still to bright!need help

[thegr8cody 10+ year member]

i'll start off with what my system consists of.i have a pos sony h/u that skipswhen the bass unless i use my ipod lol.now for the good stuff.i have a zapco reference 360.4 for mids and highs.for my mids and highs i have a set of id cxt65cs and a set of sony 6x9's on my box for some rear fill cause my subs drown out my speakers. and i have the stock 4x6's of the h/u.now my problem is i used to have alpine type r door speakers and they were way to bright on rock music.well i hooked up my id's and there still way to bright i might be expecting to much form them but im pretty sure they should sound better than they do.they sound good but on higher volumes you can hear distortion.now before you ask i know somebody is going to.my doors arent deadened so maybe thats where im losing alot of sound from and why they sound so high instead of full could that be the problem thats what im thinking.im getting alot more highs cause im losing vocals and stuff do to it going into the door?i got them crossed over at 80hz on the amp and 78hz on the h/u and there only running on about 50rms and i know they can handle alot more just trying to figure out my problem before i bridge my amp.any help is greatly appreciated

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[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Honestly, I didn't read all that. I tried, I really did. But I read enough to feel confident saying that a lack of midbass will tend to make a comp set sound 'too bright'. Sometimes lacking one thing makes something you aren't lacking seem overpowering. Deaden your doors. And address the distortion problem, which is probably just poorly adjusted gain and/or xover settings.

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

Honestly, I didn't read all that. I tried, I really did. But I read enough to feel confident saying that a lack of midbass will tend to make a comp set sound 'too bright'. Sometimes lacking one thing makes something you aren't lacking seem overpowering. Deaden your doors. And address the distortion problem, which is probably just poorly adjusted gain and/or xover settings.

what he said. More/fuller midbass/midrange will tend to tone down the highs. Also cut back 12.5Khz if possible as that's usually the freq that makes tweeters sound bright/shrilly...

 

[supermaxx123 10+ year member]

I would say get a better headunit, Even though you do have a good amp and good components im sure a better headunit would have better SQ. Also a better headunit would have more adjusments, like an equalizer. Im sure there is nothing wrong ith your speakers, except maybe that they are free-aired and its really hard to get good sounding mid-bass with free-aired.

I had a set of alpine 6.5inch type s components and the tweeters were way brighter than my Infinity kappa's. it sounds good at low/mid volume but at high it tends to hurt, and i did have good mid-bass, i was using my ipod as input.

The infinity's dont hurt, they are just all around better. I want to try type r components and those ID's you have.

 

[PaulD 10+ year member]

If this seems to happen mostly when you turn up the volume then it's because the mids/tweeters are distorting at high volume. Harmonic distortion means the added content is in the upper mid or treble range, which will make it sound like you have the tweeters up too high. Remember on the built-in headunit amps, they normally max out at roughly half of the total numeric volume.