Hey I am Chrs from Northern VA. Just installed a system...

[cskalski]

I have a 2012 Kia Optima EX and the stock stereo that came with it. It has phone integration, Bluetooth, Pandora, and remote volume, source, and phone operation on the steering wheel.

So, removing the head unit would be a tremendous head-ache. I researched and even visited the car audio install bay at my local Best Buy. What I learned was that Kicker and Alpine were my best bets for a decent system that will not cost a fortune.

So, here is the gear I installed:

MTX Subwoofer with dual 10" speakers 300 watt RMS power rating per speaker

Kicker 300.1 mono block sub amp (certified at 331 RMS)

Kicker 200.4 4 channel door speaker amp (certified at 227 RMS)

Kicker 6.5" door speakers, deep basket 60 watts RMS (but is known to handle 80 w/o distorting)

Alpine "S" series thin mount rear door speakers, 50 watts RMS.

I am waiting on my subwoofer remote control (anxiously) since I can only use about a third of the subwoofer power without distorting the door speakers. It is essential. Should be here today or tomorrow.

-Chris

Anyways, Hi everyone!

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[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Should of asked before you got hosed. I imagine your gain is all screwed up, that's why you are killing the mids. Never shop for audio at best buy, they are severely overpriced for what you get and the installs are hack jobs.

 

[Slobalt]

I have a 2012 Kia Optima EX and the stock stereo that came with it. It has phone integration, Bluetooth, Pandora, and remote volume, source, and phone operation on the steering wheel.
So, removing the head unit would be a tremendous head-ache. I researched and even visited the car audio install bay at my local Best Buy. What I learned was that Kicker and Alpine were my best bets for a decent system that will not cost a fortune.

So, here is the gear I installed:

MTX Subwoofer with dual 10" speakers 300 watt RMS power rating per speaker

Kicker 300.1 mono block sub amp (certified at 331 RMS)

Kicker 200.4 4 channel door speaker amp (certified at 227 RMS)

Kicker 6.5" door speakers, deep basket 60 watts RMS (but is known to handle 80 w/o distorting)

Alpine "S" series thin mount rear door speakers, 50 watts RMS.

I am waiting on my subwoofer remote control (anxiously) since I can only use about a third of the subwoofer power without distorting the door speakers. It is essential. Should be here today or tomorrow.

-Chris

Anyways, Hi everyone!

First hello and welcome to the s h i t hole.

Your speakers should not distort from you sub being played at "higher levels". It sounds like your gains somewhere are set wrong or you have higher expectations of your equipment

 

[cskalski]

Hey. I am trying to get used to this environment, even though this is a common chat room program.

Just to respond, I usually shop at Crutchfield, since they are based in Charlottesville, VA I always get gear in two days.

I compare prices on eBay, Crutchfield, and Best Buy, I never feel ripped-off. Usually I don't feel ripped off because I am not getting ripped ff.

I set all the gains properly on my equipment, but as we all know when you are listening to music, different instruments and amplification at the source greatly affect the sound. So, when one song sounds awesome and makes me feel like god himself created my system, the next song sounds like it was being played on a Soundesign system from 1989. You know, with the tall speakers that looked like three way but only 1 "full range" paper speaker was in them, and it had 7.5 watts per channel. Sweet. Anyway, days later now and I got the Kicker remote and the wiring I ordered, so not bad for $12 including 25' of very thick shielded 3.5 mm cable to connect it to the amp. This setup may not be state of the art, but sure helps balance out those mp-3 recording levels that don't always sound so good. A modern digital recording obviously sounds killer, but RATT from 1984 is anything but. Their first album sounds terrible, with the worst being Whitesnake with "In the still of the3 night". Just a garbled sounding mix on some old songs from my teen years.

So, have you guys figured out how you can make music better at the source, or is it still all 10 different knobs and then having ton reset them for the next song?

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Hate to tell you but you look at all the places that rip you off. If you feel good about it cool. Next time look on woofersect, sonic electronix, and amazon. Also the SSA store and droppin Hz store.

I bet you paid high dollar for subpar equipment.

 

[bbeljefe]

If your system is properly installed and setup there will be very little difference from one song to the next, provided that the recordings are of similar or equal quality. Certainly not enough that you would have to fiddle with settings that often. In fact, I go from hip hop to metal to 90s alternative without ever touching anything other than the volume knob on my system and it sounds great whether it's on CD, USB or bluetoothed in from my tablet.

You say you set your gains properly so I'm assuming you used a scope or a distortion detector to do so and that only leaves head unit or crossover settings on the amps as the culprit. How do you have those set?