Audio Help

[Alex C]

I just replaced my stock front door speakers (it's a Crown Vic, if that matters) with a pair of Pioneer 4 ways and they're not as much of an improvement as I was hoping for. The highs sound great, but there's very little bass and turning up the bass boost ruins everything else. My previous car had component speakers up front and it sounded great. I'm reusing the aftermarket stereo from it, and was hoping to get similar sound this time without having to cut holes for tweeters. I'm not using an amp or subwoofer; I didn't need them in the last car, so I think I should be able to get the sound I want without them.

What's the easiest/most affordable way to get some more bass? I was thinking of maybe replacing the stock rear speakers with the woofers from a component set, but I'm not sure if they'd help enough from the back. Am I correct in assuming an amp won't do much for me? I'm not looking to rattle windows, but I'd like to get a nice immersive sound.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Yuriman]

I'm not a "car audio guy", but I've installed a few systems and done a little reading. Later posters will probably be of more assistance, but here's my best guess:

An amp might help you a little, but what you're likely to get from installing an amp is more clarity, especially at higher volumes.

I suspect you're losing bass due to the shape of the inside of the door panel. You might try stuffing it (be sure to avoid getting in the way of the window coming down) or perhaps building/buying a chamber to put around the speaker in the door, but really I doubt there's a lot you can do short of adding a real sub. If the door panels are killing your bass, putting woofers in them will probably net you relatively little.

In my car I actually wired a small PC sub (from a broken Bose set I found by the side of the road) to the outputs from the rear speakers and it helps. It's not a great sub by any stretch of the imagination, but it has a small footprint, improves the low-end a bit, and I can run it on low wattage.

EDIT: I'm assuming you've already checked the polarity of the wires.

 

[Alex C]

Thanks, I'll look into insulating the door panels. I made sure the + and - wires went to the right terminals when I soldered them on, is there anything else I'm supposed to check there?

 

[Midwayman]

4ways? Like 4 speakers in one mount? weird. Anyhow there are a couple things that might be going on.

1) Does your car have an amp you might still be running through? Many models have one in the kickpanel, etc. They sometimes have EQ functional like a subsonic filter, rolloff to protect speakers, etc. If so, bypass it.

2) Turn your door into a sealed enclosure. Lots of holes in the door means lots of air moving where it isn't useful. use rtv silicon and some panels to close up the door inside as much as possible. This generally will help mid-bass.

3) Putting large woofers in the rear will probably help. They are non directional, just make sure they have a lowpass filter on them so you don't put vocals on them. You can buy woofers outside of a component set.

4) Adding an amp often can liven up even stock speakers. If your new speakers have high power handling there is a good chance they need a dedicated amp to work well. You should look at both the sensitivity and ohm rating.

5) If you have phase off on your speakers you will destroy bass. This doesn't always mean that the wires match up. Due to travel time, etc sometimes flipping one side actually can sound better than the electrically correct way.

 

[QueBert]

An amp will make all the difference in the world, I got my new car last year and the 1st thing I upgraded was my head unit. Even with my stock speakers the sound was on a totally different level. I'd get a better head unit or amp before I got new speakers if I only had the choice of 1 or the other. A lot of it does depend on how good the stock's head unit amp is but it more than likely sucks big time. Unless you have a Mach system, which you probably don't. As for my improvement, if I bought a dedicated 4 channel amp it would make the speakers sound worlds better than my upgraded head unit did. And I have a $700 HU with what's suppose to be a far superior to many HU's amp. And it would still fail hard even next to a very low middle range 4 channel A/B amp. If I had to bet money I'd wager your new speakers are too much for your current head unit to power. Under powdered high end speakers will sound infinitely worse than stock speakers with proper *low* wattage.

Honestly I don't think there's an upgrade for you here besides an amp or head unit. I mean putting better speakers in the back will just further tax your head unit's built in amp, which is already under powered.