Boston PRO60's - Something not sounding right - Help Please

[lostdaytomorrow 10+ year member]

Well I finally got a set of these bad boys a few days ago and finally finished the install. The MDF baffles took the most time, and the doors were already fully deadened.

Well, something doesn't sound right with the speakers. I got them BNIB from a guy on the forums, and they were in perfect condition when they got here so I don't think it's a problem with the drivers.

I'm running them on a ZX850.2 which puts out a ton of power (295w x 2 @ 4 ohms).

Well these are 3 ohm drivers so even more than that if they could handle it.

So the gain on my amp isn't even up 1/4 of the way and the drivers bottom out and just sound bad basically. I tested the output of the amp at this gain level and it was giving me ~120 watts to each side. These components should laugh at this power, but they don't. I don't have the tweets installed yet because the harness to wire the tweeter terminals is missing but I'll be getting it soon. I assume not having the tweets hooked up has nothing to do with the mids acting funny though.

I have the crossovers set correctly to component and not coaxial and all of the wiring is 100% perfect with 12 awg.

In order to alleviate the problem, I've set a highpass on the amp at ~120 hz. and this of course kills the midbass but at least the drivers don't sound like shit and still play the midrange. The drivers can get very loud without distorting with no mid-bass as well but of course the gains are still set down at about 1/4 on the ZX850.2.

Is this a common problem with components or what's the deal here? Am I missing something obvious? The drivers will put out a little midbass (enough to rattle the hell out of the wiring harnesses for the power windows/locks in the door (which will be fixed soon) but not near as much as I expected without bottoming out (at least I think that's what it is).

Maybe I'm just expecting too much.

Thanks for the help.

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[Etac 10+ year member]

make sure all your bass boost are at 0

and also test the voice coils with a dmm

 

[Sunfire01 10+ year member]

The biggest thing ive noticed is that turning off all loudness features, and EQs boosting lower freqs, and making sure amp is not clipping with usually cover everything. But also test the amp with some other speakers (of coarse setting gain to their RMS). Also, if you have air leaks between the front of the speaker and the back, they wont play right. It seems though that you have some sort of setting on boosting freqs to distortion..

 

[lostdaytomorrow 10+ year member]

I'm running a stock headunit with an LOC for signal so there's no boosting of low frequencies or anything going on. I did buy the amp used, so it's possible something is wrong with it (this is the first time I've hooked it up).

I've tested the coils with a DMM and they read exactly 2.9 ohms so they're good to go.

I actually do have a bit if a gap between the baffle and the sheetmetal of the door in some spots, I will go pick up some non-hardening clay today and fill in the holes.

I still haven't figured out how to mount the tweeters using the terminals they use. I've called Boston the last two days and no one ever picks up so I've left a message yesterday but still haven't got a call back. The terminals on the tweeter cups are tiny and there's no spade terminal that is small enough, but they do include some wiring which looks like it's what should be used, but the terminal on that wiring is actually too small. Very frustrating.

Well, thanks for the tips guys, I'll be sure to fill in those little gaps today with the clay.

If anyone has any other ideas I'm all ears.

 

[lostdaytomorrow 10+ year member]

Well I added the non-hardening clay around the baffles to seal them up real nice and it made a little bit of an improvement but I'm still getting distortion when the volume is up even a little bit.

Just to put this into perspective, I had my rears unhooked while doing all of this, and if I plug them back in and turn the volume up to 3/4 on the HU while the gain is at a position where the distortion will not happen the rear fill drowns out the PRO60's. The PRO60's sound really good at low volumes though.

 

[Tonyguy 10+ year member]

make sure your polarity is ok.

 

[Etac 10+ year member]

how good is the stock HU? most will begin to clip before max volume.. maybe you should try matching your gains to a lower volume number on the radio

and even tho you prolly have already - make sure the bass boost on the amp itself is off.

and what did you try crossing them at besides the 120?

 

[lostdaytomorrow 10+ year member]

Well the amp is mounted in the trunk, so really I can't adjust it and stay in the car at the same time, but right now it's at about 150 hz. and seems to be working the best (stopping them from bottoming out but not killing ALL of the mid-bass).

The bass boost is definitely off on the 850.2. The gains are at about 10 oclock on the amp, any higher and they just get distortion up the yin yang when i turn the volume up.

Maybe I'll try setting the gain at a lower volume though, because it is possible the HU is sending a clipped signal or something I guess? It's an '06 Civic.

Thanks for the help this far guys.

Phase is 100% checked and ok. Still haven't talked to Boston yet about how to mount the dang tweeters without soldering the wire onto the terminals though.

This is what the tweet terminals look like:

Too small for even a 22 awg female spade terminal... Ridiculous. They included wiring that is supposed to be used that already has females on one end but they are actually too small and don't go onto the terminal. Might just be a QC issue on their side or something, I'm not sure because they won't call me back. I've left them voicemails two days in a row now, and now it's the weekend.

It's really cool listening to music without tweets.

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

Well the amp is mounted in the trunk, so really I can't adjust it and stay in the car at the same time, but right now it's at about 150 hz. and seems to be working the best (stopping them from bottoming out but not killing ALL of the mid-bass).
The bass boost is definitely off on the 850.2. The gains are at about 10 oclock on the amp, any higher and they just get distortion up the yin yang when i turn the volume up.

Maybe I'll try setting the gain at a lower volume though, because it is possible the HU is sending a clipped signal or something I guess? It's an '06 Civic.

Thanks for the help this far guys.

Phase is 100% checked and ok. Still haven't talked to Boston yet about how to mount the dang tweeters without soldering the wire onto the terminals though.

This is what the tweet terminals look like:

Too small for even a 22 awg female spade terminal... Ridiculous. They included wiring that is supposed to be used that already has females on one end but they are actually too small and don't go onto the terminal. Might just be a QC issue on their side or something, I'm not sure because they won't call me back. I've left them voicemails two days in a row now, and now it's the weekend.

It's really cool listening to music without tweets.

why not mount the tweets on to the mids using the adapter for the time being? they snap right in.

 

[lostdaytomorrow 10+ year member]

why not mount the tweets on to the mids using the adapter for the time being? they snap right in.

Yeah, that is an option, but that requires running another wire through the door jamb. I had to take both doors off the hinges to run that wire...

Alas, no dice.