New rear speakers sound way worse than stock

I have some infinity kappa components in the front that are utterly amazing.

3 way component with 6x9, 2", 1" all powered on a single channel of a 125x4 amp. The bass alone is so good that I'm probably getting rid of my 10w3.

On to the rear speakers. Up until now, I had the stock rear speakers on the same amp. After changing them out, it sounds bad. The new ones are similar to the front accept 6.5"version rather than 6x9. I only installed left speaker so far.

The bass is terrible. Way less than the stock non-jbl speakers. The speakers don't sound blown or anything. My amp has a 40bamd EQ so I did everything thing I could on that but it's still not good. Changing the balance back and forth between the stock speaker in the new one is like night and day.

Any ideas what could be going on? My only thought is that it isn't sealed good but I can't imagine that would make it sound worse than stock.

 

What headunit? If it’s factory, that could be it. The factory h/u puts out a horrible rear signal compared to the front. If you’re amplifying bad, that’d be it.
Another option, since you know the signal is good, put the front signal wire in the rear output. That will eliminate a signal problem.

**edit** Found the other thread. The ones you ordered are 2ohm, and the ones you just installed are 3ohm. That may be enough to cause clipping and distortion or lowered output. How did you set your gains?

 

I am using the stock headinit. I briefly swapped the RCA connectors to the amp and I think it sounds better. It's hard to tell now that the EQ is no right. I previously set the front using a test microphone. I'll do it properly tomorrow. Thanks for the tip.

I haven't properly set the gain on the rear yet but I did increase it. I'm not worried about clipping yet since the volume isn't turned up super loud.

 

You were pushing a thin piece of paper with a neo magnet the size of a quarter. Now you are pushing a thick piece of plastic with a much larger magnet. Physics are a pain sometimes

gotta change the EQ settings till you get it right

 

Possible you may have accidentally turned on the HPF on the amp while adjusting?

 

Fixed!

Ok I figured it out. It was the amp being dumb. It's a kicker q 125x4. All in all, it's a really nice amp but it's software is buggy.

I reset the settings through the USB interface and reapplied the same settings and it was fine. I think this was due to changing the speaker impedence. I had a similar problem about a year ago when I changed out the line out converters.

 

You sound happy with the sock head unit, what kind of LOC/DSP are you using to get RCA's from the stock HU? Also would you happen to have any pics of how your 3-way speaker install?

 

I'm using kicker RCA adapters and a kicker IQ 500.4 amp. The 2" speaker fits perfectly in the stock tweeter location. The 1" tweeter goes in the sail piece in the front door.

Here are some photos from an old thread,

 

Thanks for the reply, I started with infinity reference and liked the sound clarity and separation but could not deal with the super bright "textile" tweeters so exchanged them for kicker KS which seem good for the price point but don't have quite the same clarity/separation. Don't see myself spending more then a couple hundred on speakers anytime soon but if I do the 3 way kappas will be on my short list.

I just installed an amp yesterday using speaker level inputs and find I have to have the gain all the way to zero to keep the output at 14.1v on my alpine 50 watt RMS amp, any more gain produces some distortion. So proof positive that speaker level inputs are wonky. So now I'm debating on a simple LOC vs JL FIX DSP vs new head unit. Seems after market head unit is the consensus but I find the steering wheel volume controls to be too slow to crank the volume quickly and options are limited for HUs with actual volume knob. Not sure if the steering wheel volume controls would be more responsive on a different HU.