Issues with Sony HU?

So I decide about 6 months ago to upgrade my factory system on my own. I purchased infinity 6 1/2 component speaker for all four doors, an alpine sub, a Sony slim line amp for the sub and a sony slim line four channel for the speakers, and finally a Sony head unit. To me this seems like decent equipment. My problem is that the sound is very pitchy it seems. It hurts my ears after awhile like there is way too much treble.. although I have tried all different EQ settings. Also it seems like the speakers get plenty loud but the voices are very distinguishable. Almost like there is a lot of volume and not a lot of sound signal. Any ideas? Apparently very few stereo shops care to say good things about sony. Did I buy junk??? Would do I need to do to get full, big rich sound from my system?
Any help is appreciated!

P.S. The sub seems good. The amp to the speakers is turned up about half way so ultimatley my volume is at about 50%. That's about right isn't it? Help

 

This is what you need
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/buy-sell-trade/48699-fs-socal-only-kicker-audio.html

Maybe not. Just trying to get some stuff sold also.

 

Yeah like a whole in my head haha. Very nice stuff though. Hope you get some good money for it.

 

1- Make sure your front speakers are in phase.
2- Adjust the crossover on your amplifier.
3- Consider getting rid of your rear tweeters. It messes up your staging anyways.

If you want to set gains correctly (which I recommend), use these test tones and procedure here to set the optimal level.

 

How do you adjust phasing of the front speakers?

 

Not necessarily true. Talk to Marv about this.
To adjust phase, simply switch positive and negative wires leading to the speaker.

With most equipment, you can get varying stories based on what they sell and brand loyalties, or hype that the dealers have bought into themselves. I don't like Kicker, a friend thinks I'm an idiot for buying JL, another person I know won't touch anything that isn't Pioneer...
Unfortunately, it does seem that the consensus is not in favor for Sony. Most guys aren't going to want to break the news to you, but I'd rather be straightforward. Sure, this may taint your perceived judgment of how your stuff sounds, but you'd be questioning it anyway, and it's frustrating to always wonder and feel like you are somehow outside the circle of knowledge.
The news I've always heard is that Sony was near the top of the heap with the mobileES line, but scrapped that and decided to get cheap. I had a HU from the good years, and I would bet that it could whup on my current Alpine. Now, Sony winds up in Wal Mart. Dealers carry it as an introductory product just to keep business coming in.
Now, that said, don't rush out and buy all new. Make adjustments, and then decide for yourself what is wrong or right. The gospel around here is "the best equipment is what your ears tell you is the best". My mom couldn't tell the difference between my setup and the stock speakers in her '07 Camry. Does that mean she's wrong? Nope! She's happy and just beat the system. As a result she saved several grand that she can spend elsewhere.

Let your gut guide you, and don't get caught in what others tell you to get brand-wise.

 

How not necessarily? Assuming "Phase" is subjective to each person's ears, why would you not want your speakers working together as 1?

I am tall. I did not have to make any adjustments to the wiring for the speakers to be in phase because I am further away from both speakers... someone shorter & closer to the speakers may hear something way different.

 

I used to believe that you always needed to make sure that positive went to positive and negative to negative. When I was making adjustments with Marv, Marv had me try wiring things out of phase. It kind of blew my mind, but he explained it pretty well. I tried retaining all he said, but can't remember it all. I know he mentioned that sometimes they make goofs at the factory and wire up terminals wrong, and as you said, how a person is sitting and the relation of where stuff is can effect what sounds better.

 

I had the same talk with Marv a while ago. Putting speakers in phase is never a bad idea. Keep in mind that speakers in phase to me may not be in phase to you because of where our ears are in relation to the speakers (eg: my height - 6'9''). - to - and + to + works for me on both front components because I'm so tall. I clipped the rear tweaters on my 5.25'' RF coaxial.

To the OP - If you have 4 component speakers all playing a tune but not in phase, you could be hearing parts of the same tune 4 separate times due to the tiny delay of the sound waves arriving to your ears. Some people like to be engulfed in sound. I say "to each their own". Still, speakers in phase will be a cleaner sound. Having 4 components to put in phase can be a little challenging.

When speakers are in phase, you should not be able to hear individual speakers, but rather all speakers putting out a collective sound - as Marv says "the speakers work together". Because high frequency sound is very directional and generally easy to decipher, the way to put speakers in phase is to reverse the positive and negative wires going to the tweater. You do this at the crossover and for most poeple this adjustment will only be for speakers that are right next to them (eg the driver's door tweater). All this does is utilize the rear sound wave of the speakers when it otherwise would be firing forward. Depending on the person/where in relation they are to the speaker, this causes those sounds to hit your ears at the same as a speaker that you may not be sitting as close to. This is called time alignment. It is not a delay. As Marv says, delaying something implies it was stored and withheld until a certain point.

Doing this can greatly improve performance for the right listener.

Educate yourself on these things, but the best piece of advice so far is what Chickenmunga said. Go with your gut.

Please feel free to correct me if I've mis spoken on anything here.

 

Awesome. Thanks guys. All very good stuff and I will take this and see what I can figure out. Again thanks for all the input!