speakers sound better with stock then new HU?

[yo0123yo 10+ year member]

i got the Kenwood eXcelon KDC-X990 a while and i noticed that my speakers sounded better before i had the new HU, do i need to mess with the setting or is it not installed correct or is this normal? all my speakers are stock my HU is my only new add on to my car as of now.

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[dvrmstrng 5,000+ posts]

depends...if your new HU is pushing your speakers harder than your old HU did they may be distorting at lower volumes...i just got rid of my stock and it sounds 100 times better

 

[yo0123yo 10+ year member]

nope i cant hear it distorting when its lower, even when i turn it up it still doesnt go as loud as my stock and the bass doesnt sound as good as stock

 

[ItalynStylion 10+ year member]

I would mess with the settings before you get all bent out of shape.

Also: What sort of car do you have, did your car have a bose system or something fancy? Sometimes those speakers run at different impedances and wont do well off headunit power...

 

[yo0123yo 10+ year member]

i have a 2004 impala, its not a bose system but there are little subs in the trunk with a small amp

 

[MikeyB 5,000+ posts]

Mess with the eq. on the headunit its prolly all outta wack

 

[saj21187 10+ year member]

i have a 2004 impala, its not a bose system but there are little subs in the trunk with a small amp

Which wiring harness did you use for this. I would bet there is a factory amp in the trunk that you either need to bypass or get an adapter to use it. Are the subs working with the aftermarket deck at all?

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

i got the Kenwood eXcelon KDC-X990 a while and i noticed that my speakers sounded better before i had the new HU, do i need to mess with the setting or is it not installed correct or is this normal? all my speakers are stock my HU is my only new add on to my car as of now.

That's a very common problem. Your stereo's stock hu was designed for those speakers in that vehicle. It's built in EQ was set to make the cheap stock speakers sound good. Once you remove the stock hu, you lose that EQ, and as a result the SQ you had before. You need to upgrade your speakers. An aftermarket set of speakers will be designed to sound decent without the need of extensive EQ'ing.

If anything, this shows you how integral tuning and install are! The speakers are the same, the only thing that changed was you no longer have good EQ'ing in your car!

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

kenwoods do require quite a bit of tweaking out of the box, tho

i wouldn't rule that out until you get familiar with the deck

 

[adam71 5,000+ posts]

nope i cant hear it distorting when its lower, even when i turn it up it still doesnt go as loud as my stock and the bass doesnt sound as good as stock

Just buy an amp like a real car audio enthsiast would.

 

[lsm 10+ year member]

It could be that your factory speakers are higher impedance and the factory head unit is designed to work at those higher impedances. Aftermarket heads are usually designed to provide optimum output at 4 ohms, but if your speakers are actually 8 ohms your new head will produce about half as much power. This used to be pretty common back when I was a professional installer, not sure about todays cars though...