Front Center Speaker Distortion after driving for a bit

[troublebot]

Hi all,

I know a lot of people have reported their front center speaker getting blown and needing to be replaced, but I am (or think I am) having a different issue.

When I get in my car and start driving, everything sounds great, both the music and the prompts and ding and dong sound (in surround mode). After maybe 5-10 minutes I can start noticing a slight distortion / fuzziness / static in the voice prompts or any dings and dongs, though as far as I can tell the music still sounds good.

But it progressively gets worse until about 30 minutes in when the prompts sound awful and at some frequencies in the music it starts to become apparent.

Once the car has sat off for ~20-30 minutes, it usually resets and sounds fine before getting worse again.

My experience with speakers is if they're blown, they're blown. But maybe this is a thermal thing where it gets worse as it warms up (though I'm in Texas and the car is 120+F already and then cools down rapidly with A/C).

Anyway, I know; Take it to the dealer! Problem is, I'm leaving on a 2400 mile round trip road trip this weekend, and there's no way to get it dealt with at the dealer before then.

I saw someone suggest resetting the DSP Module through Forscan, but I couldn't find the DSP module in Forscan. Is this in another system/module that I need to reset instead?

Am I better off just pulling the negative connection off the 12v battery instead (I don't want to start pulling panels off if I don't need to)?

Should I just unplug the center speaker and deal with not having prompts?

Has anyone had this issue and solved it through any other options beyond speaker replacement? (and can anyone recommend an aftermarket replacement since it sounds like the stock speaker is OOS/won't get to me in time).

I'm really hoping I can get this sorted out before spending 36ish hours stuck in the car.

Update: I pulled the negative terminal off the 12V battery for 10 minutes, no change.

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[SJP]

I have the same problem. Intermittent. I haven’t noticed a difference related to temperature but wasn’t actually paying attention to that. I’m curious to see how you make out with the dealer

 

[Benny’66]

This could be completely unrelated to your issue, but I’m gonna share because it might help someone else. Every so often, I would notice that my surround sound would go away and it seemed like only sound was coming from my center speaker. The sound was terrible! And all of the audio adjustments I made (balance, EQ, fader, etc.) didn’t help the situation. I would live with it for the duration of my 30 minute commute. Then after turning the car off, going in the house, coming out the same day or the next morning, the system would correct itself and every sounded great again. This would drive me CRAZY because I can’t stand not having my music in the car. By contrast my ‘66 never gets the radio turned on and the ‘65 Cobra I’m building won’t even have a radio. Ok, back on topic. This would happen to me intermittently for my first year of ownership and finally on day I figured it out. It wasn’t the car at all. It was my iPhone. If I had a certain app open, the audio in the car would get screwed up. I always use wireless Apple CarPlay, so I think is has something to do with the phone now splitting its audio capacity between two services. But, either way, now I just make sure all of my Apps are closed on the phone itself, the screen blacked out and I access everything through CarPlay.
So, OP, try that and see if it helps.

 

[Rakka]

Following…experiencing the same issue. My car did have the blown center speaker a while ago and was replaced. But I am starting to experience the issue you described. I am about 1000 miles away from factory warranty running out so I plan on taking my car to the dealer soon. Because it’s intermittent, I think I am gonna drive the car to the dealer when it happens next. I made a video of how it sounds so hoping that might be enough for the dealer to troubleshoot.

If you figured out what the solution was, please share.

 

[Mach1E]

Hi all,

I know a lot of people have reported their front center speaker getting blown and needing to be replaced, but I am (or think I am) having a different issue.

When I get in my car and start driving, everything sounds great, both the music and the prompts and ding and dong sound (in surround mode). After maybe 5-10 minutes I can start noticing a slight distortion / fuzziness / static in the voice prompts or any dings and dongs, though as far as I can tell the music still sounds good.

But it progressively gets worse until about 30 minutes in when the prompts sound awful and at some frequencies in the music it starts to become apparent.

Once the car has sat off for ~20-30 minutes, it usually resets and sounds fine before getting worse again.

My experience with speakers is if they're blown, they're blown. But maybe this is a thermal thing where it gets worse as it warms up (though I'm in Texas and the car is 120+F already and then cools down rapidly with A/C).

Anyway, I know; Take it to the dealer! Problem is, I'm leaving on a 2400 mile round trip road trip this weekend, and there's no way to get it dealt with at the dealer before then.

I saw someone suggest resetting the DSP Module through Forscan, but I couldn't find the DSP module in Forscan. Is this in another system/module that I need to reset instead?

Am I better off just pulling the negative connection off the 12v battery instead (I don't want to start pulling panels off if I don't need to)?

Should I just unplug the center speaker and deal with not having prompts?

Has anyone had this issue and solved it through any other options beyond speaker replacement? (and can anyone recommend an aftermarket replacement since it sounds like the stock speaker is OOS/won't get to me in time).

I'm really hoping I can get this sorted out before spending 36ish hours stuck in the car.

Update: I pulled the negative terminal off the 12V battery for 10 minutes, no change.

Not a solution, but a workaround until you can get to the dealer- put it in stereo mode.

Also, since it takes 30 minutes to show up, highly recommend taking multiple videos for the dealer so they don’t have to spend hours trying to recreate the issue.

