how can this be?

[g30ffr3y]

my girlfriend has a 125watt JBL sub that i gave
here from my old setup... its in the first box i
ever built complete with actual carpet covering
it... she has a circuit city LOC and 8gauge wiring
kit... my three year old moster cable RCA's... and
my memphis 1000d which has been bench tested
and is officially broken... this is in a 2004 sunfire...

her setup pounds the crap out of mine...

lets review my setup... i have a 12" SE running
off a viper 1200.1 with a 4 gauge wire kit professionally
installed at a local shop... i just have some clear LOC...
the guy at the shop just gave it to me i guess... this is
in a 2004 accord...

her setup is so much better than mine that i will
make her drive places or just driver her car...

one example of how it sounds better is...
track 5 on the gwen stefani has an almost
double bass drum going on along with a
deeper bass line...

on her setup the kick drum sound punches you
in the back and the deep bass note just rolls
along crushing your skull...

on my setup the kick drum is MISSING!!! and the
deep bass note is half assed and sounds like crap...

this is just an example... every song i throw at
the two systems hers is better... hers is like perfect...

fine... so i take her sub, box and amp and put it in
my car... now all of a sudden the setup *****... just
like my setup when its in my car... my setup sounds
like crap in her car...

before i just start going off about the 2 sealed, 2 ported
and 1 bandpass box that ive tried... the memphis and
viper amp... the 3 sets of RCA's... the caraudio.com member
that came out to check out my gear to see if it was ok...
the time i was without my SE's while RE was checking them
out only to tell me they were fine... the first viper amp that
was broken... maybe someone could shed some light
on WHY IS IT LIKE THIS?!?!?

certianly if i were to tell someone that a 125watt JBL sub could
pound the crap out of an RE SE they would tell me i was
nuts... but believe me... im not nuts... her system is perfect...
while mine just plain *****...

[Nikuk]

when we say "it's all in the install" it does mean something. Every setup sounds different in every car. the sunfire probably has much more low end reinforcment then you're accord. not to mention a kajillion other variables. What kind of HU does she have? how are the rear seats designed opposed to yours? how are the rear decks vs. each other? does she have sound deadening? whats the approx airspace of both cabins? whats the distance from the woofer to the tailgate back to the dash? etc, etc, etc...

This is why so many of us go through so very many different attempts to get our sound system to sound good to us.

Install your se & amp into her car in the same direction with the same wattage and same track and see if it sound differnt in her car then yours.....

It will.

There's nothing wrong with your car. It's just nt as acoustically friendly to what you want to hear.

All of this is in my own humble opinion, and I have approved this message.

[JoseMCeee]

Maybe its sumthing with the amps being pulled. Maybe the jbl with that broken amp doesnt pull as much amps and doesnt need that much power to get it moving. Now with the SE and the viper amp, there is a posibility that it might pull too much amps and the car wont keep up with it. Im not too sure on this but if the amp doesnt recieve the voltage it drops in watts. Sometimes if it is really low the amp will just shut off. BUT if it is in between lets say 11v and 14.4, it will stay on, but it loses its power and wont be at its potential. Try checking the voltages with a DMM. See how much u give the amps and how low the voltage drops when the bass hits. Do the same test with ur GFs car.

[ngsm13]

Check out the LOC, some of them are adjustable....turn them up some maybe, i found this out on an install i did...it obviously made a WORLD of difference. peace

NG

[JoseMCeee]

Loc?

[g30ffr3y]

Check out the LOC, some of them are adjustable....turn them up some maybe, i found this out on an install i did...it obviously made a WORLD of difference. peace

NG

i was just going to ask about the LOC...

they only tapped one of my rear speakers into it... it is
adjustable... but there really no way to measure what
exactly im turning up... if i did that would i have to scale
my gains on my amp down?

also...

lets take 2 subs... one that only needs 125 RMS... one that
needs 600 RMS...

if you give the one that only needs 125 to get going say 125-150
which really gets it moving...
and you only give the 600 RMS sub like 400 watts and it doesnt
really move too much...
would the sub being pushed to RMS or above have more SPL than
the sub only powered 2/3rds of its power and isnt really moving...

once we can answer that ive got another stupid question all lined up...

[Nikuk]

Line Out Converter.

[JoseMCeee]

Line Out Converter.

still lost lol. Where is this?

[Nikuk]

converts high level inputs to rca type outputs.

Geoff, have you tried your amp & sub in her car? If so, does she have an LOC also? or an aftermarket deck?

[g30ffr3y]

converts high level inputs to rca type outputs.

Geoff, have you tried your amp & sub in her car? If so, does she have an LOC also? or an aftermarket deck?

before i tried my sub in her car... she made me take it out
because it sounded like crap... i cant argue... there is nothing
i would change about her system as it stands...

her deck is just the pontiac MP3 cabable deck...

her LOC is that one you can get at circuit city for 19.99 by tsunami...

[ngsm13]

converts high level inputs to rca type outputs.

Geoff, have you tried your amp & sub in her car? If so, does she have an LOC also? or an aftermarket deck?

she has a circuit city LOC

But yeah, when i did the LOC...i went into the + AND - of the rear left speaker AND the rear right speaker! Also, turn your gains all the way down...turn the LOC up...like more than half way AT LEAST...then mess with your gains again. peace

NG

edit:
p.s. i have a feeling the amplifier is jut getting a ****** signal

[Nikuk]

NG

edit:
p.s. i have a feeling the amplifier is jut getting a ****** signal

yah... seems so.

I didnt realize your LOC was adjustable...? where? LoL

This is why I installed a deck w/6.5v outputs.

[g30ffr3y]

But yeah, when i did the LOC...i went into the + AND - of the rear left speaker AND the rear right speaker! Also, turn your gains all the way down...turn the LOC up...like more than half way AT LEAST...then mess with your gains again. peace

NG

edit:
p.s. i have a feeling the amplifier is jut getting a ****** signal

the thing about the way they wired the LOC is that they took
2 positive leads and 2 negative leads off just the left rear
speaker and wired it to the LOC one positive and one negative
to each the left and right on the LOC to create the illusion of
actually tapping both sides...

i thought that was a little suspect... but bass is not stereo
anyways... and a + lead is a plus lead and vice versa... so
i let it go as half assed but ok...

[g30ffr3y]

yah... seems so.

I didnt realize your LOC was adjustable...? where? LoL

This is why I installed a deck w/6.5v outputs.

if i could reasonable do a deck i would... its not a $$$ issue... its
just that the interior of my car would be RUINED by changing the
HU...

the LOC has two little dials on it...


i thought i was getting the right signal off the RCA's though???

[JoseMCeee]

so if the amp already has preamp inputs i shouldnt have to mess with it right?
Also it doesnt matter which goes to which because its just left and right?