Poor bass on my new sub+amp

[wolfman1966 10+ year member]

LOW pass is for subs, so Low pass

and fyi, High pass is for Tweeters, and full is for regular speakers.

and though your dad is a mechanic. I was an electrician for 2years and have been installing audio for about that same amount of time. so I still find it questionable. Just remember, IF your amp cuts off when you play a CD, thats why/

 

[wolfman1966 10+ year member]

also for tomorrow,

you should also have a gain setting on the amp. start with it at the lowest setting. Turn on your radio, you can either use a 50hz test tone, or just use music.

Have all your radio's settings that might affect the bass zeroed out.

IF the amp has BASS BOOST, turn it off. bass boost is not necessary and can damage the subs.

NOW turn your radio up to 3/4 volume and play the test tone or music, slowly turn up the gain on the amp until you hear distortion, then back it off just a hair, so that the distortion goes away. and leave it there,

congratulations, you just set the gain on your amp correctly

this also helps get the correct amount of power going out of your amp to your subs.

Happy thumping and like I said, any questions , email me or catch me on aim

now good night, its 2:30 am here and I'm going to bed

 

[ps2cho 10+ year member]

haha just that right there is wat came to mind first also

Well it's one big learning experience for me. Some people do noob stuff too //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif I have learnt so much from this and I know for my next audio setup, I will be alot wiser. I'm only 18 and this is my first car and first time doing any type of audio at all so its a good start on learning what NOT to do haha!

LOW pass is for subs, so Low pass
and fyi, High pass is for Tweeters, and full is for regular speakers.

Thanks good to remember!

also for tomorrow,you should also have a gain setting on the amp. start with it at the lowest setting. Turn on your radio, you can either use a 50hz test tone, or just use music.

Have all your radio's settings that might affect the bass zeroed out.

IF the amp has BASS BOOST, turn it off. bass boost is not necessary and can damage the subs.

NOW turn your radio up to 3/4 volume and play the test tone or music, slowly turn up the gain on the amp until you hear distortion, then back it off just a hair, so that the distortion goes away. and leave it there,

congratulations, you just set the gain on your amp correctly

this also helps get the correct amount of power going out of your amp to your subs.

Happy thumping and like I said, any questions , email me or catch me on aim

now good night, its 2:30 am here and I'm going to bed

Will do that too ! Got alot to do tomorrow LOL!

As for my dad he said he's really rusty and its been a good 10 years since he did any car audio and he said some stuff has changed. He's just old Good thing I have you guys! I'm off to bed now too. Thanks everybody! I'll post back tomorrow with the results.

 

[js09 10+ year member]

ya let us know if you fix it

 

[ps2cho 10+ year member]

Great. I sure DIDN't FIX it. I was looking at my cables for the built in REM cable and I remembered that the RCA cable had a small wire in the middle so I looked and that in fact is the REM cable. Ok got it....but...

...somethings wrong.

I looked in the manual for my alpine headunit and it said the Turn on wire in the dash was a blue/white cable. Ok so I soldered my REM cable to the blue/white cable that was there and turned the radio and nothing. No sound at all is coming from the regular speakers. The radio turns on and works, but there is no sound at all. Not even a buzz when the sound is turned up. The power to the regular speakers is totally gone.

Great! Any ideas what could have happened?

 

[ps2cho 10+ year member]

I just connected the sub again in the correct bridged configuration and it definitely sounds better and I can feel a lot of air escaping so thats definitely making the sound bad.

My problem now is getting the regular speakers back online....grrr!!

I checked the fuse on the back of the headunit and its perfect.

Ideas for me to check?

 

[Scoobydoo 5,000+ posts]

all this could have been avoided of you would have taken the time and sealed the box properly before you started complaining

even the smallest air leak will have a huge effect on the subs output

good luck

 

[ps2cho 10+ year member]

all this could have been avoided of you would have taken the time and sealed the box properly before you started complaining
even the smallest air leak will have a huge effect on the subs output

good luck

I still have to finish the box yes. The problem now is that the regular speakers are not working. Once I have them working again I can finish the box. I'm concerned that my speakers have blown and that is why there is no sound coming out of them.

 

[shortyg83 10+ year member]

disconnect the remote wire and restart the car if it works then that means you do not have the remote wire soldered on to the right connection

 

[ps2cho 10+ year member]

disconnect the remote wire and restart the car if it works then that means you do not have the remote wire soldered on to the right connection

I already removed the remote wire back to how I had it yesterday when the speakers were working.

It still is not working //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/bawling.gif.6287aa5d1d447c8af063fc9466e822ef.gif

EDIT: Is there anyway that testing the speakers with a DMM can tell me if the speakers are blown? Which setting on the DMM should I set it to and what voltage *SHOULD* it read if they are fine?

 

[tcguy85 10+ year member]

you couldn't have blown all ur speakers at once. and even if you did they would still play something, just not much or very well. the problem is at or in the deck.

 

[ps2cho 10+ year member]

you couldn't have blown all ur speakers at once. and even if you did they would still play something, just not much or very well. the problem is at or in the deck.

Ok what happened is this: I was so frustrated and was about to go to bestbuy to get them to fix it....I put everything back in place and started the car up -- SOUND!!!

BUT it was only coming from the right speakers and when I moved my transmission to drive, the left came on. I knew the problem was in the center console near the fader.

So I took everything apart and moved some cables around and it works again!!

No clue how that happened as I didn't touch anything in the center console...possibly when I was taking out the headunit I may have pulled a cable out of place or something where it was awkward.

VERY Happy to have everything back in order. Will seal the box up today/tomorrow.

As for sealing it up, do you guys recommend putting anything on the inside of the box? I heard there are scenario's where they put like padding or sound dampening material's inside the box. Should I do something like that or just glue it together and apply the sealant?

Thanks to everybody for your help! Sorry I am terrible at this LOL. First time mistakes and won't make anything I have done again now!

 

[jake760 10+ year member]

Good. If you ever replace the door speakers run new wires to the HU while your in there so you don't have any wiring problems. About the box, its sealed, right? every sealed box I've built sounded better with some polyfill in it.

 

[ps2cho 10+ year member]

Good. If you ever replace the door speakers run new wires to the HU while your in there so you don't have any wiring problems. About the box, its sealed, right? every sealed box I've built sounded better with some polyfill in it.

So you think add polyfill inside? Can I get that locally or is it made only for speakers somewhere online/store?

 

[shortyg83 10+ year member]

you can get polfill at walmart in the arts and craft section lol. but it will only make the box act like its a little bigger i would just seal it up first and see how it sounds