Coaxial speaker woes.

[RockDoc65]

I need a little help. Here's the background: I have a '92 Buick Skylark with 140,000 miles on it. My A/C is dead so I run with all windows down all the time and deal with tons of road and wind noise. I have a Sony Xplod HU (52x4) and no amplifiers or subs. The stock speakers were starting to sound like crap. They were old school paper with "whizzer" cones. You know, AC Delco's finest. I replaced all four with Blaupunkt, 6.5" 2-ways in back, 4" 2-ways up front. All have adapter plates as the originals were 6x9" in back and 4x6" in front. I opted to go the round instead of oval route cuz round ones are supposed to sound better right.

Here's the rub, it now sounds worse. At low volumes the new speakers might be a little clearer but they are tinny. As you turn the volume up it gets worse. The bass gets boomy and distorted and I think the cones are bottoming out. It sort of sounds like speakers sound in the open air outside their enclosures when the bass gets cancelled out. I'm thinking the adapter plates are too "leaky", letting air get around the speakers to cancel out the bass. It's also possible that the Blaupunkt speakers are just crap. After all they were only $90 total for both pair.

So I need your help sorting this out. Since the car is old I want this to be inexpensive. I'm realistic though and realize that this car isn't going to sound like a concert hall. I'm sticking with HU power only, no amps, so any new speakers need to be fairly efficient. My first reaction was to go with new 6x9's in back and to make the 6.5s fit in front. This would fill up the factory locations and seal better. If that were the best route I'd need your recomendation for decent 6x9's. I'm open to suggestions though so if you guys think there is a better way just let me know. Once we settle on a solution I'll also want your help on the cheapest place to buy the stuff too.

Thanks in advance.

Rock Doc

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[BushJ311 5,000+ posts]

Get some powerbass s-65T Great midbass and cheap. I am very impressed with them.

I am not sure of your problem though

 

[RockDoc65]

I just checked the price and they do seem a good deal but they have paper cones. I think I should figure out what my problem is before this turns into a "Whats your favorite speaker shout out."

 

[01 S 10 10+ year member]

have you checked/adjusted the settings on your Sony HU?

 

[RockDoc65]

Yes, I have adjusted everything I can think of. I can get it to go from pretty crappy to completely atrocious. Has anyone else experienced this problem with adapter plates?

 

[bobtista 10+ year member]

just go with 6 1/2 component set in the back. get adapters or make them.

 

[bobtista 10+ year member]

another thing you could do it get a bass blocker diode or a little passive/active crossover for your speakers to keep the frequecies they dont respond well to off your drivers.

 

[budahbuddy803 10+ year member]

just go with 6 1/2 component set in the back. get adapters or make them.

i duno about that... I mean, maybe that is your best option. It was when i was driving my 89 cutlass calais because i had room for 3.5" in the front and 6x9s in the back. I put some jl 3.5"s up front off the hu and then my cdt 6.5" comps in the back. It worked and the music sounded like music, but when it comes down to a sound staging. It is atroshish, components sounds 100x better up front than they do in the back, believe me.

I think your BEST option is to go with some fiberglass kick pods and throw some 6.5" comps in there!!!

 

[RockDoc65]

Thank you guys for your suggestions. I evaluated them all but they all started to add up to real money.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif As I said, the car is old and I'm always competing with wind noise so the system did not have to be audiophile grade.

Here's what I did. I bought a pair of Pioneer 6x9's for the rear. The speakers that were in the rear (Blaupunkt 6.5" 2-ways in adapter plates) I moved to the front. The Blaupunkt 4" (in adapter plates) that were in the front went into the garage sale pile. I am NOT a fan of adapter plates.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/mad.gif.c18f003ab0ef8a0d9c27ca78d77a6392.gif My new motto is put as much speaker as will fit in the hole.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Then I grabbed AC/DC Back in Black, Metalica S&M, and Kieth Richards Main Offender for a little 70 mph road test.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif My initial reaction: WOW! (a marked improvement).//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif My secondary reaction: Holy Crap! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif (Everything in my rear view mirrors is blurry.) I am now a very happy camper.

Is it perfect sound? No, of course not but it is good enough. I can turn it up to where it is mildly uncomfortable and it doesn't start to break up. Total cost $69.74 plus tax and I still have room in my trunk for the hunting gear.

P.S. Anyone looking for a pair of gently used Blaupunkt GTx 402's (4" 2-way)?

P.P.S. Thank's again

 

[bigbangtheory 5,000+ posts]

Well you would have been fine before and I highly doubt it was your adaptor plates.

Main problem was you were running stockers before, which require very little rms to get loud. Add in some aftermarket speakers and your rms rating goes up considerably. So now you have a deck only putting out maybe 20rms at most. (Don't believe the 52x4 rating, that is max) So your stockers would have been louder, no doubt.

If you were to amp those speakers at their RMS rating, they would sing and hell most decent brands you can give more than their RMS rating.

You did right moving the 6.5 up front though. I honestly suggest you check into a decent componet set. Can be had for not much more than what you paid for your other speakers. Just need to search.

 

[hoxie08 5,000+ posts]

WOAH!

 

[shaunls1 10+ year member]

check to see if your hu has a x-over built in and adjust it up.

i had a mustang that i was runing off of my current alpine 7892 and 4 boston speakers(51/4front and 6x8 rear and it sounded like what your saying then i messed with the built in x overs and it fixed my problem.

look in to geting a cheap 4 channel amp that will really help you out on the sound and adjustability.