New setup doesn't sound too great....

[dgreen2321 10+ year member]

The RSDs are great speakers, especially for the money. They have tons of great reviews. If they don't sound good, you messed up. And I don't care what you think, you NEED to deaden your doors. It doesn't just help, it is necessary. A half-*** install will never yield good results.

Yeah, I've had to of mess something up, but I just can't figure out what. Maybe I just need sound deadening. So you think deadening will make a big improvement in sound quality and the loudness of the speakers? I have no idea how to install it and I want to make sure it's done right so I'm going to have a shop do it. What should I deaden and how much do you think that will cost?

One more thing, what do people usually set the crossover at for these things? Mine are set at 100hz. Anything lower than 80 and it distorts and sounds like crap. Even at 80 it sounds bad and sounds like it's going to pop. Another thing. Should I set the tweeters at 0dB or keep them at +2dB?

 

[Speedbump3]

i have the same headunit....you probably need a line driver b/c that unit only has 2v pre-outs

Back in the day we did just fineon .7-1.5 volts on most decks.

 

[BEAVER.989 10+ year member]

Yeah, I've had to of mess something up, but I just can't figure out what. Maybe I just need sound deadening. So you think deadening will make a big improvement in sound quality and the loudness of the speakers? I have no idea how to install it and I want to make sure it's done right so I'm going to have a shop do it. What should I deaden and how much do you think that will cost?
One more thing, what do people usually set the crossover at for these things? Mine are set at 100hz. Anything lower than 80 and it distorts and sounds like crap. Even at 80 it sounds bad and sounds like it's going to pop. Another thing. Should I set the tweeters at 0dB or keep them at +2dB?

I don't think deadening is going to help a whole bunch in terms of loudness, but will definately tighten the response an increase the sq a bunch. It should be done very soon, but...

I'd start by double checking and triple checking all of your wiring. It sounds a lot like cancellation due to a phase issue to me. One of your mids may be wired backwards. Next I'd set everything to flat at the head unit with the loudness off and re-set the gains at this level. You should now be able to comfortably cross at 80hz/12db since you're not boosting the response anywhere. FWIW, I'd attenuate the tweeters as much as the passive x-over adjustment allows.

Now, with all of this done, you can shape the response the way you want. It's a good idea to cut bloated frequencies instead of boosting weaker ones. FWIW, I boost nothing and only make a couple of small cuts on my eq.

With tweeters in the a-pillars there is a good chance you will need to reverse their polarity to make everything sound good. Don't be afraid to experiment with this.

Good luck.

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

Back in the day we did just fineon .7-1.5 volts on most decks.

remember the old school Pioneers with .5 volt output.....

 

[Hintzyboy 5,000+ posts]

Yeah, I've had to of mess something up, but I just can't figure out what. Maybe I just need sound deadening. So you think deadening will make a big improvement in sound quality and the loudness of the speakers? I have no idea how to install it and I want to make sure it's done right so I'm going to have a shop do it. What should I deaden and how much do you think that will cost?
One more thing, what do people usually set the crossover at for these things? Mine are set at 100hz. Anything lower than 80 and it distorts and sounds like crap. Even at 80 it sounds bad and sounds like it's going to pop. Another thing. Should I set the tweeters at 0dB or keep them at +2dB?

Do it yourself. Paying a shop to do it will cost a ton, and it's not that hard to do. All you need to do is the doors. You can slap some on the trunk lid too if you have some leftover.

Just pick up a roll of Raamat BXT http://www.raamaudio.com

Then check out this thread. It will show you eveything you need to do to properly deaden your doors.

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=95925&page=11

Crossing over at 100Hz is fine. A little gap between the sub and the mid is a good thing. Just leave the tweets at 0

 

[WhoSayWho? 5,000+ posts]

Deadening does help, no doubt. However, it truly sounds like something is going wrong that is well beyond a deadening issue. There should be a significant difference over stock even without deadening.

 

[bigbangtheory 5,000+ posts]

Deadening does help, no doubt. However, it truly sounds like something is going wrong that is well beyond a deadening issue. There should be a significant difference over stock even without deadening.

x2! My Rsd's sound great and feeding them 75rms to them. No sound deading yet, but only because I am lazy. I have the shit.............hell had it for months now. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif I really need to get to that.

