KRK Rokit 8's Tweeters are buzzing/clipping

[mitchellgruen]

I purchased a pair of Rokit 8 monitors recently. The tweeters sometimes have this buzzing rattling sound when playing back sounds (usually in a part of a song with a lot of harmonic content). It sounds almost as if something is loose inside, but I'm not sure. It happens sporadically with both monitors. Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be?

[David Nahmani]

A busted tweeter. Return them right away - if it's not already too late.

[mitchellgruen]

So you really think I was lucky enough to get TWO monitors with broken tweeters? That seems unlikely

[David Nahmani]

If you busted them by playing a certain type of signal (such as a high frequency PWM synth or square wave) then it's not that unlikely that you busted both of them at the same time. Did you buy them online? From a music store?

 

But also check and make sure the tweeters themselves are rattling, and not something else around them, like the speaker stands or your desk etc...? Only send signal to one speaker and hold the speaker in your hand: can you still hear the rattling?

[mitchellgruen]

I got them from Musicians Friend. Its not something around them thats rattling, I picked them up and the rattling sound remains.

[David Nahmani]

Then it sounds to me like both tweeters are busted, sorry!

[mitchellgruen]

I turned down the volume in my Logic project, that seemed to solve the problem! Was I just sending the monitors too hot of an input signal?

[David Nahmani]

I'm not in your room so I don't know how loud you're listening... but the monitors should be able to withstand a "certain" level. If you were listening at a level that was hurting your ears then it's possible that the signal was just too hot. If your ears weren't hurting, then the KRK should be able to reproduce them without distorting.

 

PS: you shouldn't be controlling your monitoring level from your Logic project! You should be controlling it with the volume knobs in the back of the KRKs. The level of your Logic project affects the level of the file you're going to bounce. Or.... were you clipping the stereo output channel strip in that Logic project?