Need help with distorted sounding Sub and speakers (Detailed explanation)

[CleMike]

I had installed my own system 4 years ago and just last week my amplifier died (isolated to amplifier).

Since then, I did some research and got really into wanting to make my system sound the best it can with the setup I have. I realized that my subwoofer ( Apline 12) which is a dual coil 4 ohm, was actually wired in series which output 8 ohm. So this time, I wired it in parallel which should output 2ohm. The new amp that I bought is the Alpine MRV-M500 Mono . So I was thinking, man all these years I was wasting potential power by wiring it in series, and thought this new setup would sound a lot better. After hooking it up, it sounds worse. It seems like my bass is distorted or something.

This is my head unit: Sony Xplod

So here are my questions of possibilities for the **** sound:

1.) When I hooked my sub coils in parallel, the wires that came with the sub enclosure that go to the outputs look about 14 gauge? But I used 12 gauge wire to make the parallel connection from the left negative to the right negative and from the right positive to the left positive. Does it matter that I used different wire size for that?

2.) I have 4 Kenwood aftermarket speakers installed (KFC-1362s). The speakers themselves (when my amp was off) sound decent but the bass they produce sounds like absolute **** and ruins the sound. Is this normal? The speakers that came with the car sounded fine without any subwoofer or amp hooked up.

3.) I was thinking since my speakers base sound like **** I should put a high pass filter for just my front and rear speakers, and a low pass filter for the subwoofer. I read that I should only use either the filter on the amp or on the headunit but not both. My head unit has LP and HP but my amp only has LP. I was thinking what if I set my headunit HP on to 100 and my LP on the amp to 80? Would that make my speakers not play low bass notes and my subwoofer not play high notes? Or is that not how it works?

Please let me know of anything you think could be my problem. I thought I had it all figured out and have been messing around with it but maybe I need a new headunit? Maybe I blew my sub? Maybe my speakers are blown? I'm not too knowledgeable on all this so hopefully more experienced guys can help me out.

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[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

You may need to turn the sub amp down some now that you went from 8 ohm to 2 ohm...its probably over loading the sub

 

[CleMike]

You may need to turn the sub amp down some now that you went from 8 ohm to 2 ohm...its probably over loading the sub

Well, even when the gain is at minimum it sounds distorted (can hardly even hear any bass).

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

Well, even when the gain is at minimum it sounds distorted (can hardly even hear any bass).

Thats sounding more like an amp issue if your other speakers sound clear...An amplifier only amplifies the input signal...so if the signal is clean going in and dirty coming out its in the amp...You may want to go over the amps grounds...if the ground is weak going in...the amp will try and ground through the RCAs into the deck...with Pioneer headunits this will blow the pico fuse causing major ignition noise

 

[ylpkm]

another way to test if its the amp is to wire an ipod or something to the amp, 3.55 mm jack to rca inputs on the amp, if its clean from a direct connection to an ipod, then it may be the head unit or rca cables.

also double check the speaker with a dmm, make sure you wired the sub the right way to 2 ohms.

also make sure the ground is good too, bad ground can cause issues.

is the bassboost all the way down on the amp?

 

[CleMike]

[/color]

another way to test if its the amp is to wire an ipod or something to the amp, 3.55 mm jack to rca inputs on the amp, if its clean from a direct connection to an ipod, then it may be the head unit or rca cables.also double check the speaker with a dmm, make sure you wired the sub the right way to 2 ohms.

also make sure the ground is good too, bad ground can cause issues.

is the bassboost all the way down on the amp?

Okay I will try those things. The bass boost is turned all the way down. Can anyone answer about the HP and LP filter question? And also about the wiring size difference I used in the subwoofer and why my aftermarket 4 speakers bass sound bad?

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Wire size doesn't matter. Double check the wiring of your sub with a DMM if you can, and make sure there's no strands touching each other or some other nonsense. Aftermarket speakers can sound like crap in a factory install if the speaker mounting is enclosed in a plastic box (like my Buick had). Your assumptions on the HP/LP filters is correct - HPF on the HU will block bass from the main speakers, LPF on the sub amp blocks the highs.

 

[Massive spl]

Well, even when the gain is at minimum it sounds distorted (can hardly even hear any bass).

With the gain turned down you say you can hardly hear the subwoofer but you can hear distortion? So are u hearing distortion through your speakers? Or your subwoofer? If it's the subwoofer set the amp up like you had your other amp for the past 4 years if u liked the way it sounded.

 

[CleMike]

[/color]

Wire size doesn't matter. Double check the wiring of your sub with a DMM if you can, and make sure there's no strands touching each other or some other nonsense. Aftermarket speakers can sound like crap in a factory install if the speaker mounting is enclosed in a plastic box (like my Buick had). Your assumptions on the HP/LP filters is correct - HPF on the HU will block bass from the main speakers, LPF on the sub amp blocks the highs.

Great thanks for clearing that up. I actually just hooked up my ipod using a jack to RCA converter directly to my amp and the subwoofer sounded great! So I have isolated the problem to either my RCA cables or head unit. I then messed around with the LPF on amp and HPF on the headunit and I made the subwoofer sound pretty good. But still not as good as I'd like. Is it possible that a small fault in my headunit or maybe the RCA cables could cause minor distortion? I checked the RCA cables LOOK fine, but maybe they aren't. Or maybe my headunit is a little faulty.

 

[ylpkm]

maybe you have your headunit turned up too high, causing it to clip the rca signal? so even if you have the head unit halfway the sub still sounds bad?

how about the bass settings on the head unit, is there bass boost or a bass setting/ audio loudness or equalizer, Rear Bass Enhancer, and Dynamic Loudness, anything like that? make sure its set to 0 or off.

 

[CleMike]

maybe you have your headunit turned up too high, causing it to clip the rca signal? so even if you have the head unit halfway the sub still sounds bad? how about the bass settings on the head unit, is there bass boost or a bass setting/ audio loudness or equalizer, Rear Bass Enhancer, and Dynamic Loudness, anything like that? make sure its set to 0 or off.

I set all of the bass boost and loudness etc on the HU to 0. All I have now is that I turned on the HPF for my front speakers and that improved the sound a bit. Is it possible that a headunit can work normally but have some small internal issue that would cause this?

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

I set all of the bass boost and loudness etc on the HU to 0. All I have now is that I turned on the HPF for my front speakers and that improved the sound a bit. Is it possible that a headunit can work normally but have some small internal issue that would cause this?

What brand and model headunit is it ?

 

[CleMike]

What brand and model headunit is it ?

A Sony xplod cdx-gt55uiw

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

A Sony xplod cdx-gt55uiw

If the deck has an extra set of jacks out the back you may want to try and move RCAs to the other set and listen