 

[teedot231999 10+ year member]

I recently purchased and installed PG RSD's comps in the front. I have an Alpine PDX 2.150 powering them. The HU I'm using is the new Pioneer AVH P4000. I also have a Kicker 10" CVR being powered by a Blaupunkt amp. But it's the comps I'm having issues with.
First time installs take time. It's all about trial and error when you never done this before. I'm not sure what your audio goals are but the PG RSD's are realy good comps for the money

The speakers really don't sound as great as I thought and not much better than the stock comps (which were 4", the PG's being 6.5") in my Lexus SC300 being ran by the HU amp. I can't crank the volume up to even close to where I thought I'd be able to. I have the gain set a little less than half way (any more and it distorts). The volume on my HU goes up to 40 and the music starts getting distorted at 28-30, which really isn't loud and is what I normally listen to music at. I have my iPod directly connected to the HU and use MP3's ( most have pretty high bit rates) but even CD's don't sound great and the loudness is lackluster. Did I do something wrong or are these speakers just bad. I might as well just put the stock comps back in because they really don't sound that much worse. Is the phase off or something? Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Yeah, I've had to of mess something up, but I just can't figure out what. Maybe I just need sound deadening. So you think deadening will make a big improvement in sound quality and the loudness of the speakers? I have no idea how to install it and I want to make sure it's done right so I'm going to have a shop do it. What should I deaden and how much do you think that will cost?
One more thing, what do people usually set the crossover at for these things? Mine are set at 100hz. Anything lower than 80 and it distorts and sounds like crap. Even at 80 it sounds bad and sounds like it's going to pop. Another thing. Should I set the tweeters at 0dB or keep them at +2dB?

From what I've gathered you could have crossed a wire or two. Also why do you have your crossover set so low for componet speakers @ 100hz or even 80hz. Those speakers are not subs they do not need to be set @ 80 or 100hz. there is a sticky that explains passive and active crossovers. I think you should check that out. It will help you understand your equiment and also how to use it. There is no universal preset for comp crossover points. To set these you will have to use your ears and isten in order to tweak your sound. Low frequencies (say 100 Hz and lower) go to subwoofers. Reset all of your gains both xover and amp then tweak each as needed. these are the frequencies you should look to set your xover to

Midbass speakers get frequencies between 100 and 250 Hz.

Midrange speakers would see frequencies between 250 and 3,000 Hz.

All frequencies above 3,000 are handled by the tweeters.

http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/cross.asp

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=146726

 

[dgreen2321 10+ year member]

x2! My Rsd's sound great and feeding them 75rms to them. No sound deading yet, but only because I am lazy. I have the shit.............hell had it for months now. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif I really need to get to that.

How loud can you crank them up to without distortion? To the point where it's a little uncomfortable?

And by the way, thanks for the help everyone. I have some ideas of what to do and change now. Looks like I'll be taking the door panels off again (such a pain to put back on).

 

[dgreen2321 10+ year member]

From what I've gathered you could have crossed a wire or two. Also why do you have your crossover set so low for componet speakers @ 100hz or even 80hz. Those speakers are not subs they do not need to be set @ 80 or 100hz. there is a sticky that explains passive and active crossovers. I think you should check that out. It will help you understand your equiment and also how to use it. There is no universal preset for comp crossover points. To set these you will have to use your ears and isten in order to tweak your sound. Low frequencies (say 100 Hz and lower) go to subwoofers. Reset all of your gains both xover and amp then tweak each as needed. these are the frequencies you should look to set your xover toMidbass speakers get frequencies between 100 and 250 Hz.

Midrange speakers would see frequencies between 250 and 3,000 Hz.

All frequencies above 3,000 are handled by the tweeters.

http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/cross.asp

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=146726

Alright, I'm confused. The only setting on my crossover which I can change is the tweeter from 0dB or +2dB. You mentioned that there's a gain setting on crossovers but mine doesn't have one (or not that I know of) or any settings for that matter.

 

[teedot231999 10+ year member]

Alright, I'm confused. The only setting on my crossover which I can change is the tweeter from 0dB or +2dB. You mentioned that there's a gain setting on crossovers but mine doesn't have one (or not that I know of) or any settings for that matter.

:emb:I apologize just the amp.

 

[dgreen2321 10+ year member]

:emb:I apologize just the amp.

On my amp there's only one knob for the crossover setting.

 

[Speedbump3]

remember the old school Pioneers with .5 volt output.....

Never ran Pioneer HUs and didn't know they were .5

 

[MrSwiss 10+ year member]

deadening doesnt explain his stock speakers sounding better than his rsd's.

 

[Hintzyboy 5,000+ posts]

deadening doesnt explain his stock speakers sounding better than his rsd's.

He never said that. He said the RSDs didn't sound much better than his stock comps