shitty sound

So, I have an alpine Ipod deck, it's a few years old, but the one everyone has
in the front I have some kenwood excelon speakers and stock in the back.
01 access cab fyi.

I usually have a 12'' square kicker L5 and a rockford amp for the bass, but I got tired of loosing half of my back seat to the sub. I plan on getting a bass boss 1500 watt self amplified sub. It should work well for me cause I dont care for mega bass!

anyways, my speakers seem to sound shitty right now and i don't know what to adjust on my HU to fix it... they are trying to put out some bass, but fail miserably, but in general just aren't up to par. Ideas?

 

adjust the bass/treble to your liking and if that deck has high pass filter settings I like mine around 80Hz

 

hmm, I leave them both at 0 cause I find it just distorts. also when i turn it up it doesn't sound nice...

I think it's at 80hz but I'll check it out
oh and I think my deck is similar to the alpine 9887

http://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/cda-9887

 

.............

 

You basically said "My stereo sounds like shit. What should I do?"

You didn't leave enough information to make any kind of diagnosis. You could have it wired wrong, you didn't say if you have components or coaxials or triaxials... did you put them in? Were they new when you got them? What input does it sound like shit in? Just IPod? All inputs? What does sound like shit sound like? Did you replace any wiring? Did you solder/crimp anything? Do you have the bass turned all the way up? Was the head unit new when you got it? Are you powering the speakers from the head unit or do you have an amp?

etc.

 

well thats why I'm here asking for help... so I'll answer some of those questions.

yes I wired it, and it sounded better with my sub in, I'm guessing because the sub covered up the distorted sound from the speakers. it's stock wiring, powered from the HU the speakers are kenwood excelon kfc-x682C
Link: http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Car_Entertainment/eXcelon/Speakers/KFC-X682C
(are these any good?)
HU and speakers were new when I got them. bass and treble are left at 0
and I just did theold fashioned twist and tape method for the wiring, but I have a soldering tool now, worth it to go back and re-do them?
should I re-do the wiring while Im in there?

I asked a mod to change the title, it's not "shitty" but it's not good enough...

Thanks!

 

Assuming there is nothing wrong with your wiring you have one of two things going on I think.

1. You've blown your speakers and did not know because you got on the bass crack when you had the sub in and could not hear them gasping for life to save them.

2. You are expecting entirely too much from these speakers.

Either way you are looking at replacing them.

 

Well I've heard blown speakers, and they don't sound blown.

Could it be that there is no sound dampening in the door?
I plan on doing something similar to dynamat, but cheaper. I saw some stuff on here a few months ago, but can't find it now...
any suggestions?

I want to do the doors, firewall and floor.

 

before you go and assume the worst here, did you turn off the subwoofer on your head unit?

i dont know the options on your HU, but on mine it has the option of turning off subwoofer, especially if you dont have one connected...that will maybe fix your problem and start sending lows to your speakers

 

Lack of deadener shouldn't make your system sound unacceptable, though it can help to improve the performance somewhat. I don't think this would be the cause of what you are unhappy about.

I am getting the impression that you have a distorted sound, but this may not be your problem, that's just what I got from what you wrote so far. A better description of what you are expecting and not getting, or a concise explanation of what you hear that you do not like would be helpful.

 

I'll make sure the sub is off on the HU, and then take a close listen and try to describe it. I'm thinking the rear speakers are probably making things sound worse...

 

here is what I have determined.

Without the sub, I find myself turning the music up louder, which is making the speakers work harder. the rear speakers are making things sound worse. and turning the subwoofer off on the HU probably helped a bit too.

I am going to be getting a bass boss 1500 asap, that should help. along with some sound deadener. I'm also going to fade to the front a tad, and get new speakers in the rear when I can..