It’ll also help people here diagnose if you post here.

 

[Rakka]

Appointment scheduled for this coming Friday. As suggested I have multiple videos of the distortion and I may have found a song to reproduce the distortion every time. Havana by Camila Cabello has sounded horrible every time it played today.

 

[RedStormREHS]

Hi and welcome to the perpetually blown front center speaker club (B&O system)! I'm on #3 replacement now! Not sure why this particular speaker gets blown after every 6mo. I listen to pop music and other boring stuff... Uggg, maybe there's a bad voltage spike after playing Ed Sheeran!

 

[Rakka]

Car dropped off early morning today. Got a text message from the service advisor in the afternoon stating they can’t duplicate the issue. They said they listened to the song and did not hear any distortion. I asked them to go play the same song on another Mach E and tell me it sounds the same. Finally at 4:30 they confirmed they can duplicate the issue and will order new speaker. Car is still at the dealer

 

[troublebot]

Car dropped off early morning today. Got a text message from the service advisor in the afternoon stating they can’t duplicate the issue. They said they listened to the song and did not hear any distortion. I asked them to go play the same song on another Mach E and tell me it sounds the same. Finally at 4:30 they confirmed they can duplicate the issue and will order new speaker. Car is still at the dealer

Yeah I'm thinking if anyone else needs to take the car in for this issue, make sure to turn Surround mode on the stereo under the volume settings and move the little balance icon to the front center. Also find a song that makes the issue super apparent. I'm trying to remember what I listened to that made it super obvious, it sounded absolutely dreadful even when other music sounded okayish.

I ended up doing the 3000 mile road trip with the blown speaker by turning it into Stereo mode and setting the fade all the way to the rear speakers. This actually worked quite well for us because we kept the music low so we could talk, and having by the music only coming from behind helped me hear better (I have some auditory processing issues that make it harder to separate voice from music or background noise). I think I may have some potential thermal issue with the speaker because when I didn't get any noise out of it for a while, it sounded better, but when I was nearing a stop and the navigation voice made more announcements, it got noticeably worse the longer it went on.

 

[Rakka]

Center speaker replaced and the issue is gone. Will see how long this one lasts. I just hit 36k mile so no more factory warranty.

 

[RTPMachE]

I am having the same issue with my 22 AWD Ext Premium. I am able to recreate it. I noticed it happened when it was hot outside and I had the AC on for a while. Now that it’s cold outside here in NC the center channel sounds blown when I first turn on the car but when it gets warm from the heat being in for a while it’s fixed. So the cabin temperature is what affects the sound. Could it be a wiring issue? Why would the temp affect it? It’s not blown because it would be blown all the time.

 

[ATL6Bravo]

Hi all,

I know a lot of people have reported their front center speaker getting blown and needing to be replaced, but I am (or think I am) having a different issue.

When I get in my car and start driving, everything sounds great, both the music and the prompts and ding and dong sound (in surround mode). After maybe 5-10 minutes I can start noticing a slight distortion / fuzziness / static in the voice prompts or any dings and dongs, though as far as I can tell the music still sounds good.

But it progressively gets worse until about 30 minutes in when the prompts sound awful and at some frequencies in the music it starts to become apparent.

Once the car has sat off for ~20-30 minutes, it usually resets and sounds fine before getting worse again.

My experience with speakers is if they're blown, they're blown. But maybe this is a thermal thing where it gets worse as it warms up (though I'm in Texas and the car is 120+F already and then cools down rapidly with A/C).

Anyway, I know; Take it to the dealer! Problem is, I'm leaving on a 2400 mile round trip road trip this weekend, and there's no way to get it dealt with at the dealer before then.

I saw someone suggest resetting the DSP Module through Forscan, but I couldn't find the DSP module in Forscan. Is this in another system/module that I need to reset instead?

Am I better off just pulling the negative connection off the 12v battery instead (I don't want to start pulling panels off if I don't need to)?

Should I just unplug the center speaker and deal with not having prompts?

Has anyone had this issue and solved it through any other options beyond speaker replacement? (and can anyone recommend an aftermarket replacement since it sounds like the stock speaker is OOS/won't get to me in time).

I'm really hoping I can get this sorted out before spending 36ish hours stuck in the car.

Update: I pulled the negative terminal off the 12V battery for 10 minutes, no change.

exact issue on my 23 GT with B&O. It starts out fine but as things "warm up" the center channel distortion gets progressively worse, to the point, I won't listen to my podcast on my commute. Switching from surround to stere doesn't really help, only switching to full rear fade.

Is it for sure the center channel? I am under warranty still and will have them look at it, but if they can't duplicate, I'll replace it myself.

 

[jksu]

the replacement speaker is as poor quality (fragile paper cone, etc) as the original which is why they fail so quickly.

the hassle of going to the dealer, even if it's under warranty, knowing it's likely to re-occur again, isn't worth my time. especially compared to how quick, easily accessible and relatively low cost ($85 pair kenwood X3C or similar -- sell the the other to recoup some cost), replacing it with a higher quality aftermarket speaker... which is what i did thanks to great instructions on the forum here.

switching to stereo or just unplugging it is an option too. but i do listen to podcasts and appreciate audible (when valid) warnings bells/bongs so it's nice to have a functioning center speaker.

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