I just roughly finished hooking up my focal 136k front components to my pioneer premier 4ch amp gm-x1034 (wired to channel A, channel B will be connected to rears this week (ran out of time)). The amp is rated at 65W RMS @ 4 ohms. The deck being used to control everything is a pioneer premier p8mp.
My question is that when I crank it up real loud, I start to get distortion, before I thought I would. I mean it goes pretty loud and stays clear, but I expected more. I know the amp isn't the greatest and the head unit may not be either but they were part of a pretty big pioneer premier package deal I got for very cheap. I don't think they are the WORST pieces of equipment I could get?
Also, I have not had the time to play with all of the crossover settings (I am using Focal's crossover that came with the 136k but it is not adjustable that I know of) and EQ settings, which I'm sure will help. I did lower the "Low" "Mid" and "High" EQ settings on the deck and this helped out some. The distortion is predominately noticeable in the bass. It sounds to me that the speakers could handle more, but the amp is distorting? Is this probably the case?
Would I notice a SIGNIFICANT difference if I switched to a better amp? What is a high quality 4ch amp that would give me awesome sound quality to use the focals to their potential? (Not necissarily wattage wise, they are rated at 70 watts nominal, so I think 65W isn't too bad.. I meant clarity wise). I was looking at the JL 300/4, that is 75W rms @ 4 ohms. Is this a good amp? Will it be considerably clearer at loud volumes? Is it likely that my lack of clarity at high volumes is in indeed in the amp? Or could it be the head unit? Could it be the tuning (EQ settings). What is the most likely scenario?
I have not hooked up the subs yet, or rears, I was just anxious to try out what I had finished already (the fronts).
You may want to forget the rears, and bridge that amp for the fronts only. Or buy a good two channel amp. Your components, well, components take more power than co-axials. Most likely 65W RMS isn't enough.
do you have subs, if so use the amp in high pass mode, take most bass from radio. turna amp all the way down, then turn radio the loudest you would want to hear a song(not all the time listening), then adjust the amp accordingly.
I just played a little more today after I hooked up my rears.
The HPF definitely takes away most of, if not all of, the distortion I was hearing. I definitely need to do some more tuning, like lowering the tweets a few dB to my liking (very very overbearing right now), but the HPF made all the difference. The deck options are 50Hz 80Hz and 125Hz. There is a significant difference in each. Even the 50Hz makes a huge difference. Makes me wonder what the hell the crossovers that came with the Focals are doing, lol.
At any rate, I was able to find some settings I liked, and even bring it more alive after by increasing the EQ settings I had dropped.
My other question now, is that my 6x9s can SCREAM without distorting, but the focals begin to distort as I near the very upper volumes. Not the same type of terrible distorting it WAS doing, but they don't sound as good IMO as the pioneer premier 6x9s in the rear. I still need to adjust the crossover to lower the tweeters, I think this will help a little, but I'm not sure it will "fix" them completely. Maybe I do need to dynamat? There isn't rattling, but maybe it would still help alot? I really couldn't afford to sound deaden everything yet, so I have that planned for the future. For now I had just stuffed some fiberglass insulation into the area behind the 5.25" drivers. Seemed like a good idea at the time, lol.
At any rate, most of my problems are probably going to go away as I tweak and tune, so sorry if I'm wasting your time guys. Keep the comments coming anyway, if they are still applicable!!
Man, you only get 50Hz, 80Hz, and 125Hz? I have like clear up to 220Hz in increments of like 20Hz, starting with 40Hz. I like having that many choices.