Small problem with new battery

[pman44 10+ year member]

Went out to my explorer this morning and it wouldn't start. I tried jump starting it about 5 times and still nothing. So I took out the battery and went down to autozone and had it tested, turned out the battery was dead as a doornail. I ended up buying a new battery. Nothing special, basically one similar. Everything was all fine and working now, but here is where I ran into a slight problem...

After firing up my car I wanted went to play my system to see how it responded to the new battery. The first thing I noticed overall was that it was much much louder than before.

To explain it as best as I can, I would say that it got louder at volumes lower than what my "old" loud volume used to be.

Basically, for example: Old battery "Loud" volume was about 30.

New battery "Loud" volume is now about 20.

^^Same Hu settings. No different except for the battery.

Now, the catch here with greater output than my old listening levels with the new battery is that it's also slightly distorted at this new volume as well. I was just puzzled because all my HU settings were the same as before, but when I put in the new battery everything got louder at lower levels with slight distortion. With the old one it sounded perfect, no distortion at my loud listening level.

My first hypothesis on this issue is that my output is greater because I may be getting more voltage with the new battery than with my old one.

I'm in dire need of a DMM, I lent it to my friend who lent it to another friend who is away at school. So, I'm most likely going to pick up a new one at a hobby shop or w/e in the morning. My last battery, when i last recorded (I forget, I'm guessing june/early july) was hovering around 13.2-13.8v at idle. The new one I'm guessing is probably 14+ volts, which is what gave me the idea of why this is happening.

Anyway, any answers or questions to help fix this will be much appreciated.

Thank you.

--pman

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[IDSkoT 5,000+ posts]

The gains are set too high. The distortion is from clipped waves reaching your speakers. Turn your gain down and the distortion should dissipate.

 

[TurdFergueson2 5,000+ posts]

I'd get my alt checked too. Has to be a reason your battery died like that. Sears has decent DMMs as well.

 

[IDSkoT 5,000+ posts]

I'd get my alt checked too. Has to be a reason your battery died like that. Sears has decent DMMs as well.

If he had a Yellow Top in it before, then yes. But if he had a wet-celled battery, it's very possible that the water evaporated and he forgot to fill it... that happened to mine. A lot of people forget to fill it. I want to get a Dry cell for my car, though. Just for starting... I also want some 14Voltagezzz