using multimeter, battery, by listening to songs etc. Therefore, you can decide the most suitable one for you for testing your car speakers. So let’s get started.
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How To Know The Car Speakers Are Not Producing Better Sound
Well, before finding out if your speakers are okay or not, first of all you must know something is wrong in your car audio system. Here are some suggestions for you.
- Try to sit in a different seat of the car and listen to the music from every seat and try to listen closely. Find out if all the components are clearly audible or not from every seat. There won’t be any significant difference from the front seat to the rear seat.
- Try to listen to different genres of songs and music. Listen closely, see if you can hear any distortion even after letting the high pass filter and low pass filter.
These are symptoms that will lead you to check the speakers. If you get any of the symptoms, don’t hesitate to diagnose the speakers, or you may damage the speakers if you continuously play with distortion or audio staging.
How To Check Speaker Without A Multimeter
Not all of you can have a multimeter at home. But testing the speakers using a multimeter is the most popular way among professionals. However, many of you are not professional, so here we are going to inform you of a couple of easier ways.
Testing Car Speakers With A Battery
First off all. Turn off the stereo or factory head unit or the aftermarket radio. It is required because they may cause a short circuit and damage your speaker or the entire setup.
Now disconnect all the speaker wires from speakers, different vehicle’s speakers have different methods to disconnecting the speaker wires. If your speakers are connected to amplifiers, disconnect the wires from amplifiers too. If there are no amplifiers or DSP, disconnect the speaker wire from the head unit. Now follow the procedure to test with a battery.
- Get a 9 volt battery to test the speakers.
- Connect the positive leads of the speaker to the positive site of the battery and negative lead to the negative terminal of the battery.
- If you hear any pulse being generated in the speaker, the speaker is working fine.
Be cautious, if you keep connecting the speakers to the 9 volt battery for a longer time, it may damage the speaker.
Listening To the Music Dedicated To Car Speaker Testing
Sometimes you may want to test the car speaker without wires and a multimeter. In that case listening to suitable music can give you an idea about if the produced sound is good or not. But manual diagnosing may not give you the exquisite result yet it’s worth it than not checking at all.
There are few Grammy-winning sound mixing engineers like Bob Clearmountain, Chris Lord-Alge, try their music to listen to your car speaker. But we suggest you listen to the music first in another better car audio or similar car audio system first. Also, you can listen to Micheal Jacson’s Thriller, Ace of Base- The Sign, Lorde- Royals etc songs and definitely if the speakers have any sound issue, you will notice them.The music testing will always assist to identify the sound difference between a moderate speaker and a top-quality speaker without amp.
How To Test Car Speakers With A Multimeter
Voltmeter or Multimeter, you can use both of them for diagnosing the car speakers. But the voltmeter requires it to be calibrated first. Instead, the multimeter doesn’t require any calibration.
Speaker’s Wire Testing
- Firstly, get a digital multimeter and set the setting on resistance.
- Now touching the multimeter’s positive and negative leads to the speaker’s positive and negative wire.
- If the circuit is broken or the wire is faulty, there will be a tone output from the multimeter continuously or the meter will show infinite resistance or “OL”.
- If the multimeter shows any small resistance level, then the wires are okay.
Capacitor Testing
- For testing the capacitance of the capacitor, your digital multimeter must have a capacitance testing option.
- Connect the positive and negative probe of the multimeter to the positive and negative terminal of the capacitor. Sometimes our speakers are okay, but the main problem is on the capacitor, so testing the capacitor is a must.
- If the value shows exactly or close to the value the capacitor casing has written on it, then the capacitor is absolutely fine. If the reading fluctuates more than 5%, then the capacitor is in a bad condition. This is exactly how to test car speakers without a radio.
Some speakers produce quite good bass, so you can have a highly rated car speaker for bass rather than using a subwoofer. But this suggestion is not for those who are quality music enthusiastic. People who don’t want to spend more money for the car audio and try to stay away from any kind of hassle of wiring and other things related to installation of a subwoofer yet they want to have a fairly good sound system in the car, speakers producing good bass are for them only.
FAQ
1. Is There A Way To Test Speaker Wire?
– You can speak the speaker’s wire using a 9-volt battery or with a multimeter. Connect the positive and negative wire of the speaker to the positive and negative terminal of the 9 volt battery respectively. If you listen to any pulse sound from speakers, then the wires and speakers are fine. Same for multimeter, if it doesn’t show any infinity number or “OL”. then the wire and speakers are working fine.
2. What Powers Car Speakers?
– The car speakers are connected to the factory head unit or stereo. They get power from the car’s battery and send the powerful audio signal to the speakers to move speakers and create sound.
Conclusion
After identifying the problem of the speaker you may need to change the speakers or if the wires have issues then only changing the wires will resolve the sound issue. Be careful about distortion, because it may happen due to not tuning the amplifier properly too. Also if the speakers have holes, tears, take them to technicians before purchasing another speaker. Because the speakers can be repaired.
