New speakers sounding worse than stock?

Good day everyone. I have a 2023 OR non-JBL with no extra packages.

I was replacing my stock front door speakers with 3-way Kicker KS Series 6x9's. After changing out one speaker, I faded from left to right several times, and found (in my opinion, of course) the stock speakers sounded WAY better to me. The Kicker KS 6x9 sounded like music coming from a phone's speaker - very tinny, no bass, hollow, etc.

I understand good speakers require a good amp to really shine, but I assumed they would still sound better than stock until I had a chance to get an amp hooked up.

Anyone have similar experiences? Could it be because I used KS Series instead of CS Series? Or because I used 3-way speakers instead of 2-way?

A lot of people rave about the improvement in replacing stock speakers with CS Series, but my KS speaker sounded so bad that I put the stock speaker back in and returned the KS Series back.

Thanks in advance for any input/tips.

 

Expensive yet underpowered sspeaker will always sound like shit.

Arnold Schwarzenegger with a fat 90 year olds heart would probanly stroke out

 

I'm not sure how the signal gets sent to these, but if there's a tweeter and you only sent the low-passed frequencies, then you're only getting what's being sent to the woofer. Or maybe the stock tweeter is still working, and now you have 2 tweeters and a tiny midrange. Either would sound like garbage. Not that you're rubbing shoulders with giants with the Kickers, but they're probably better than stock.

 

I previously replaced the stock tweeters with DS-18 plug and play tweeters, and they sounded good with the stock 6x9s. That was the only thing I did before testing out the Kicker 6x9...
Definitely something weird going on, I'll probably just take it to a car audio place and have them do a full upgrade. I'm discouraged from spending more time troubleshooting with my door panel off, lol.

 

I did the Kicker kit from Trail Grid Pro and it sounds much better. But I also had already swapped out the OEM unit with a Sony 9500ES, which is probably why. No separate amp. Looking forward to seeing how things sound once I get to do some sound deadening. My only real issue has been I put the mic in the roof center console and it is not working out very well.

 

Are you using an amp or the stock head unit for your speakers? I had the kicker cs in my 17 on Kenwood amp with a Kenwood head unit . And those things were loud .

 

Loud does not equal good. Quantity vs quality. You can have both but it’s really expensive and not kicker.

 

Factory speakers have tiny magnets. Aftermarket speakers have large magnets which require a lot more power to push. Add a kicker key amp or swap to an aftermarket radio.

 

Oh it was good too

 

No amp for now, just the stock HU. I was planning to add an amp after some time, I just wanted to do speakers first. I may try again with Kicker CS. Do you know if yours were 3-way or 2-way? Looks like Kicker CS 6x9's come in both options.

 

Mine were 3 way, also sound deadened around the speakers and added fast rings.

 

I have to admit that I upgraded to Kicker CS front door speakers and it was only a marginal improvement, you have to crank the volume on the stock stereo to 40+ to even notice it. I am going to eventually swap the head unit from something from TGP. It may be a few months out, but I'll report back when I make the switch.

 

So aftermarket tweeters AND the tweeters/midrange in the 6x9 - that'll do it.

Yeah, not sure why Kicker always gets tossed around as the go-to around here. They're better than nothing, but would be among my last choice considering everything that's out there. They used to make really nice stuff, but that was 30 years ago. They're riding the legacy now.

 

Did you make sure to hook the wires up correctly? Reverse polarity can make speakers sound bad

 

I connected negative to negative and positive to positive. Then for the 3 prongs connecting to the speaker, there was a large, a medium, and a small, so only one possibility. Maybe the prongs didn't have good contact or something. Anyhow thanks for the suggestion, I'll triple-check next time.

 

you can absolutely get quality without selling off your firstborn. just need to be smart about it.

first step is to walk away from the car audio political ecosystem.

second step is admitting that EVERY speaker is a magnet with a coil of wire suspended within it, with a larger panel attached to it. with this combination, it can convert electrical energy to physical movement, which, done right, produces a desirable noise.