Please Help!!! My system sounds terrible!

[shaggy112]

i just finished installing some new stuff. it sounds nothing like i would expect it to.

My car is a 94 Merc Cougar.

I have spent a lot of money on all of this. I am sick of my car sounding like crap. Please give any opinions that you can. I just want to get to the bottom of this and fix it.

Here are the problems in order of importance:

1- Bass

When I listen with low volume, it sounds ok. When I turn it up past 1/4th on the HU, the bass distorts. It isn't even as loud as I would expect. Would this mean that my amp is clipping? I have had a previous system that I got rid of that did the same thing(2polk ex10's, RF Power 400A4). I have played with the gain and xover freq a lot, and haven't been able to produce good results.

2-Highs

They are very bright, and almost hurt at moderate volumes. Again, does this mean amp is clipping? I know that the JVC is not a great amp, but I ran out of money, and I would expect it to be decent. Again, when I had my RF Power 400a4 on the same polk speaks, it did the exact same thing.

3-Mids

These are decent, but are lacking. Not a lot of punch. I am assuming that is due to the fact that the speaks are 5x7. I am not to concerned with this one right now.

Here is what i have:

HU: Blau Meuchen -- (2 stereo pre-outs, 1 mono-out)

Front-Speaks: Polk EX572a (5x7" full-range....handle 60rms)

Rear-speaks: Polk EX572a (5x7" full-range....handle 60rms)

Front-Amp: JVC KS-AX4700 (100rms x 2)

Rear-Amp: HeadUnit

Sub: Alpine SWR1240D (handles 300rms, 4ohm vc's)

SubAmp: JBL BP1200 (reason for big amp: plan on second sub)

Box: Raptor 1.0cuft Sealed Wedge

Cap: 1 Farad LA Bolt

Off brand Dynamat on doors and lined in trunk.

Here is how I am wiring:

Power: Audiopipe 4guage ~16ft --> Cap -> Dblock (4guage IN 8guage OUT)

Ground: Dblock (4g IN 8g OUT) -> attached to top part of trunk...not the lid, but behind that, close to third brake light. paint scraped off.

AMP Wire: 8guage esoteric, JBL has about 5" from dblock, then 4" from cap. JVC has about 2' 8guage esoteric from dblock. Same with ground, going to the second dblock.

RCA's: ~16' Streetwires (forget model, cost about $20 per)

Speaker Wire: Polks--14guage RF wire, Sub--10guage RF wire

The sub is wired in parallel, presenting a 1-ohm load to the JBL.

The gain on the JBL is set ~25%-33%, x-over at ~100hz.

The Polks are going directly to the 2-channels of the JVC presenting 4ohms. Gain set at about 1/2. Xover set to HP...no freq settings.

I have a factory alt, and a diehard gold battery.

THANK YOU!

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[locomc 10+ year member]

Weird. I thought it would be a crap power wiring setup. I can only say make sure that you're grounds are solid. And that includes your batteries negative connection to the chassis as well. Try wiring your sub into a 4 ohm load instead of the 1. The only thing I'd say if your audio starts getting all distorted usually means a crap amp/speaker, but that doesn't seem the case. It could be your cap, it might be junk. If you don't have a voltometer, get one and montior the voltage. Anything else would just be shots in the dark, like these weren't,

but I hope you get it all squared away. If I was to put my money on anything I'd say the cap.

 

[rsg123]

I would buy a good separate crossover. My system didn't sound very good, but then I put in a Sony XEC1000/S crossover (~$200) and it got a lot better. I was using the crossover on my RF amps, but they were not good enough.

 

[<natem33>]

I would reccomend an EQ to settle the highs down. That lacking mid bass is an issue that many people deal with because the highs and the sub bass drown the mid bass out quite a bit. The best alternative for that is to add mid bass drivers. Again, an EQ will help that some. The first time I added an EQ on to one of my systems it sounded like I added 100 watts to the bass plus there was a huge improvement on the rest of the SQ. Without an EQ, I too would think that your set up would be great. I wouldn't worry about the JVC amp for now, it should do just fine. I may not be reading your descriptions right, but did you say that you are running 4 guage power but only grounding an 8 guage ground wire? If this is so make sure that your grounds equal 4 guage. The only other thing that I can think of is that is it possible that you are expecting too much from your bass set up? The only other suggestion that I have is to bring your vehicle to a good audio installer/advisor and have them check it out and give you their advise.