[-Keith-]

Center Speaker Resonance/Rattle Fix

My centre Logic 7 speaker started making an irritating resonance rattle during certain tones/frequencies. Various mid-range vocals, certain bass frequencies and even certain kick drums were creating a 'buzz' from the speaker area which was killing the music for me. I like to listen to loud music on the often dull commute, so this was eating away at my relaxed disposition, killing my vibe. So tonight I tackled it... And with great success I'm pleased to report!


It went like this, if anyone else has the same annoyance and wishes to try the same:


You will need
- Some black foam, medium density (not too think or too thin)
- Craft knife
- Superglue
- Flathead driver
- Pliers


1) Remove speaker cover / vent trim from car. The dash is soft, so depress it with a trim tool to get underneath the edges of the cover, pop out a clip and work your way around. You won't break anything if you're methodical.

2) Carefully open up each of the tabs holding the metal centre grille in place using a flathead, and some pliers to straighten them again neatly. Push out and remove it:






The reverse of the metal mesh has very thin foam attached to it (see above), and it was evident this had become completely compressed around the edges, and across most of the centre too. My idea was to beef this back up.


3) Using some foam I found and a craft knife, I cut some thin (circa 3mm) sheets buy hand:




4) I then cut these into strips, to place around the most compressed parts of the factory foam, which is all around the edge. These were attached with a very frugal amount of super glue to avoid any adhesive seeping through the mesh.




5) The edges all done and glued in place:




6) It was also clear the centre of the grille had been resting on the slats of the plastic cover, becoming imprinted and compressed. So I thought I'd have a go at trying to cut a large piece to place in the centre.

This was like trying to slice a perfect slice of bread, and was a bit tricky to get a large piece uniform width, so I did it in two halves to make it easier, and this worked out well.

These centre pieces would be held in place like the filling of a sandwich, so I didn't glue these, again for fear it might seep though to the grill and look terrible.




7) Mesh refitted to the plastic cover, and squeezed down flush as I re-folded the tabs back over:






8) Clip back in situ on the dash, and test bump some tunes.




The added foam makes zero diffenece to volume, but has completely removed any frequency resonance at high volumes.