Aftermarket speakers sound worse

Looking to upgrade stock 6x9 I already upgraded the head unit to a boss which has 20 rms.The stock speakers sound so much better with the upgradedd boss head unit but when I installed aftermarket speakers like the jbl 939,jl 6390, they sound less impressive than stock am I doing something wrong or could someone recommend better speakes.

 

Define “sound less impressive”. It may be lack of power. Lack of balance. HF? LF? Did you do any interior sound deadening?

 

I played stock and both aftermarket at the same volume level the stocks sound so much clear and i can feel the bass as with the aftmarkets they sound lower and I can't feel the bass.The jbl 939 I heard were good and those who had the jbl had a stock head unit saying it improved sound where as I have a aftermarket head unit with 20 rms and the jbls sounded weaker than stock

 

new speakers have a break-in period

 

Those JBLs are going to want way more power than any head unit will put out. You need an amplifier.

 

Only 20W RMS? Boss? That sounds like a downgrade.

 

100W RMS. Most head units are 50. -3db on a 94db sensitive speaker - no amp not the problem.

 

He said it’s a 20w boss. Do you really think it’s putting out 20?

 

Expectations problem. You put real speakers in it, that's good. Now you need to put in a real amplifier. Go JL Audio, minimum 50 watts per channel, 100W PC better. Some break-in may also help but mainly it's the (lack of) power.

 

Aftermarket speakers have larger magnets and need more power to make them thump. You'll want to amp them or put the stock speakers back in.

 

Sound deadening is a must, upgrading speakers without doing this is a waste of time and money i.m.o.

 

reach out to james at tech 12volts

 

It probably is doing 20 into 4ohm, yes. I bet if you scope each high level output at max volume, no load you get around 9V RMS.

Volume isn't a sound quality issue...

I did say the head unit was a downgrade though, power aside.

 

I can tell you from experience, that boss is putting out 5-10w per channel. And it will clip pretty early in its volume range

most GOOD head units are putting out 25w RMS with noticeable distortion at higher volumes.

the stock speakers are made out of paper. They sound good with very little power.

new speakers are thicker heavier material, thicker surrounds. Heavier magnets. Beefier voice coils. And they’re not broken in.

 

20 into 4ohms on a very carefully designed test bench I bet. Specs on this stuff, especially from the less reputable brands, always need to be taken with a handful of salt.

Spitballing here, but in my experience lack of power really kneecaps the lower end of the frequency range and makes things sound pretty lacking and unimpressive. Definitely was the case in my truck. I suspect this is what is going on with op.

 

My guess is more like OP hasn't done any EQ tweaking on this new system, whereas factory systems do a little tuning. Also JBL isn't exactly known for its flat response curves. The internal amp on a cheap little BOSS probably has its own problems to add to that.

A long time ago when I was setting up my 1st gen audio I remember something along the lines of losing about 2V per 20 when measuring loaded. That's Vdrop of 10%, or Pdrop of about 20%. Any way you spin it though, 20W is nothing and I still just vote OP get a better head unit rather than a full amp, unless they decide they want a sub too.

 

all head units are 50w/channel max that i've ever seen. generally around 10-25w rms/channel depending on quality of components and how they flavor the lab specs for the marketing team.