Just installed new system, sounds like crap

[lbrowne]

I know its something minor. I have a nice JVC headunit and Eclipse speakers all around. I swear they don't sound as good as the stock tape deck speakers.

I'm thinking theres an inline resistor or something to those rear speakers I have to bypass, note: theres NO stock amps in the doors in my car, someone has indicated the stock tape deck has the amp internal.

But I do know of some GMs and especially Ford, they have this thing close to the speaker that will cut power/bass signal to almost protect the speakers...

is it possible mine has that because it sounds like crap.

i doubt its a miswired speaker, they all play fine. (wouldn't a miswired speaker not play at all?)

any help would be appreciated.

thanks,

lbrowne

[Eswift]

look at the wiring diagram for your car, see if there are any other modules in-line with the speakers.

if you cant find anything, try running your own wires (just straight from the unit to the speakers) and see if that sounds better

[creophus]

I know you don't want to hear this...but check the wiring and if necessary install an amp. I tried to go without an amp and ended up blowing my speakers because of the distortion my Sony head unit put out. I replaced the speakers, installed an amp, gave them plenty of CLEAN power and have never had a problem with them.

[lbrowne]

thanks for the input, but i'm sorry creophus that can not be the solution. the reason being is that with the stock speakers and the JVC headunit it sounded better than what it does now.

if a speaker had the wires mismatched, it wouldn't play sound at all right?

the fronts appear to be fine, the rears are purely robbed of any bass output, no matter how much i crank the bass settings.

i think its some module or something..... i'm going to look when i get home tonight.

[Eswift]

if a speaker had the wires mismatched, it wouldn't play sound at all right?

no, they would play out of phase.

[Eswift]

sounds like there is a high pass filter in line with the rear speakers. this consists of a resistor an cap in parallel. look for this.

[creophus]

Perhaps I misunderstood your previous post lbrowne...It does sound like something is robbing you of the full range of sound. Eswift makes a very good point. One easy way to test this is to shuffle the speakers around and if necessary run your own wire to the rear speakers. That way there can be no "mystery" between the head unit and the rear speakers. It's also possible that something is being grounded out. Make sure the wires are damaged or frayed or pinched. Running new wires should solve the issue.

[lbrowne]

hrmmm. i already ran new wires the driver's door speaker because the old stocker wasn't working at all and sure enough it was completely cut away.

this is quite possible its a high pass filter. i'll be looking for those tonight as all the wiring looked to be good.

where do the rear speaker wiring come out to under the front dash? most definitely on the driver's side somewhere...i found the front driver side speaker clip.

when you say out of phase...can you explain or describe what it sounds like? i getting no bass power at all, and it almost sounds like i have crappy speakers that cant handle bass even though they can.

again the front ones appear to be giving good sound.

i'm not doubting in my wiring frenzy i tapped something wrong. never done it before but its possible. if one is done wrong does it affect all speakers or just the one?

[bruinbear714]

Sounds like you don't have a crossover network. By saying the speaker can't handle bass, do you mean it comes out distorted even at the slightest volumes?

Somewhere between your speakers and the amp (whether it's an external amp, or the one internal to the headunit) should be a high-pass crossover set at around 60-200Hz. THe crossover point is usually set by manufacturer, but the point is it'll get rid of the low frequencies that's not suppose to go to the midbass/tweeter speakers.

Try this... turn down your bass controls and turn up the volume... does your speaker still distort? If not, then that's your problem... if it still distorts then you might have a wiring problem somewhere.

[lbrowne]

yeah it distorts at all volume levels for the base. the voice doesn't sound too bad though.

i went and bought new wires to run through the whole car, i just need to know where to tap to run to the rears.

if i run new wires right from the connectors that is after the wiring harness, i figured i should be ok.

i'm not ruling out that i have a wire backwards somewhere, but would that one speaker wired wrong affect all the speakers? or just the one thats wired wrong?

[lbrowne]

Update, I swapped the wires around in the rear speakers.

with the balance to one side all into one speaker in the rear, it sounds good with good bass, same if you go to the other side.

put them together and all bass is gone and sounds like crap. (some distortion)

the front speakers however sound good if i have the fade to the front and both of them going.

just for my own info, is the red wire in the rear for an s13 the ground? because i now have it wired to the speaker wire with the black stripe on it.

[tejesh83]

A red colored wire being ground is unlikely, but not impossible. And yes, one wrong wired speaker could screw everything up.

The head unit harness most likely labels all the connection going out of it, right? Left Front +, Left Front -, etc...In your dash, where you connect the wires from your vehicle to the connector. What colors do you see? Now go to the speaker you have in question. What 2 colored wires do you see there? Its safe to assume that this pair of colored wires are the wires for that particular speaker. Wire up the harness accordingly.

It's possible that the colors wont match if there is some sort of inline device b/w the harness and the speaker (but i wouldnt count on it). Also, unless you mucked something up while installing your new stereo or removing the old, the wires should be fine as you said it sounded great before.

Also, is it possible you have ur JVC set to mute or low vol? My kenwood reciever had this 'feature' which lowers the vol at a push of button so that you can hear what else is goin on. I believe it was called ATT. When ATT was on and the reciever was cranked up, It would drop the vol and remove most bass. I could still adjust the vol and here something coming out of the speakers, but just not with full power.

[lbrowne]

its not ATT but my deck has that also

i think my rear speakers are out of pahse, i'm going to switch the wires back on one of the speakers because right now i have them wired the same, someone on another trusted board said to switch one speaker back to the way i had it and it should fix my problem.

it seems my driver side rear speaker is the one that has some distortion/noise in it when i put all the fade and balance to that speaker, a muffling noise not heard in any other speaker in the car. i know the speaker isn't blwon but maybe i shouldn't have changed those wires.

i'll change it back tonight.

thanks for the tips thus far.

lbrowne

[Sygerwulf]

yeah out of phase speakers sound like crap. It's easy to dissern because a pair of speakers in phase with eachother will have a flat, even sound, but a pair of speakers out of phase will have a sort of hollow, empty sound and bass frenquences cancel out. I'm guessing you just have one wire wrong.And to agree with Creophus, adding an amp will do loads for your sound that you didn't think it could. I've had my mids/highs amped over a year and a half now and have never had any problems out of my speakers. Amps are good

[lbrowne]

i switched the wires around on the driver side rear and she sounds good now. i still get some noise in that speaker that is only notcieable at low volumes, especially with just the radio playing but i'm certain its just an old wire showing its age.

thanks guys!

lbrowne

[diamondj30]

just wanted to say for reference that most mids on the passenger side of comp.sound quality cars ar out of phase so that the proper imaging can take place.but then we dont run rear speaks.but if yuou dont no what your doing out of phase can be dabilatating for the speak.eevery car is different.hers something to play with.for fun.turn off rear speaks,now listen to front speaks if the imaging is side biased ,otherwords sounds like its coming from the speaks hook up right mid out of phase,listeh again.hopefully it would have shifted your center to the middle of car.never new you had a dash speak huh.