Little help before I call installer

[Serpenteer]

Just had all new speakers installed in 2015 F150 Lariat. Had to keep factory head unit because it's integrated into everything. Had JL 10tw3 sub, JL C5 front components, JL TR rear professionally installed. Also audio summing device.

The sub sounds great. The rest of the speakers are good, not as big a leap over factory as I'm used to. This is the 4th system I've had installed. But, the head unit has no equalizer, and virtually no settings, and no sub control. Did have a sub gain knob installed.

I have a real lack of mid bass, which is odd. The stock sytem had way too much mid, even though it was the premium sound and came with a sub. If I turned bass up on stock system, it mainly pounded out of the doors on a lot of music. It felt like it was too much in the wrong place. Now, I get very little if any mid bass from there, while everything comes from the sub. Could this be crossover settings on the speakers. The doors were insulated with mat when they installed them.

My biggest issue is this: if I fade from left to right, my front and back speakers are opposite. It's the front that's wrong. In other words. Fade to right, my left front speaker plays, while my right rear speaker plays. Fade to left, the front RIGHT speaker plays, while my left rear does. I don't want to call the installer and ask about this, if there's a reason behind it I don't know about. Theybalso didn't return my stock speakers, which I've NEVER had happen. I deove home thinking they were in the new equipments empty boxes, but they weren't. So I have to call anyway. Is there any reason the balance would be off like this.

Thanks a ton,

Brian

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[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

Yes, there is a reason the balance setting is reversed, they wired the speakers incorrectly and didn't check before they signed off and gave you the vehicle.

If your radio literally has no equalizer you probably at least have tone controls. Even so, you're at the mercy of whatever acoustics you're left with after the new sound system is installed, which is not good. Every car sound system will sound better with EQ.

 

[Serpenteer]

Yes. It has bass, midrange, treble. They don't do much. I asked several times about adding an equalizer, and the answer kept being that the crossover settings would take care of that. I think the accoustics in the truck are lousy, and the tone controls can't make up for it. But, I feel like I'm also not getting the most out of the speakers with no EQ.

 

[Serpenteer]

I called the installer. They were very accommadating. Said they'd fit me in whenever I can swing by to fix the Rca cables. Also, they still want to adjust crossovers bwfore trying anything else. The person I've dealt with all along was not there when they finished the install. This completely feels like they put in the hardware and did nothing else because he wasn't there. No tuning etc..

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

I called the installer. They were very accommadating. Said they'd fit me in whenever I can swing by to fix the Rca cables. Also, they still want to adjust crossovers bwfore trying anything else. The person I've dealt with all along was not there when they finished the install. This completely feels like they put in the hardware and did nothing else because he wasn't there. No tuning etc..

There's no tuning because nothing can be done. Your source is completely weak, your doors are are most likely not properly treated and turned into a proper speaker enclosure for your door speakers. This is why most of the time aftermarket upgrades only make things worse unless you completely go overboard along with having someone thats competent in their acoustics do the install.

Stock speakers have proper seal and baffles along with being geared to work specifically with the stock head unit's EQ curve.

What you need is a Digital Signal processor, something that can completely bypass the stock headunit's processing and tune from scratch. The head unit is the brain/central nervous network of your sound system. If its a cheapo stock head unit with 12 bit DAC processors and a predetermined EQ curve, its gonna sound like sh*t no matter what speakers you put in it. You are gonna need something that at least have a 24 bit Digital audio convertor or higher with some time alignment capabilities and EQ capabilities.

On the high end, you got helix dsp pro, audison bit one, arc audio ps8, JBL MS-8, rockford 3sixty.3, alpine pxa H800 dsp.

On the budget side, you got a ppi DEQ.8, soundstream harmony and mini dsp

Also add an amp to your door speakers if you havent already done so.

Also, here's a proper speaker install. Look at post #10 , thats how you properly install aftermarkets and acoustically treat your doors.

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/car-audio-build-logs-cars-trucks-suvs/608637-2014-accord-sport-sq-build-keep_hope_alive.html

Either your installers are just basic and mediocre or they know you just dont have the gear to sound any better because to be honest, you arent gonna get anywhere with a stock headunit alone for processing. My money's on the first one.