My friend needs help. I don't know what to do.

[chandlersgmc 10+ year member]

My friend's name is Adam and he recently decided he wanted to put a system in his car. He came to me cause he knew I already had one and he loves the sound of mine. He told me he wanted something even louder. I pointed him in the direction of JL subs and amps. When he saw the price he freaked out. I told him that whatever he got, he'd have to save up for so that he wouldn't purchase crappy equipment (Pyramid, etc.).

Well, he was impatient and went to a mutual friend of ours and got a second opinion. That friend found him a $200 dollar deal on eBay that came with two cheap Audiobahn speakers, a Pyramid amp and a crappy box (but hey, atleast it has a neon light over the speakers.). Some deal... That mutual friend also hooked up the system and when I heard it I almost cried. It was undefined, raw, unclear, and all around nasty sounding. I looked at the ways that this mutual friend had installed the system. Everything looked kosher, but when I was looking at the inputs I realized that they were different from my system. He wasn't using RCA cables straight from the head unit. There was this little input on the side of the amp that said "High End." This was the only input coming to the amp. The line going to this high end input was spliced in to the rear left and rear right speakers in his car.

I have never seen this done before, but I assume (perhaps falsely) that this is the only way to use this "High Input" line.

This made me wonder why he wasn't using RCA cables to run sound straight from the head unit to the amp. So I asked Adam what was up and he said that his head unit doesn't have RCA outs in the back.

So here's the question. What can be done to help out the sound. I understand that the head unit could be replaced to help. I understand that a higher quality sub, amp, or box will also help.

Is there anything else that can be done besides equipment replacement that can up the quality of sound on this system?

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[probmxstyle 10+ year member]

Get ride of the neonized bandpass box, they ****. Get one made for the speakers, find out what model they are and get their specs. What kind of head unit is it? Most aftermarket h/u's have atleast 1 pair of rca's.

 

[InhumanAcura 5,000+ posts]

He said it didnt have rca's on the HU, what you need to do is buy a converter (theres a fancy name for it that i cant recall). You splice into the rear speaker wires and connect them to the converter and then plug the rca's into that. Sounds complicated but rather simple. It sounds like @ss because the amp is set for highs rather than lows, which obviously subs are made to put out. Im not going to bash on the equipment that your friend bought, but he does need to build another box befitting the t/s parameters for the specific speakers he has.

I figure if your old enough to drive you have had a idea of the properties of area and perimeter, and as a 16+old male you should know or learn how to use a saw and drill

 

[InhumanAcura 5,000+ posts]

You did a pretty nice install on your truck, looks nice and clean.

 

[chandlersgmc 10+ year member]

probmxstyle:

Yeah, I laughed (in my head) when I saw the box. It is pretty crappy looking. The head unit was bought off of eBay and is a cheap Pioneer unit. There aren't RCAs.

InhumanAcura:

Thanks for the compliment. Actually, I wish I could take the credit for that install. A friend of mine owns a business (Mad-Roe Systems). He is friggin amazing. My truck was just a Saturday afternoon job.

 

[LoudCrownVic 5,000+ posts]

It might sound like crap to you, but he probably loves it. Let him live and learn. Emphasis on learn. He will probably get all cocky and try to outbass somebody and they will level him, he will get pissed of, and evolution carries on. Then he will believe you.