Replacing rockford fosgate 2010 titain

[jeremymef]

Hey all, this is my first of hopefully many posts here. I'm an active member of avsforum and enjoy the community.

I have a 2010 Nissan titan (pro-4x) with the factory rockford fosgate upgrade. In general I like the sound they provide, but I want some more out of the system.

According to this I should have an 8'' sub beneath my driver seat. I don't know if it's just the most gutless 8'' sub ever or if it is not working correctly. I want more bass, especially low freq. extension. I was planning on building a ported box based on the TC Sounds Epic 10'' sub later this year. I'd probably put that under one of the back seats.

So to the real problem. Like I said before, i generally like the speakers that I have, however there is some pretty bad distortion at certain freq. (possibly slightly blown?) and it definitely starts to distort at higher SPL. These small inconsistencies are pretty frustrating for me, since I spend a lot of time in the home audio realm creating speakers that make the exact sounds I want.

I'm pretty inexperienced with car audio, especially the wiring part. I looked on crutchfield and found some two way drivers that fit in the door, but I want to keep the tweeters i have up on the dash. So there were some separate systems with crossovers, but that still only provides two drivers and two tweeters, but I have that tweeter in the center of the dash. Does anyone know of some good 5 way systems that would fit this titan? I can replace the rear speakers with some 4 way (driver + tweeter + xover) options.

I replaced the stock head unit with a Sony WX-GT90BT.

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[Spl4200]

Seal up your doors.. it might make all the diffrence for you..

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

Since you have replaced the head unit, what immediately comes to mind is adding JBL MS-8. That will compensate for the EQ and time alignment. It has an 8-channel amplifier built in, so you could try that and later add external amplifiers. Connect it to the outputs of the Rockford amplifier. 2 of the channels on MS-8 will go to the subwoofer since it is a dual voice coil design. Leave all the speakers unless you're certain some of them are damaged.

 

[jeremymef]

Since you have replaced the head unit, what immediately comes to mind is adding JBL MS-8. That will compensate for the EQ and time alignment. It has an 8-channel amplifier built in, so you could try that and later add external amplifiers. Connect it to the outputs of the Rockford amplifier. 2 of the channels on MS-8 will go to the subwoofer since it is a dual voice coil design. Leave all the speakers unless you're certain some of them are damaged.

I'm not sure what gain I would be getting with the ms-8. Having the 31 band eq would be great, and I like the idea of setting xover with variable rolloff for each speaker. I'm also pretty sure that I don't have a subwoofer down there. I am going to look tonight, but i've been under that seat a few times and never noticed it, nor felt it. I can use those on the new sub when I get to it (also DVC).

I'm a little out of my knowledge base here though, like I said I'm much more into home audio. How would the ms-8 help with distortion? I would assume that this is coming from over-excursion on the drivers. At any volume on some songs they have a definite distorted sound on certain notes. It's most common on classical music where each note is more distinct and therefore when it hits that freq. it is very apparent. It's almost imperceptible on fast rock music. With the ms-8 having 20w/ch it can definitely drive quite a bit of power per driver, however would more power help with the distortion? I understand that if i'm experiencing peaks because of car/enclosure resonance or other stuff, the eq could help drop those spikes.

I guess i'm just not understanding why replacing the stock amp with the ms-8 would help with the problems i'm experiencing. I'm not doubting your opinion, i'm just inexperienced.

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

MS-8 reverses what the RF amplifier does to the sound before it reaches the speakers, and then it gives you a fresh canvas to work with to adjust the sound to your preference. You would tell it how to filter each channel to get the right frequencies, which I can help you do, and the 31 band graphic EQ let's you draw the house curve you like. I'm assuming your speakers are OK, but they could be tuned better. Even if you choose to replace the speakers MS-8 still can make a massive change to what you hear. It won't approach what you can get in the home with little effort, but I think my car is a lot more fun place to listen to music than in my home or with headphones. I've had MS-8 for quite a while.

When you have more control over the speakers you can reduce distortion. More power helps as well, especially with classical music. That's the most challenging type of recording because it gets quiet and much louder within a piece, whereas rock music is loud through the whole song.

I'm not sure what gain I would be getting with the ms-8. Having the 31 band eq would be great, and I like the idea of setting xover with variable rolloff for each speaker. I'm also pretty sure that I don't have a subwoofer down there. I am going to look tonight, but i've been under that seat a few times and never noticed it, nor felt it. I can use those on the new sub when I get to it (also DVC).
I'm a little out of my knowledge base here though, like I said I'm much more into home audio. How would the ms-8 help with distortion? I would assume that this is coming from over-excursion on the drivers. At any volume on some songs they have a definite distorted sound on certain notes. It's most common on classical music where each note is more distinct and therefore when it hits that freq. it is very apparent. It's almost imperceptible on fast rock music. With the ms-8 having 20w/ch it can definitely drive quite a bit of power per driver, however would more power help with the distortion? I understand that if i'm experiencing peaks because of car/enclosure resonance or other stuff, the eq could help drop those spikes.

I guess i'm just not understanding why replacing the stock amp with the ms-8 would help with the problems i'm experiencing. I'm not doubting your opinion, i'm just inexperienced.