audio questions

[76bonanza]

I have many questions.

First my system so far, alpine cd player 45x4 watts, pioneer fm modulatoted changer. two memphis 6x9 in ****y box from previous owner.

1. there seems to be not very much bass pushed by head unit and if I turn up the bass on unit it distorts speakers bad is this because speakers not mounted in good boxes or amp in head unit sucks. Will a good amp fix?

2. the changer plays at a lot lower volume than head unit when I turn head unit up to decent volume the distortion is severe. Is this also from head unit amp? Will good amp fix?

3. Will the 6x9 hit decent bass if mounted good and with good amp? About how much wattage will they take?

4. despratly looking for a way to mount speakers up front not little 4's in dash. Anyone use the kicker panels from lmc?

Many thanks to anyone who responds.

[82BlackBeast]

First off, the amp in most decks sucks compared to an outboard amp, provided you use a decent amp. The lack of bass is probably because of a few things. The box is probably not built right for the speakers. If you give me the model of the speakers I can tell you what size box they should be in. Depending on the speakers, you can get decent bass out of them. I had some Infinity Kappas that did better than the 10"s I had in the trunk of my last car. But an amp can make all the difference if its setup right.

I've installed quite a few of the modulated changers and never really had trouble with the volume. Some have an output adjustment screw but I don't think I've ever seen one on a Pioneer. You might try changing the frequency that the changer uses and see if that helps. You should have a choice of a few different ones. If you don't find the fix for this, leave me a PM or shoot me an email and I'll see if I can help you track it down. Hopefully someone else on the board has had the same trouble and knows the fix for it.

On the kick panels, you have a few options. I've used the Q-Logic panels, they worked ok but could be better. I've built some that seemed to work the better because they were built heavier and not made of plastic, plus I was able to make them the angle I wanted and fit the way I wanted. The only downside is that it takes a little work to make them look good. The other option is to cut the plastic in the factory kick and the metal behind it and mount a 6 1/2" in it. I've done this on quite a few and if you take your time it comes out pretty good. I think there are a few people on here that have this and maybe they will post some pics for you.

[76bonanza]

I have several fequencies I can use they said on with out a station witch I found very hard to should I try some with a station on them? Also like when I pause the cahnger and stuff I get alot of hissing is that normal? I ca adjust the gain and the pre emphsis but they only seem to make the treble and distortion louder.

Maybe I can try and build something for my kick panels would like to mount some 6 1/2 components up front.

[82BlackBeast]

well you could try one with a station, but you'll probably end up with the radio station bleeding through when you are listening to cd's. You shouldn't have much if any noise when its paused, does it have noise with the engine shut off? You might just check the ground wire for the changer. Make sure its connected to something solid, probably the floor of the cab, and make sure the paint is scraped off where it is connected. I normally use a short pointed sheet metal type screw with a pan head and I use a dremel or air grinder to just take the paint off the surface so that the connection is to bare metal.

[c10scotty]

6x9's arent made to take all that much bass, and an in-deck amp doesnt really put out the wattage for much bass. the box doesnt help either. if you want good bass you are gonna have to get some subs and an amp, thats all there is to it.

[BigAlVB]

You'll ruin speakers quickly by using too few watts than too many due to the distortion that is introduced by running an amp out of "gas", so to speak. So, under normal circumstances, having an abundance of power on good quality speakers is mandatory. Not peak power, but continuous from 20hz to 12K+khz.

I have a set of custom built kick panels made out of MDF and fiberglass. Cost about $150 and are covered in vinyl to match my interior. I'm using 6 1/2" MBQuart co-axial speakers with about 100 watts on the midbass driver and 100 watts to the tweeters. This all runs through MBQuart Competition crossovers and will get loud, but stay clear, in a hurry. I also have replacement JL Audio speakers in the stock locations in the dash.

I use a newer Eclipse head unit with 5+ volts out to the amp to keep the gains down on the amp. I have a Viper 1100.5 amp, which is a 5 channel amp that kicks a#@ for the price. I experiment with subs and today am running a Kicker Solobaric in a sealed box.

This is all in a 1991 Suburban.

[82BlackBeast]

Gotta love those Eclipse decks. I worked for the dealer here for about 3 years. I've got one of the older one's in my truck now and I won't be getting rid of it anytime soon. I used a set of their Point Source 6.5"s in my car but I'd rather have a set of Quart components or some Focals.

On the kick panels we built we used Bondo more than fiberglass, but either work. If you cover them in vinyl there is more work involved in order to make them look good. They need to be as smooth as possible. If you use carpet then it will hide all the flaws. Vinyl looks a whole lot better in my opinion though. $150 is pretty cheap for having them built by a shop. I don't think I ever built a set covered in vinyl for that cheap.....especially not for components. I'd say you got a really good deal. Would you happen to have any pics of them?

[BigAlVB]

I don't have any pics, but they look great. The prep work was done very well as to not show any imperfections in the vinyl. The seam is double stitched and looks alright. Remember, only $150. They stick out a little farther than I wanted but not a problem once I heard them. In other words, the whole speaker is facing the person on that side rather than the midddle or the opposite person (crossfiring). Talk about midbass. They fit right perfectly inside the area at the bottom of the factory kickpanels where there is a raised area on the flat surface.
Highly recommended!
Remember, these only hold a set of coaxial speakers, but with the MBQuarts they have the aimable tweeters that are mounted to the speaker surround, not through the dust cap as on some less expensive coax speakers. Those older Quarts with the metallic tweeters, like mine, sure have a distinctive sound on the highs though!

[76bonanza]

Well I got an amp and new 6x9 boxes much better know but I still get alot of noise from the changer. Even with motor off so I know it is not engine niose. Could it be the fact that the ant. I moved my ground to several places no help. Someone said somthing about a ground runing thru ant.? Not sure what else to do.

[Tracy Focht]

82BlackBeast, what dealer do you work for in WF,TX?

[82BlackBeast]

I worked for Car Fonics, now its Chuck's Car Stereo, for almost 3 years. Once Chuck bought it I stayed on and helped remodel the store then I moved on.

[76bonanza]

Blackbeast is there anyway to remove or reduce the background hissing from the fm modulator?

[82BlackBeast]

well, generally I would say its a grounding issue when you have noise but you've checked that. May check the connections for the antenna and where the modulator is hooked up, make sure they are all together good. Let's see, you said it had the same noise whether the motor is on or not so its not a ground loop. Did this happen all of a sudden? Or has it always been like that as far as you know? It could be a bad modulator and if everything else checks out then I'm afraid that would be the next step. Anybody else have any ideas?

[76bonanza]

Ya just installed the changer this weekend what about the ground that the ant carries could it intraduce noise? I have heard you can get rid of it it is a windshield ant.

[82BlackBeast]

I wouldn't think that it would induce noise through that and if it did I would think that it would act more like a ground loop. Basically it should have engine noise/whine if that were the case. I could be wrong though. I tell ya what, I'll call my old shop tomorrow and see what they can tell me. I'm sure there is something that we're overlooking. Either that or its got a defect which isn't all that likely. I'll let you know what they tell me.

[76bonanza]

thanks

[82BlackBeast]

Ok man, I have something else you can try. Did you have to use antenna adaptors? I found out one good way to tell if the adaptors are good and if the antenna cable is good is to turn off the modulator and see if you get any AM reception. If you do then it should all be good, if you don't then either the adaptors are bad or something else in the antenna cabling is bad. So there is something else to try, everything else I think we've covered. If that doesn't fix it I'm afraid I would say to try swapping out the modulator. I find it hard to believe that it would be bad out of the box, but ya never know I guess. Let me know what happens.

Take care,