Hey guys, nice to join you! Well, I've recently begun overhauling my car's sound system because I blew my factory speakers and finally have a job to afford doing something about it. So, I've been advised that Alpine is the way to go and I tend to agree so far. Here are my comments/gripes/questions as of right now and I was hoping you might be able to help me out...
My Specs: Alpine HU - CDA-9847 (18W RMS x 4) Alpine 6.5" Door Speakers - SPS-170A (40W RMS) Alpine 3.5" Dash - SPS-80A (15W RMS) Alpine 6x9" Rear - SPR-69LP (55W RMS)
Ok, well my number one issue is the bass output of any/all of the speakers. The 6x9's in the back sound great do a good deal of thumping but I seem to remember my factory speakers producing a greater bass output than these. So, in an attempt to increase the bass output, I just turn the bass all the way up on my HU and instead of a thumpy, pounding feeling, I get an annoying "humming", lengthy vibration. With this, the front speakers don't seem to respond well either as their sound quality GREATLY decreases (I assume this is by design as they are meant to produce highs) and the sound becomes distorted and a little crackly. So, I'm guessing that whatever the HU is doing to the output to increase the bass is a pretty lame attempt and ends up just making everything sound shitty. Am I correct in this assumption?
This leads me to the next logical question of, well then how do I increase my bass output of my 6x9's without altering the effects of my front speakers (I'm trying not to purchase subs right now as my plan is not to blow up the neighborhood but rather have a cool thumpy feeling when I drive). I know the things are capable of MUCH more than they do right now because I've seen their potential at certain parts of some songs. IF an amplifier is a possible solution here, what style/kind/power rated amplifier am I looking at here? I've read that a simple 100W amp should do the trick but I'm worried that if ONLY my rear speakers are amplified that their volume will increase also and just drown out the rest of the car. Basically I'm just trying to increase their "thump" without blasting them louder than the front speakers. I think I've typed enough about this topic, you guys should have the idea by now...
Another question on my mind has to do with the wiring. I've been told two things: A)Make sure that the ground is connected to the '-' end and the voltage is connected to the '+' end. It doesn't matter too much if you get these mixed up, just make sure all of your speakers are connected in the same fashion. B)You want to have one of the speakers (in a pair) connected one way and the other connected the other, if you don't do this, the bass of one will cancel the bass of the other and you get a muffled sound. Aren't these two statements contradictory? It's a little confusing, especially since the wiring in my car is all different colors in different places and my old speakers' terminals are neither labeled nor have any size difference.
Finally, the guage wire I've been using is just standard home theater speaker wire... is this good or bad?
Thanks for reading guys, I look forward to your response(s)!
The headunit making the speakers sound bad...yes if you turn the bass up they will distort as you have seen, the only real solution I can give you is to buy some subs. Even throwing an amplifier on the rear speakers is less than optimal because it will be putting the soundstage behind you (in concerts etc, you almost always have the sound come from in front of you).
Statement B just doesn't make sense, ignore that, statement A is legitimate.
Home theater speaker wire works, but it's more prone to noise interference because it was not made for the car audio environment-most car audio wire is shielded against outside noise. 16 gauge is good.
Ultimately, you want the focus of the sound to be on the front speakers, I don't even have my rear speakers turned on because, honestly, they ruin the sound. If you could get a component set of speakers and hook up an amp to those it would sound much better. Of course for components to really sound good you need a subwoofer, then you can cut off the low frequencies(below 80hz would be good) and the components would really sound nice.