Sound Quality Problem

[narek]

This is going to be a long post and I appreciate anyone who takes the time to read it. I have a 2009 Mini Cooper S with standard stereo. I've replaced all the factory speakers (MB Quart 3.5", JL 6.5" and 6"x9"). All the speakers on the left and all the speakers on the right are connected in series for a ~6.7 ohm load rather than ~1.7 ohm load in parallel. I can change balance left to right, but front to rear fade is not necessary in a cabin as small as the Mini's. I have a Pioneer 10" sub in the rear. They are being driven by a Kicker 400.4 - amp 1 running speakers on high pass and amp 2 running sub bridged mono on low pass. Here is the problem I am having. The amp receives it's signal from the high level speaker outputs from the factory deck and has signal sensing turn on. For some reason we have not been able to determine, there is a huge dropoff in high frequency in the left speakers. Have eliminated the amp as the problem - tried two other kickers and a precision audio amp - all behaved the same. Swapping the high level inputs from left to right still results in the loss of highs in the left speakers. Bypassing the amp altogether and running the speakers off the factory stereo gets the highs back so it is not a speaker problem. Continuity of all wires has been checked and rechecked. I have run out of ideas. The Kicker amp has a fader switch for running off 2- or 4-channel setups - it is set correctly according to Brett from Kicker for a 2-channel setup which I am running. I am using the Mini's front speaker outputs which are full range (the back are high passed for some reason only Mini knows). If anybody has any idea what is happening, please let me know. This has been driving me crazy. Thanks.

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[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

maybe out of phase ?

 

[narek]

When I change the balance all the way to left would it not improve when you remove the signal from the right side to get rid of the phase cancelling? You can hear a huge difference between left and right when you switch the balance back and forth.

 

[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

yes

 

[narek]

But when I switch the balance all the way left there is still no high end. All the way right there is. When the balance is in the middle it results in a stereo image off to the right.

 

[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

still think its a phase issue,try switching the wires around on the bad side ,see if the works ,also try switching the amp side to rule out an amp issue .you have to check all of this eventually .start with the obvious.

 

[quackhead 10+ year member]

maybe out of phase ?

this^....sounds like you have one of the speakers on the left channel out of phase.

 

[ewadz3006 10+ year member]

swap the left and right rca's to see if it goes to the right side. does sound like a phase issue though.

 

[narek]

I have tried the rca swap and the problem remains on the left. I have to pull apart the kick panel to check the wiring down there for phase. Thanks for the suggestions and I will let you know how I make out.