Poor SQ/Midbass from new Pioneer C720PRS Components

I recently purchased a new set of Pioneer C720PRS components and they look great! Unfortunately, I installed one mid/tweeter in my Buick Lucerne driver's side and it sounds... Less than great.
I installed it using the factory wiring (running on a small Clarion XC1410 amp, 50wx4). This is what I'm assuming must include the factory crossover. I have a decent door enclosure with deadener applied. The speakers have little or no midbass and distort at medium volumes, especially the tweeter. The factory speaker definitely sounded the same or better.

Could this be due to the poor factory wiring (looks like ~24ga) and crossover? Sub-par amp performance? I'm pretty disappointed in the sound of these almost universally acclaimed speakers.

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yup all of the above..... AND THEN SOME!

A proper door enclosure is just one part which you might not have finished. If you havent actually fully sealed the door rather than just laying deadener over it, its not gonna be that much of an improvement. Inside the door, you need some absorption material to deal with the rear waves as well.

First culprit is phasing. You might be out of phase somewhere in your system. Reverse speaker positives and negatives to see if anything improves.

Also you havent told us what you are using for sound processing. A dsp or head unit? what head unit model? is it a stock head unit? A mediocre, cheap or stock head unit will always put out cheap, mediocre and more or less, garbage sound. If you are using a stock head unit and that clarion amp with speaker level inputs. EVERY speaker set will sound like dog poo, factory signal is the worst because the stock head unit has its own EQ curve and crossover points along with ABSOLUTE JUNK Digital audio converters. Reason why the factory speakers sound better is because the head unit is TUNED specifically for that factory speaker, not for any other speaker.

You dont have nearly enough power along with Junk wiring so thats definitely an issue. This component set says 50 per side but will handle 100 watts rms per side easily and that will wake up the midbass potential indefinitely. Get a nice class A/B amp to power them as well or bridge your clarion amp.

Other thing is to go active and ditch the passive crossovers.

Tweeter positioning is important as well, makes all the difference really. The set might not like stock locations or where you are putting them.

This is a prime example of even if you have all the money in the world for a hella nice speaker set, a poor install will make them sound like garbage. While a cheap set with a good install will turn heads and surprise people. NOW once you get a good install in with this nice speaker set, you'll be on cloud 9....

Everything that was talked about is included in a "proper install". The tuning is another story if you actually have proper processing.

I don't have first hand knowledge of that amp but I'd say it's ambitious to expect it to actually put out anywhere close to 50w x4.

If you're using the stock deck you need something like a navonne LOC at a minimum (if not a DSP) to give you a decent source signal IMHO.

There are a thousand things that are causing all that. For starters you only have deadened on the doors. For best results you also need ccf and mlv. Second you are using factory wiring and crossovers, are you ******* kidding me. You need to use the crossovers for your speakers and better speaker wire. Third you should have invested more money in a better head unit than just speakers. Finally that pod amp needs to go.

Such an angry fella [emoji33] .
I appreciate your input, but CCF and MLV are far from necessary for speakers to display a acceptable frequency response. Also, the Alpine is a decent head unit - it should have no problem delivering what I'm asking of it.

Like I said in my original post, this was merely a test run, but still a run that I expected to see more from. I'm not asking if there's a weak point, I'm just wondering which of the weak points (power, stock wiring/crossover) would be a likely culprit, as the performance was even much lower than I expected - and I obviously didn't expect stellar performance in this situation; just a taste.

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Obviously you are an all knowing wizard and have experienced before and afters of apply ccf/mlv to the doors. I definitely does nothing for mid bass or improve sound quality at all. Have a nice day sir.

Thanks for the quick reply Jeff, you're always a great help.
I'm using an Alpine HD149BT head unit with RCA preouts going to the clarion amp.

The doors are completely enclosed except for one part by the window motor where there is movement (and where clips/retainers are placed).

I'm using this amp in the interest of space saving - I'm not sure where I'd place a decent multi channel amp, not to mention an active crossover.

I suspect I may be out of phase. I'll grab my meter and check to be sure. Unfortunately I ran out of time (and effort) as I found it impossible to run wire through the factory door boot - turns out it's a sealed wiring harness inside of that boot, not just a cable run. That's gonna be fun to overcome.

Will the 50w RMS even make these sound remotely decent? Would the benefit of wattage gain through bridging outweigh the lack of rear fill?

Sorry I didn't include more in my original post, it's difficult to do so while remaining brief.

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I'd say check the miscellaneous installs before swapping amps. Checking phase along with test wiring one speaker out of phase to be sure or wire both of them out of phase. Good luck with getting speaker wire through, try to get that 16 gauge ofc in however you can. Afterwards just bridge it and see if it makes any difference. If all else fails man, i'd say swap out the amp to a proper Class A/B amp.

It is wierd that this is happening. Your head unit is fine, that clarion amp is not too shabby from what i've heard. 24 gauge speaker wire is a problem though along with phase cancellation issues.

He doesn't need to go A/B especially if space is an issue. Full range class D will get the job done just as effectively and more efficiently.

Well, I just finished the install - ran new wire, fully sealed/deadened doors and made sure the polarity was matched. I'm still not seeing much midbass from these drivers - at 50w they get plenty loud without distortion, but the midbass is just very lacking. Not sure where to go from here..

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Try playing with the EQ but might need more power. Might just be your car having poor acoustics. You can also try going active and switch out crossover settings.

Strong mid bass takes a strong driver, a lot of power, and proper EQ.