Just A Quick Question About Audio Sound

[mjscar]

Hey guys,

First off, I just want to let you guys know that I have absolutely no idea about audio in general. I couldn't tell you whether one speaker was better than another so thus, I have a little quick question.

A few days ago, my stock speaker blew so I went out and bought a new Pioneer 6" 3way speaker to replace them. Now I've installed them smoothly and everything (I think), but now my stock front speakers are way overpowering my new Pioneers. It sounds as if theres not enough bass coming out of the Pioneers but a lot of mid- and high-range stuff coming from them. Is this supposed to happen? Are these speakers sacrificing the "boom" for quality sound? Or have I done something completely wrong?

Its not a real concern and I'm just wondering because I would have thought that there were going to be as much (if not more) bass coming out of them than the stock ones. The stock ones used to make pretty good low-range stuff pretty well especially after I got my new head unit.

Anyways, thanks for the reply and whatnot. Oh and fyi, I've also got a Pioneer Premier head unit aswell.

Thanks!

[-Stokesy-]

What do you mean your old speakers are overpowering your new ones?? are your old ones still connected or do you just mean that it used to be louder / more bass.

Also what were the original speakers, the ones i pulled out of mine were actually fairly good.

[mjscar]

Sorry if I wasn't very clear but I meant my stock FRONT speakers are overpowering my new REAR speakers.

FRONT: Stock speakers

REAR: New 6" Pioneer 3way speakers

Like the front stockies are making more noise than the rears. If I want to hear any sort of low-range sound from the rears, I have to turn the bass completely up on my head unit and my front stockies by this stage is rocking my doors off. Previously, the majority of my sound was coming out of the rears. Now the majority is coming from the front stockies and its really annoying because my doors are rattling like crazy if I want to have any decent bass in my car now.

I'm just wondering if its supposed to be like this, or have I got a faulty speaker, or maybe I wired it up wrong?

NOTE: original speaker were the original stock ones I think. Sanyo brand is I remembered correctly. Made of cardboard but sounded surprisingly good lol.

Edited April 28, 2009 by mjscar

[TALBO]

Did you wire the polarity correctly to your new speakers?

[rocketboy]

Yeah, your rears may be out of phase meaning the wires connecting to the speakers will be on the wrong terminals. Swap wires around on one new speaker and see if that makes it louder.

Also, your new speakers may be less efficient meaning they need more power to achieve the same volume.

Lastly, the speakers may have a break in time. They may become slightly louder after say 10-20hours of use as the cone suspension loosens up (cone surround and spider).

You'll often hear of audiophiles breaking in new speakers by playing systems with a low-medium level volume or even just tones. Your speakers won't be high end, but perhaps will loosen up a little still. Only other thing to check is to make sure the mounting surface is nice and tight, not space between speaker and mounting surface, I usually run a strip of draught seal or similar around the mounting hole on standard installs just to make sure of this.

[Carbon 34]

Did you wire the polarity correctly to your new speakers?

I would be certain they are out of phase if you fade to just the back speakers and then right to left i bet the bass improves with one playing the pioneers will play lower without a doubt and higher too!!!

, and you should buy some better fronts too, factory speakers are rubbish. break off the magnet and put it on the oil drain bolt to catch metal filings in the engine..lol just in case!!!

the new ones will be more efficient then stockers rocket boy, and prob lower ohm loads too, most factory ones are 6 or even 8 ohm. not 4 when measured

factory ones blow easy, a high power deck will smoke them , and distortion will kill any speaker no matter how many watts it can handle

[mjscar]

Ok, what rocketboy said just got me thinking of something. I think I screwed up my installation (not wiring). You said that the speaker and the mount must be very tight. Well my speakers are too small for the hole and so there is a small hole not covered by the speaker. Could this be the reason why? Simply because its losing pressure due to the hole? Does not having a tight installation affect it a lot or just a little bit?

Actually, thinking about it now, I think that is the problem because my speakers are just losing a lot of "punch" and the hole could be the reason.

I'll try this out and hopefully, I'll have a great sounding speakers by tomorrow!

Thanks guys! I feel pretty stupid for not thinking about that.

Thank you so much for the input! Much appreciated!

[Carbon 34]

Ok, what rocketboy said just got me thinking of something. I think I screwed up my installation (not wiring). You said that the speaker and the mount must be very tight. Well my speakers are too small for the hole and so there is a small hole not covered by the speaker. Could this be the reason why? Simply because its losing pressure due to the hole? Does not having a tight installation affect it a lot or just a little bit?

Actually, thinking about it now, I think that is the problem because my speakers are just losing a lot of "punch" and the hole could be the reason.

I'll try this out and hopefully, I'll have a great sounding speakers by tomorrow!

Thanks guys! I feel pretty stupid for not thinking about that.

Thank you so much for the input! Much appreciated!

yes the sound waves need to be isolated between the boot air and front of the car to produce decent bass, as much as possible in a skyline that is., but check the wires too, bet one is backwards on the pioneers, use my last post to test the phase without cutting up wires

[mjscar]

yes the sound waves need to be isolated between the boot air and front of the car to produce decent bass, as much as possible in a skyline that is., but check the wires too, bet one is backwards on the pioneers, use my last post to test the phase without cutting up wires

Yeh I'll definately do the polarity check before testing if the mount is tight enough.

Thanks!

[mjscar]

UPDATE: EVERYTHING IS BACK TO NORMAL

I checked the polarity as you guys suggested and I found that my right rear speaker was wired wrongly. Fixed that up and it definately did help a bit but it still didn't have that "punch" I was looking for.

So with nothing to lose, I just went and made a custom (much tighter) mount for the speaker. Voila! It fixed everything! Obviously it is not as tight as I want it to be since it was a quick backyard job with less than capable tools but still. Damn happy to have the "punch" back in my car.

Thank you so much for the quick inputs!! A big prop to rocketboy for reminding me of my forgotten physics lol but other than that, thanks guys! Much appreciated!

Now the fun of putting everything together (hopefully for the last time for a while)

Cheers!

[TALBO]

Thought it might have been a polarity issue