Stereo Help

Daedalus504 · 12-30-2007, 08:13 PM

I previously had the following installed:
Pioneer AVIC-D3
Wicked CAS Sub Enclosure/JLW1 Subs/Amp (I don't even know which it is, JL)

Anyway, It sounded great, it had a nice punch to it.

Six months later:

Today I had the following installed:
-Boston SX95s in the doors...
-Infinity Kappa 32.7cf in the rear pillars
-Earthquake TW-25S tweets in the front dash.
-Alpine PDX 4.100 Amp, powering only the speakers not the subs...

It is crystal clear...no complaints but, it seems like my bass is gone, where the hell has it gone!? The subs seem to be working, but the bang just isn't there...The door speakers produce at least as much low frequency as the factory doors speakers, so I'm bewildered...

Is it possible that a setting on the sub amp was tampered with?

Or what are my other likely culprits?

Do note, I plan on bringing it back to the shop in the morning...

Thanks in advance.

AceTechno · 12-30-2007, 08:50 PM

First off I have a hard time believing that the door speakers has as much punch as your JL sub. Chances are 2 things. One the amp volume settings on the door speakers is way to loud or the amp setting on the sub amp is way to low. Check your level adjustments. Also if it is true that you are getting a lot of bass from the door speakers is because the crossover either in the D3 or on the amp is not engaged. double check them settings also. This just came to mind, You could have the woofer out of phase from your door speakers causing a sound cancellation in the lows. You can check this by fadding out the fronts or reversing the speaker wire at the JL sub. Sounds like to me the people putting in this stuff just hooked it up and did not balance out everything as they should have. I can RANT on this again as I have done way to many times in the past. Do this. Sit in the car with the installer and do not leave untill you like they way it sounds. If you do not get it like the way you want it and the shop or installer tells you this is as good as it gets ask for your money back and tell them you are gonna take your business else ware. Sounds like to me also since they did not balance out everything and tune your system that they did not know what they were doing in first place. Sorry to here that you fell victim of the dreaded "hook and go, now pay" syndrom. Better luck next time.

fj_tonka_toy09 · 12-30-2007, 08:50 PM

It's possible that your higher quality aftermarket speakers have overcome the bass of the W1 sub that you have in there. The sub amp might be a low wattage amp too. You might want to upgrade to a JL W3 to get some good bass back in there. Hopefully Nazar will chime in, he should have some good advice for you. Good luck.

P.S. Check your subwoofer crossover on the D3 and make sure the subwoofer is switched to "on."

sandman450f · 12-30-2007, 08:57 PM

Assuming you have checked the settings like Ace Techno mentioned, I would vote that the polarities on the door speakers have been reversed from each other, or are out of phase from the sub.

AceTechno · 12-30-2007, 09:04 PM

Quote:

sandman450f previously said:

Assuming you have checked the settings like Ace Techno mentioned, I would vote that the polarities on the door speakers have been reversed from each other, or are out of phase from the sub.

I agree with the sandman. This is tough to trouble shoot, short of taking all the speakers out and checking the wires going to them from the amps. Most installers use a CL2 rated flat speaker wire that has a line or rib on the side. Some use a CL3 rated Jacketed wire that has a red/black twisted pair in it. This is much easy to see how it was hooked up when giving it a visual inspection. Don't discount the fine tune adjustment on everything as well. This is the trick to making it sound good. A little lower here, a little louder here, little less bass in here, and a little more mid here and there. Ya them adjustment. Good luck

**k44** · 12-30-2007, 09:14 PM

You could try reversing phase of your subwoofer, using the audio adjustment screen on the AVIC D3. Takes 30 seconds to try...

Daedalus504 · 12-30-2007, 10:04 PM

Let me update this after driving around for about an hour and a half, and falling on my ass while playing with the settings in a local parking lot. (damn iceee)

The problem is NOT the subs, and I apologize for my premature assumption...

The subs are doing just fine, it is the door speakers, they are producing probably 1/10th of the low frequency that the factory speakers were with only the AVIC-D3 amp...

So my sound field, feels a bit emptier because there is no low frequency by me when I'm driving...or to reword, little low frequency....

Daedalus504 · 12-30-2007, 10:07 PM

Quote:

AceTechno previously said:

First off I have a hard time believing that the door speakers has as much punch as your JL sub. Chances are 2 things. One the amp volume settings on the door speakers is way to loud or the amp setting on the sub amp is way to low. Check your level adjustments. Also if it is true that you are getting a lot of bass from the door speakers is because the crossover either in the D3 or on the amp is not engaged. double check them settings also. This just came to mind, You could have the woofer out of phase from your door speakers causing a sound cancellation in the lows. You can check this by fadding out the fronts or reversing the speaker wire at the JL sub. Sounds like to me the people putting in this stuff just hooked it up and did not balance out everything as they should have. I can RANT on this again as I have done way to many times in the past. Do this. Sit in the car with the installer and do not leave untill you like they way it sounds. If you do not get it like the way you want it and the shop or installer tells you this is as good as it gets ask for your money back and tell them you are gonna take your business else ware. Sounds like to me also since they did not balance out everything and tune your system that they did not know what they were doing in first place. Sorry to here that you fell victim of the dreaded "hook and go, now pay" syndrom. Better luck next time.

I'm going to vote that the issue is some fine-tuning as you have stated. I have used the shop twice in the past and have been very happy, however they were rushed, it was only supposed to take half a day, instead; they called me 15 minutes before they were closing, and when I drove off, I realized my steering wheel controls were not working...

So is it possible that the lack of bass in the door speakers is due to wiring issues/a lack of fine tuning? (I'm an audio dumbie)

sandman450f · 12-30-2007, 10:38 PM

It very well could be. I would say adj balance all the way to one side, listen to the bass then return balance to center position, if overall bass decreases or ends up empty sorta hollow sounding then they are wired incorrectly

Since you have isolated it to the door speakers another possibility (maybe even likelyhood) is that they have been crossovered to mid and up frequencies only, if its a variable corssover you should be able to adjust by yourself.

**** do the balance check with the sub off, if all checks out/sounds good then turn the sub back on. If you seem to lose the front base again then reverse the phase for the sub on the HU

Daedalus504 · 12-30-2007, 10:49 PM

Quote:

sandman450f previously said:

It very well could be. I would say adj balance all the way to one side, listen to the bass then return balance to center position, if overall bass decreases or ends up empty sorta hollow sounding then they are wired incorrectly

Since you have isolated it to the door speakers another possibility (maybe even likelyhood) is that they have been crossovered to mid and up frequencies only, if its a variable corssover you should be able to adjust by yourself.

I appreciate the advice, I'm going to guess that a cross-over was set in place for mid/highs only as you have stated, because there is just nooooooo bass whatsoever...I have no idea why they would have done this, as we had talked extensively about the entire setup prior to it actually being done...

Is there any reason the Boston SX95s amped shouldn't be able to produce the quality of bass the stockers were producing without an amp?