Speakers Super Quiet In the Front

[killthenoise]

Hello everyone,

I recently upgraded the speakers in my truck (2004 Chevy Silverado 1500 non-Bose) to the following:

2 x Polk Audio db651 in the doors

2 x Polk Audio db461p in the pillars

I have a Dual XDMA6438 headunit to power everything.

The issue I'm having is that the front speakers are very quiet while the rear ones sound fine. The front ones have worked fine before, but they were very hit or miss (99% of the time they missed).

I'm fairly certain it is not a setting in the headunit that is causing this issue, because when I fade the speakers only to the front, I still can barely hear anything.

My thought is that I will probably need an amp...any other input is appreciated. TIA

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[fly_marlin]

Hello everyone,
I recently upgraded the speakers in my truck (2004 Chevy Silverado 1500 non-Bose) to the following:

2 x Polk Audio db651 in the doors

2 x Polk Audio db461p in the pillars

I have a Dual XDMA6438 headunit to power everything.

The issue I'm having is that the front speakers are very quiet while the rear ones sound fine. The front ones have worked fine before, but they were very hit or miss (99% of the time they missed).

I'm fairly certain it is not a setting in the headunit that is causing this issue, because when I fade the speakers only to the front, I still can barely hear anything.

My thought is that I will probably need an amp...any other input is appreciated. TIA

Could be just the amp portion of the HU going bad. Did you recheck connections for the front speakers? I think a small 4ch amp should do you good. What will do you even better is getting rid of that deck, which will probably never give you even the advertised 2V signal.

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

1) They're coaxial speakers, I would recommend DB6501 before DB651 any day.

2) Dual is considered one of the lowest quality brands of headunits available. Some of your issues likely come from this.

The first thing I'd do is pull the speaker out of the door and check the wiring, fortunately our trucks are pretty easy to get into the doors. You're going to want to check the wiring behind your headunit as well, ensure proper speaker polarity, and a solid connection. If everything looks okay, then you may be just dealing with a less efficient 6.5 inch speaker versus the plate speaker that has a tweeter and a small 3 or 4 inch driver that gets louder with less power. An amplifier will definitely help, but I think your course of action needs to first ensure everything is properly wired before throwing money at it.

 

[killthenoise]

Thanks for the quick responses guys. I'll take the door panels off this weekend and verify the wiring looks good behind there as well as behind the head unit.

Any suggestions for a decent head unit and/or amp that would make these speakers sound their best? The one I have is pretty old, so a replacement would be welcomed at this point.

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

kenwood, JVC, and pioneer are generally considered good headunits. Find something with high pre out voltages if you want to use an amplifier later on. If you're more interested in aesthetics then just worry about what looks good to you among those brands.

As far as amps go, it depends on your budget and ability to wire/install things. Let us know what your budget is and your experience level and we can help steer you in the right direction.

 

[Jepalan]

Swap the front and rear speaker connections at the back of the head unit and see if the problem goes to the rear. Then you will know that the problem is in the head unit.

 

[killthenoise]

kenwood, JVC, and pioneer are generally considered good headunits. Find something with high pre out voltages if you want to use an amplifier later on. If you're more interested in aesthetics then just worry about what looks good to you among those brands.
As far as amps go, it depends on your budget and ability to wire/install things. Let us know what your budget is and your experience level and we can help steer you in the right direction.

I'll take a look at those headunit brands, thanks for the suggestions!

I really don't want to spend any more than $150 on an amp, unless spending a little more will significantly improve the audio quality. As far as my experience level, I am pretty good at wiring/installing things. Of course, I would probably still need a manual to point me in the right direction. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

150 is a pretty decent budget, and you can get some pretty good amps for that price. I picked up a ppi900.4 after hearing from multiple people on here saying it's a great amp, and i have to agree.

They're about $160 on amazon and put out a ridiculous amount of power for the price lol. They're a clone amp, multiple brands use them (NVX, Polk, and others) and this is basically the cheapest one with the same output. Over 200 watts per channel at 2 ohms. There's other options for you around ~100$ if you think thats too much power for your liking.

 

[killthenoise]

150 is a pretty decent budget, and you can get some pretty good amps for that price. I picked up a ppi900.4 after hearing from multiple people on here saying it's a great amp, and i have to agree.
They're about $160 on amazon and put out a ridiculous amount of power for the price lol. They're a clone amp, multiple brands use them (NVX, Polk, and others) and this is basically the cheapest one with the same output. Over 200 watts per channel at 2 ohms. There's other options for you around ~100$ if you think thats too much power for your liking.

I don't plan on upgrading the speakers any time soon, so that would probably be too much power. The speakers I have currently (that actually work properly) are more than enough power for that little cab as I have the standard cab.

Any suggestions for around $100?

 

[fly_marlin]

This one will be fine:

Precision Power PPI BA1000.4 1000W 4-Channel Black Ice Car Amplifier

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

you might be better off just getting a quality headunit that outputs around 40-50w RMS per channel. I'm not familiar with any for around 100-200$, maybe someone else can chime in.

edit; marlin posted what i was looking for lol, thats a solid choice.

 

[fly_marlin]

you might be better off just getting a quality headunit that outputs around 40-50w RMS per channel. I'm not familiar with any for around 100-200$, maybe someone else can chime in.
edit; marlin posted what i was looking for lol, thats a solid choice.

That kind of head unit does not exist.

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

I remember the deh-80prs having some pretty high outputs, looks like 50w x4 but idk if that's RMS or not, probably not. There's also some alpine headunits that put out that much power RMS but they use an external module which is essentially a class D amplifier.

 

[killthenoise]

This one will be fine:
Precision Power PPI BA1000.4 1000W 4-Channel Black Ice Car Amplifier

This amp looks pretty decent, and now it's on sale for under $90! I think I'll go ahead & buy it.

Would this amp be able to power all 4 speakers + a sub or would I need another amp to power the sub?

BTW, I bought this HU - Pioneer FH-X720BT CD Receiver with Bluetooth - OEM Also on sale (I paid $10 more than what it's listed for now, ****!) and it didn't solve my problem. So either the HU can't power the front speakers or I have a wiring issue....

Thanks for all the help so far guys!

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

This amp looks pretty decent, and now it's on sale for under $90! I think I'll go ahead & buy it.
Would this amp be able to power all 4 speakers + a sub or would I need another amp to power the sub?

BTW, I bought this HU - Pioneer FH-X720BT CD Receiver with Bluetooth - OEM Also on sale (I paid $10 more than what it's listed for now, ****!) and it didn't solve my problem. So either the HU can't power the front speakers or I have a wiring issue....

Thanks for all the help so far guys!

That amp is a very overrated POS.