Speakers sound worse with amp..

[Nugg32 10+ year member]

I have Pioneer ts-d1720c front speakers that i bridged on an alpine f300 amp. I have tried turning the gains all the way down and have tried turning them up about a quarter of the way but if they are turned all the way down, my speakers sound almost muffled or like someone talking through a traffic cone and has very little bass. When i turn the gain up a little the bass sounds sloppy. It not a distortion crunch if you know what i mean it just sounds like its flopping around. (i also have to turn my radio up a lot louder than i use to without the amp. its hard to explain what i hear. I have power, remote and ground properly connected and starting with Left speaker i have the left pos connected to channel 1 pos and left neg connected to channel 2 neg.

Right speaker pos connected to channel 3 pos and right neg connected to channel 4 neg just as the diagram shows. RCA i have 2 of them connected to y adapters but im not really positive if i have them properly connected to the amp. i have my rca that is connected to the white plug on my head unit (i think means left) plugged into ch 1 and ch2 and the rca connected to the red is ch3 and ch4 on the amp

Not sure if this link will work but this is the manual for the amp

http://a248.e.akamai.net/pix.crutchfield.com/Manuals/500/500MRVF300_DL.PDF

Click to read more...

 

[Ridinhi 5,000+ posts]

Do you have a good ground on your amp? Are you rca's good ones? Do you have any gaps around where your speaker is mounted that allows air to come through? whats your xover set at?

 

[Nugg32 10+ year member]

So i have a crossover mode selector switch with HP and LP options. Im only running the 2 speakers and tweeters so i clicked it to HP. My tweeters sounded like they came to life a little but the bass dropped even more. Im guessing its because i hear my tweeters more. My Cross over frequency adjuster knob came out of the box set to 80hz and i haven't touched that.

 

[Nugg32 10+ year member]

Just letting everyone know. I wasn't looking for crazy bass from these door speakers because i was intending on putting a system in this car but now i plan on getting a new car so im holding off. I just sat in my car for about an hour. I switched my rca's around and that did nothing. I changed my balance all the way over to my left speaker and changed my left neg and pos speaker wire around on my amp and didn't even notice a difference but when i set my freq to around 60 my bass came alive. I also set my gain back up a quarter of the way. The only problem i have is that i still feel like my speakers sounded better running off my head unit. Again im not looking for crazy bass i just feel that my bass sounded cleaner before i installed the amp.

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

Well, 150w on a 60w speaker could be an issue.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Simple solution, dont bridge it. Run only on the front channels and in the input selector choose fullrange.

Check your speakers polarity with a 9 volt battery (google it up) and switch pos and negatives as needed. You are likely running into phase issues.