What's missing?

[Shiltsy]

I recently pulled out the factory HU and all speakers from my 2010 Toyota Tundra. I installed a Kenwood DNX6160 headunit (22w rms) and Polk db6501 (10-100w RMS) components in the front and Polk db651's (60w RMS) in the rear doors.

The systems is fairly crisp on the high end, but mid's and lows are really muddy with no decent bass to speak of. It's almost hard to enjoy at high volumes because it's just not clean. From everything I've read, this system needs a 4 channel amplifier to wake up the speakers. I am looking at an Alpine PDX5 that will also give me the ability to add a sub later.

Does this sound like an issue of the speakers being underpowered? I would hate to invest in the amp if there is another issue. Is it possible that the thin factory speaker wire is causing the sound quality issues?

I appreciate any feedback!

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[FlexnInLa 10+ year member]

Did you deaden the doors?

 

[Shiltsy]

I did not deaden the doors.... think that would help? It's sure easier than installing a new amp!

 

[SpeedEuphoria 10+ year member]

For good midbass you need to deaden the doors(inner and outer skins). You also need to seal/close all the holes in the door skin so the door makes a box for the speaker.

I just got done doing my doors. I had a big hole I glued 2 sheets of vinyl flooring together, and fiberglassed it and sammiched it with another 2 layers of vinyl. Then I stuck it to 2 layers of Ramaat to the door.

You will likely need an amp at least on the front components to get them to sound good.

You may have a phase issue, try reversing the pos/neg wires on 1 side door speaker and see if it sounds better

 

[blazeplacid 10+ year member]

sounds like you need an amp

get a decent amp and you will be happy

 

[galacticmonkey 5,000+ posts]

Deaden your doors first. Deaden the crap out of them, and seal every hole you can. Then take a listen.

The majority of the sound is in the install.

 

[Cruzer 10+ year member]

u should deaden the doors, but you said u think its easier to deaden the doors over running an amp? most people say deadening doors is a PIA.

also imho, speakers receiving HU power, do not need deadened doors, but im sure im wrong. just dont feel like 10 watts on components will make them vibrate a lot

 

[galacticmonkey 5,000+ posts]

Deadening doors is a pain in the ***. But if you dont deaden and seal them, you could have a $1500 set of comps with 150w per side and you wont have any midbass.

Imagine your midbass was a subwoofer. You could throw all the power in the world to it, but if its not in an enclosure, it wont make any noise.

 

[audioguy36 10+ year member]

An upgrade to an external amp will yield better results for the overall sound quality aside from rattles, you wont have to eq the crap out of the low end, remember when you boost the low end your taking watts from your mid range and highs. I would go with an amp like the MB Quart dsc450 or dsc480, 89.99 for the dsc450 on sonicelectronix.com, and 119.99 for the dsc480... These are definitely a good bang for the buck amp and a very good investment to compliment those JBLs. They both do close to there rated power and would be plenty for your front stage and rear fill. Also the power going to those components is not 22wrms more like 14-15rms per channel as that's the Kenwood rating not CEA rated. Anyways good luck man.