Strange behavior from stock head unit.

[cotjones 10+ year member]

I have a 2017 Chevy Sonic LT that I'm just using as a commuter, so I'm thinking about filling it to the brim with speakers cause what the hell right?

Well, I'm not thinking I'll be able to put an aftermarket head unit in it.
It's super integrated into the car w/ OnStar, USB plugs, bluetooth, etc etc.
Haven't found a compatible dash kit for it.
There are many online that SAY they are compatible, but its easy to see they are not just by looking.

So Probably would have to use the existing speaker outputs and LOC converters, but I'm worried because the equalizer seems to behave very badly.

It seems like when you turn the bass up, the bass indeed goes up, but if the bass and highs hit at the same time, it will cut the highs.

Very strange.

It's almost like it has a built in compressor that is constantly trying to sausage the **** out of the signal no matter how much it has to boost or attenuate certain frequency ranges.

Anyone have experience with this issue or know how to work around it for an amp input?

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[Firewalker]

DSP is your friend for stuff like that. Tons of them out there some with the amps built in as well.

 

[HardofWhoring]

Does that chevy run em in series? I know on the SUVs that are a little older than that, they run the mid and tweeters in the doors in series, and they have a funky ohm rating. Wouldn't be surprised if they are still doing it on that model.

 

[cotjones 10+ year member]

Does that chevy run em in series? I know on the SUVs that are a little older than that, they run the mid and tweeters in the doors in series, and they have a funky ohm rating. Wouldn't be surprised if they are still doing it on that model.

That's an interesting idea.

So you think maybe they put a higher impedance tweeter in series with a lower impedance mid?

Would that cause it to shunt more energy into the mid under high load if the signal had a lot of both highs and lows?

 

[huberoy123 10+ year member]

Have you considered running your signals to an aftermarket amplifier and equalizer and connecting all your speakers to the equalizer. Just a thought. Not sure how involved you want to get.....

 

[1aespinoza 10+ year member]

Does that chevy run em in series? I know on the SUVs that are a little older than that, they run the mid and tweeters in the doors in series, and they have a funky ohm rating. Wouldn't be surprised if they are still doing it on that model.

I do not think you can run tweeters and mids in series if the tweeters have passive x-overs. The x-over would affect the mid alot. If he is having tweeter cut off, I would assume the tweeters are bad or without a proper x-over.

 

[cotjones 10+ year member]

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Have you considered running your signals to an aftermarket amplifier and equalizer and connecting all your speakers to the equalizer. Just a thought. Not sure how involved you want to get.....

Yes this is the plan.
But I'm wondering if it will be worth it.

If my head unit is doing some weird type of dynamic compression, with all the DSP and equalization in the world I don't see how I could get a clean signal to an amp.

It literally sounds like there is a compressor on the highs that is side-chained to the bass.

 

[cotjones 10+ year member]

Does that chevy run em in series? I know on the SUVs that are a little older than that, they run the mid and tweeters in the doors in series, and they have a funky ohm rating. Wouldn't be surprised if they are still doing it on that model.

 

[HardofWhoring]

I was just thinking that maybe they are wired in series (same ohm rating), but that maybe you have your bass turned up, or whatever the factory EQ allows, and the sub is just pulling more of the little wattage it's getting.

No there are no crossovers, just speakers that would have a smaller band than average of what they play.

 

[huberoy123 10+ year member]

Have you contacted crutchfield.com support. They sell modules that allow you to retain the steering wheel-controlled factory features for some aftermarket stereos. They may have something to address your situation. My aftermarket stereo has Bluetooth, USB connection, backup camera Sirius, etc, if you are concerned with keeping those features. Good luck.