are SUV's bad for sound quality?

[Blados 10+ year member]

Can I look at it too? I live about 20 minutes from Columbia. I even go to school there. Maybe I can figure out why it sounds like crap. Oh, and if you want, you can hear my xxx's //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Spr0ket 10+ year member]

I've tried everything possible. I've had gain set wide open, and almost shut. I like to keep the amount of noise allowed to enter the system (gain) in the middle.
I h ave high pass set to about 120-130Hz. I have low pass set to 80Hz. I have bass set to -1 on my head unit. And I have even tried turning it all the way down to -7 but it still doesnt help the Polk's out.

I have treble set to +2. Again, I've even tried turning treble all the way up to +6 but the Polks still sound like garbage.

I have BBE set to off. I have tried using BBE but I dont like it. I have my bass emphasis set to 80Hz on the head unit. I have treble emphasis set to 10,000Hz.

I have my subwoofer set to moderate levels. It has its own amp (Rockford 500 PUNCH amp) and that sounds great. I have tried listening to the Polks with the Kicker turned off, but the Polks still sound like liquid chit.

This is all well and good, but it doesn't tell me what the problem is. Is the bass on the speakers bad? Is there just no pressure coming from the speakers themselves? Are you getting a cancelation at vocal frequencies? Do the high ranges fall short?

Take a few things out of the equation by turning off he sub and any other rear fill you may have. Fade the polks all the way to the left, and then to the right. If they sound good on a single side then your phase is out on one of the speakers and all it will take is to just invert the phase. If the high end sounds dull when both speakers are playing, then it's the component tweeters that are out of phase. Keep in mind that it is possible the person who hooked up the speakers may have inverted the phase on one side so you may have to test that.

When I do the above testing for phase alignment, I try to play the component set at full range and low volumes. It helps isolate problem spots.

When describing the problem, please include a very thorough description of why they sound bad. Are you getting too much distortion? Do they sound hollow? Are they not putting out enough in comparison to the sub? How were the gains setup on your amps?

To give you an idea, I could tell you that I had pancakes from IHop the other day that tasted like cr ap. If I also told you the pancakes were cold, tasted burnt, and they didn't have the syrup I wanted you would then grasp why they tasted like cr ap. Details man... write a novel on the stuff so we can help.

 

[JeepLiberty 10+ year member]

ok, sorry sproket. Here are the details of why they dont sound good.

At moderate volume levels (say around volume level 15--- (max is 35)) they sound OK. Now, if I turn it up to about 30 (and yes, this level of volume IS necessary to hear my music with the windows down). They distort and dont keep the sound together.

Here is a very detailed example. On linkin park's meteroa CD, track #4, "Lying away from me". When Chester Bennington is hollering his guts out, the Polk's "sputter" his voice out. In other words, the main thing they distort is heavy vocals.

But, if I put in Seal, "Kiss from a Rose", these Polks can really shine. THey still don't sound like $299/pair to me, but they sound pretty good.

THe biggest problem I have is that my entry level system on my old car: Aiwa head unit, Pioneer 3-way speakers (alpine amp) and 2 JL Audio 12" WO's (on a different alpine amp) SOUND GREAT. On the exact same linkin park track I am talking about, the Pioneer speakers would BELT chester bennington's voice (and I mean that to be a GOOD thing)

Also on the polks, electric guitar does not sound particularly good. It is like electric guitar is hanging in the back of the stage--- when in most songs, electric guitar is heavily emphasized. On Disturbed's new CD, electric guitar is heavily used on the last track. These polks cannot do it justice. My cheap $25 dollar altec lansing computer speakers can play disturbed better than the polks.

BTW- I am going to Columbia tweeter this Thursday at 4:30pm. I will be leaving straight from work in Annapolis, so right when I get there I gotta have the install dude get right to work b4 tweeter closes. If you would like to swing by and hear them afterwards (I know that defeats the purpose, but still) you can.

 

[JeepLiberty 10+ year member]

Fixed it----- replaced the tweeters, then replaced the Eclipse 40Wx5 with a Polk 100Wx4 amp. The speakers sing like a bird now. No distortion even at EXTREMELY high volumes. Man am I happy.

Tweeter came through with making a customer happy. Im just happy knowing that for once the problem is TOTALLY fixed. I gave these speakers the workout of a lifetime before we left the store. They are good to go, and will never run out of steam again!

 

[chadillac3 10+ year member]

From my personal experience with having systems in several cars to going to a smaller SUV (05 Xterra), I found the SUV quite a bit more difficult to get the sound I like. I'm not a typical ca.com person in that I want 2 15's to have "SQ," so the bass "advantages" didn't help me. I found the response of the sub in the SUV to even boomier than the cars I owned and had to make more cuts.

Big part of the problem is factory speaker locations. In most cars, tweeters are either in the a-pillars or in sail panels. In most SUVs/trucks, they're often up in the dash firing up at the windshield, and that is about the single worst place for them. Once I put the tweeters in the a-pillars, it helped a ton with reflections.

In addition, the way a person sits in a car vs. an SUV means that you're normally quite a bit closer to the mids as you typically don't recline as much due to the seat positions. Add this, plus the fact SUVs are typically wider than most cars, and you're going to be a hell of a lot closer to one mid than the other.

Can this be overcome? Sure, but it's going to take more work...but most people on here wouldn't really know the difference.

 

[Bumpin' Yota 10+ year member]

ok, sorry sproket. Here are the details of why they dont sound good.
At moderate volume levels (say around volume level 15--- (max is 35)) they sound OK. Now, if I turn it up to about 30 (and yes, this level of volume IS necessary to hear my music with the windows down). They distort and dont keep the sound together.

Here is a very detailed example. On linkin park's meteroa CD, track #4, "Lying away from me". When Chester Bennington is hollering his guts out, the Polk's "sputter" his voice out. In other words, the main thing they distort is heavy vocals.

But, if I put in Seal, "Kiss from a Rose", these Polks can really shine. THey still don't sound like $299/pair to me, but they sound pretty good.

THe biggest problem I have is that my entry level system on my old car: Aiwa head unit, Pioneer 3-way speakers (alpine amp) and 2 JL Audio 12" WO's (on a different alpine amp) SOUND GREAT. On the exact same linkin park track I am talking about, the Pioneer speakers would BELT chester bennington's voice (and I mean that to be a GOOD thing)

Also on the polks, electric guitar does not sound particularly good. It is like electric guitar is hanging in the back of the stage--- when in most songs, electric guitar is heavily emphasized. On Disturbed's new CD, electric guitar is heavily used on the last track. These polks cannot do it justice. My cheap $25 dollar altec lansing computer speakers can play disturbed better than the polks.

BTW- I am going to Columbia tweeter this Thursday at 4:30pm. I will be leaving straight from work in Annapolis, so right when I get there I gotta have the install dude get right to work b4 tweeter closes. If you would like to swing by and hear them afterwards (I know that defeats the purpose, but still) you can.

I was about to say, that is distortion generated by a lack of power. Glad you got it fixed! It's interesting how some speakers dang NEED more power than others just to sound good. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif Our (mom and mine) orion HCCA 6s were that way - sounded like isht on just 100watts, but upthe power to 200 and mmmmm mmmmm

 

[JeepLiberty 10+ year member]

I only have one question--- it sounds a tad bit louder coming out of the left side than the right. I have balance set to 0 (neutral position) should I just compensate by balancing a little bit to the Right?

It's not a big deal----- it might just be the fact that the left tweeter is a lot closer to my left ear--- and the right tweeter is much farther away from my right ear.