in car stereo, help!

Gary

Gary

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i just bought an MG ZT-T
the ICE in it is awful, so i upgraded the head unit which improved things a little.
today i replaced the OEM speakers (goodmans apparently) with infinity speakers the same size.
the quality of sounds seems better, but there is hardly any bass and they are much quieter
i only vaguely know what i'm doing. anyone out there got any ideas what could be wrong?

the original setup:
kenwood stereo, 4 x 6" door speakers (one in each door), 4 x tweeters placed seperately in the door

now:
better kenwood, 4 x 6" door speakers with tweeters built in. 4 x door tweeters are still in place and connected too.

for the door speakers i put in the inifinity crossovers. the original wires that went to the OEM speakers are now connected to the crossovers and the crossovers connected to the tweeter and woofer connections on the new infinity speakers

any ideas guys?
 
No bass and reduced volume would suggest in correct polarity of the speak cables to me ;)

Have you had to cut the OEM plugs off?


A good test for correct +/- involves ripping the head unit out and bridging the cables with a 1.5v battery (AA)

if the positive cable is connected to the positive terminal of the speaker, the cone will move outwards when the circuit is powered.

if when you touch the + on the AA battery to what you summise is the + cable/terminal the cone goes in....you've mis wired your speaker.

You should be able to check this without removing the speakers again :)


Also, if the speakers have tweeters built in, disconnect the others as it'll confuse the HF



edit to add.....what speakers are they?
 
thanks for that - much appreciated

i did cut off the plug on the wires and connected them to the new speakers (via the crossover). they could very well be the wrong way around as i dumbly assumed it didnt matter.

speakers are INFINITY KAPPA 62.7i

thanks again!
 
Surely the only way to get decent bass in a car is to fit a sub - that's been my experience anyway (and stop calling him Shirley!)
Paul ;)
 
Reversing the polarity on the speaker cables would not affect the volume or bass / treble to any great deal . What will **** it up is if you don't impedance match the cross over to the output of the head unit.

ie if the head unit has a 16 ohm output the cross over unit must have the same .
 
if you've managed to incorrectly wire a speaker up, it WILL affect it as opposing sound waves cancel each other out.

It's very very easy to mis wire a speaker, i've seen production cars delivered to customers in that state!!!
 
digitalfailure said:
if you've managed to incorrectly wire a speaker up, it WILL affect it as opposing sound waves cancel each other out.

It's very very easy to mis wire a speaker, i've seen production cars delivered to customers in that state!!!
Click to expand...

Not wanting to sound ;) picky but wiring speakers out of phase will cause frequency dependant problems only in context with room/vehicle acoustics. You 'could' lose a spot frequency but to supress a whole band would be some achievement.

I once wired my home sound system "out of phase" by mistake , something about the sound bugged me for a week but nobody else noticed :thinking:
 
when i had my mondeo i wired speakers in out of phase and lost the bass, very easily done!
 
interesting to hear that no one noticed the OOPS,

Wiring one speaker incorrectly and placing the speakers close together and turning the amp up high is recognised as being one of the best ways of running new speakers and amplifiers in when new. Mainly because of the reduction in volume caused by the exact movement of one of the cones in a reverse direction to the other.

:)
 
matty said:
when i had my mondeo i wired speakers in out of phase and lost the bass, very easily done!
Click to expand...

Fair enough :thinking: , must be some weird thing with in-car systems :shrug: .


don't just learn weird stuff about photgraphy on this forum:lol:
 
I know that SEAT fell foul of poor sound and reduced volume on the 99 Leon, the root cause on a batch of cars iirc was having the right side of the car audio out of phase.

And The french bloke has done it, which....while doesn't surprise me!....sort of proves the theory.

even though he works in an audio acoustic insulation industry :eek:
 
You will probably find you need to fit an external amplifier to run the speakers as the headunit won't be powerful enough.
 
ideal setup would be headunit (kenwood make foodmixers dont they?)
fed into 4 channel amp, and then the 4 channels feeding component speakers and crossovers, use the tweeters supplied with the main cones as these will be matched to the speaker, the OEM ones probably wont be best ever. there should also be an adjustment screw in the crossover to allow adjustment, maybe your sending too much in the way of lower frequencies to the tweeters instead of the main cone.


then obviously you want a sub and a 2 chnnel amp.....
2 channels bridged into a sub (size dependant on musical tastes)
 
LOL, the guys just fitting different head unit and speakers into a family car......not trying to turn it into a Corsa :eek:
 
In my experience, I'd agree in part with the phasing of the speakers.
BUT if you are running components via crossovers and not amping them you will not get anything like the performance you are after, Also a 4x6 speaker will not exactly produce much bass!!!

My last car had a good set up producing 134Db However my Honda with its standard kit has some really great sound without a sub - its factory set up with 8 speakers is superb, good bass and great sound. all from 6x9's in the back shelf!!!

Get bigger speakers if you want bass, or amp them.. or both! :)
 
honda?? what you got then Andy?
 
Got an Accord I-CDTI for a while... until I get me Skoda.. vRS :)
 
scoff said:
Got an Accord I-CDTI for a while... until I get me Skoda.. vRS :)
Click to expand...

accord enthusiast group.....hmmmmm, not really got that ring has it:p
 
I think a certain company might object to setting up a webby called AEG though ;)
 
Lol, I have NO interest in starting ANY more clubs thanks!!! :)
 
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