Why do my new speakers sound so mediocre?

[iCeNN 10+ year member]

Ok so I recently replaced my 4 speakers in my 1999 Saturn SC2(two 6.5 3 way Pioneers in the front, and two 6.5 Alpines in the back). I also had a car audio shop hook 'me up to a cheap quality amp( Xplore) which I have at the moment, although I'm going to be having it replaced with either a Pioneer or an Alpine today. I'm not exactly sure how much power the Xplore amp is pushing to my new speakers right now, but I believe it is probably somewhere around 75-80 W x 2 ohms(I'm a complete noob right now when it comes to car audio, so I may be off a bit). I should note I had my factory HU replaced with a Pioneer HU ( the 2400UB), before installing the new speakers and I noticed the Pioneer HU did not improve the sound quality of my factory speakers. If anything it seemed like it sounded a tad bit worse(less bass), although I had the bass turned up on the factory HU EQ, and when I was testing the new HU for the first time, the EQ was set to default. So the Pioneer HU may not have necessarily made the sound worse but I think it didn't improve the sound. Right now my speakers just don't sound rich m. They're not clear enough, and seem to be lacking a bit of bass. Compared to my sister's 5 1/4 BMW speakers( no amp, and they're factory upgrades I believe) they sound kinda crappy and inferior. What do you guys think might be the problem right now? Could it be the crappy amp and nothing else? When I get t replaced today, in theory should it improve the sound quality that much? Also wanted to note when testing the front door Pioneer speakers after I installed them my self(this was the second upgrade after getting the new HU, and at that time I had no amp) I noticed only a very slight improvement which seemed kinda odd because most of the reviews of the Pioneers said that the Pioneers sounded much better than stock speakers. So at that point I was disappointed. Could it be my speaker wires maybe? Since my car is kinda old could replacing the wires bring the speakers up to par, if getting a decent amp hooked up doesn't do the trick? Any input is appreciated. Sorry for long post. Thank you!

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[dhall615 10+ year member]

Sounds like you need to play the the EQ and get it sounding the way you want.... if the EQ is set flat they will be lacking.

 

[iCeNN 10+ year member]

Sounds like you need to play the the EQ and get it sounding the way you want.... if the EQ is set flat they will be lacking.

Wow that was a fast reply. Thank you! They do sound better with the bass up high and treble low on the HU EQ. But I just feel like the sound quality overall is lacking. Any other ideas or suggestions?

 

[wickedwitt 10+ year member]

Sounds like you need to play the the EQ and get it sounding the way you want.... if the EQ is set flat they will be lacking.

This isn't necessarily true. If all components of the system (HU, RCA, processing*amp*, and speakers) are done properly, there should be livid and colorful sound. The objective of mids/highs in a "good sounding" environment is to accurately reproduce what the artist recorded. While this sound is subjective, and always needs a bit of tweaking for each user, a flat EQ is not necessarily lacking.

I run my EQ completely flat all the time because I listen to several types of music at varying volume levels and each one of these parameters changes the "perfect" sound. It does me considerably more justice to leave it flat, and have every type of music just a bit off from accurate than to have to constantly change the EQ to fit the volume and type of music being played.

OP, your amp upgrade should help considerably. Remember that quality sound always originates at the source. You need good quality music (CD or MP3) to begin with, a proper deck that puts out a clean full signal. Crossovers need to be in place so each speaker only plays the range it was designed for. Speakers being adequately (or even a bit over) powered makes them come alive. Always remember to maintain good xovers if over powering so you don't burn up voice coils on speakers.

It would be overwhelming for me to help you entirely in one post. Just stick around on here and let people give you a piece of information at a time OP. Let it sink in until you have a good knowledge of the CA world. Also, take a 2013 member that tells you crazy stuff w/ no explanation with a grain of salt.

Good luck in your endeavor.

 

[wickedwitt 10+ year member]

To address the lack of sound.

1) I have a hunch the current amp you have puts out very little unclipped power. Changing amps to a proper one will definitely increase the quality of the sound of your mids.

2) The BMW probably has super high efficient speakers, which is in effect doing what you are going to do by adding a proper amp. Your sound will start to approach the BMWs as you put more unclipped power to your mids.

3) You can always upgrade your mids. If your speakers are stock, even buying cheap after market speakers will increase efficiency, and typically improve sound quality. I run $50/pair coax in my truck with a true 75w/speaker. They sound amazing and keep up quite well with a 10,000w sub stage. They have plenty of midbass too without sounding distorted, or me having to worry about blowing them.

4) Pioneer HUs are wonderful, but the cheaper ones tend to artificially color the tone of the sound. I don't know what it was about my old DEH-4200 but I did not like the sound it produced. I moved to an 80PRS ($250-300 online) and the sound improved dramatically. I also run an old Pioneer Premier unit in my other vehicle and the sound is great.

5) I just saw that both sets of your mids are in fact after market. I fully believe the new amp will significantly improve the sound of your system.

 

[iCeNN 10+ year member]

Thank you so much to the people who replied. All your posts were helpful. I'll cross my fingers and hope the new amp will do it. Other opinions are still welcome.

 

[ckunke002 10+ year member]

Are you having them install the amp? If not, make sure that you get your gains set properly and are delivering as much (or close) power to your speakers as they can safely handle. A good amp always makes speakers sound better.

Idk if that headunit has filter options, but make sure you don't have a hi-pass filter on that's set too low (cutting out valuable bass).

Also like the other said, tweak with your eq settings once you have your final amp setup. I bet that you will find it to start sounding better. Good luck!

 

[Rich B 5,000+ posts]

Xplore isnt a cheap quality amp, it so bad the company had to ripoff Sony's Xplode name (and Sony isnt quality anymore either) just to fool people into buying them.

 

[ckunke002 10+ year member]

Xplore isnt a cheap quality amp, it so bad the company had to ripoff Sony's Xplode name (and Sony isnt quality anymore either) just to fool people into buying them.

exactly what i was thinking. Lol

 

[matt_bennett05 10+ year member]

Kenford Rockpine. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

Until you address the shortcomings of the doors as enclosures you're going to have subpar bass output from any speakers, no matter how much power you apply to them. A poor quality amplifier is definitely something to change out, but you should also treat the doors with a combination of products and methods. Put on sound deadener to stop some of the audible vibrations that will inevitably come with more bass. Next you have two paths to take. One is to put on a combination of closed cell foam and mass loaded vinyl between the inner door panel and the metal of the door frame. The other path is to cover the access holes inside the door, install bagged fiberglass insulation inside the door cavity, and install foam behind the inner door panel to dampen vibrations.

Check out sounddeadenershowdown.com for sound deadening products.

I used sound deadener, closed cell foam, and mass loaded vinyl on my Saturn's doors. I documented this on my blog if you'd care to see my write-ups with photos. The bagged fiberglass insulation method is viewable in an Accord build log by keep_hope_alive on this forum. Both paths to take for sound deadening are quite time consuming to do them correctly, but the results are well worth it.