Speakers quiet, white noise and buzz when turned up

[wingsfan93]

Hi everyone.

I'm not very knowledgeable about this kind of stuff, so be patient with me.

I bought a'94 Honda civic about a year and a half ago. The owner gave me radio with the car, but I never got around to installing it until today. After a couple hours of matching the old wires to the new and splicing I was finally done, and excited to have music while driving again. But I turned on my car and of course it can't just be that easy.

The speakers were very quiet, and had some white noise. When I turn the speakers all the way up, they do get a little louder, but the white noise becomes much more prominent, and you can barely even tell that it's music (and is still very quiet).

I thought maybe it was the speakers, so I attached some old boat speakers that i knew worked, but no difference.

The head unit is an Alpine. That's all I know about it.

The speakers are sony Xplod,

rated 55w

250w peak

4ohm

I'm using the stock wiring.

I wish I had a working head unit/set up before this, so that I could rule out possible problems. I assume the amp in the head unit is shot, what do you guys think?

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[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

i suspect a factory amp is in the way and the amp isn't powered up. so the sound you hear is what makes it through the amp.

what if you wire a speaker directly to the radio?

 

[wingsfan93]

I don't think there is an amp, unless you're talking about the one in the head unit?

Should there be another amp, is that my problem?

Again, not very knowledgeable about this stuff, sorry. But wiring a speaker directly to the radio is a good idea, I'll try that tomorrow, thanks!

EDIT: hooked up a speaker directly to the head unit, problem still persists. Found out what head unit I have though: http://www.crutchfield.com/S-DFhdle3KIKB/p_500CDA9825/Alpine-CDA-9825.html

It says it's rated at 18 watts RMS/50 peak, and my speakers are something like 50 rms, 250 peak. Is that the problem?