hmmm new speakers not soo sharp

enid_b · June 17, 2006, 08:47

if i turn up the bass on my new alpine HU, the bass starts to make a funny noise (hard to describe other than a distorted thud) is this mounting or soundproofing problem or are the speakers pants.

they are a set of jbl gt626's or similar in good condition. they sound nice at sensible volumes.....

any ideas gang?

Leeber · June 17, 2006, 10:12

If you mounted them according to Buster's sticky on this forum, I would imagine that it's the speakers. Correct me if I'm wrong but these are a set of £50 speakers of the sort you can get in the local Halfords right?
I would imagine that at that price they probably wouldn't handle high volume bass that well anyway, even if they are JBL's. The doors of the '2 aren't really the best space for producing a lot of bass, it takes a very good speaker to squeeze the most out of them. Cheaper speakers can sound great if they are mounted and driven properly, but the '2 doesn't really give you that option unless you want to start hacking away at your storage bin doors and even they aren't made of the right material.
I would imagine that most professional fitters would probably tune some of the bass out of the door speakers (using crossovers or the High pass filters on your nice expensive Alpine HU) and rely on a Sub to fill out the low end.
If you do a search, I think you'll find that the most popular solution on this forum is to fit a set of focals, I personally went for Rainbow SLX 265 deluxe's for my mid range Kenwood HU. I found that although they still don't produce that much bass (due mainly to their size and location), they don't distort at higher volumes, even without using the high pass filter on the HU. However, once the top is down and I'm doing 90 on the motorway
all I can hear is the top end, the road/engine noise just drowns out all of the bass and a lot of the mid-range. I'm afraid the holy grail for this car is a decent sub solution that doesn't take up what little storage space there is.
Apologies if this sounds like an egg-sucking lesson, hope it helps though.

enid_b · June 17, 2006, 11:47

no egg sucking here,

thats a great answer and just what i needed. i bagged the speakers on ebay for £16 so i thought nothin ventured nothing gained....it would appear i have not gained!

i havent installed that sound proofin stuff forgot the name but brown bread i think is a similar item.

and the speaker install if im honest is not the best, i was at work and a little rushed.

they doooo sound good, but as per your description, on the motorway i just get top end too.

perhaps i should just get some proper speakers and do it properly.

the head unit is a beast however! and wired up with my ipod its the danglies!

Leeber · June 18, 2006, 09:29

If I was you I'd probably fit the sound deadening material first on the off-chance that it does the trick. Even if it doesn't, you'd have to do it when you replace the JBL's anyway else you'll probably find that decent bass production causes a good few rattles in the door.

enid_b · June 22, 2006, 23:48

its all sorted,

lol after much head scratchin i ripped out the jbl's

for some weird reason...or some drunken ebay magic a set of novex(who) components arrived care of amtrack.

had a look at em... look the part. all the numbers and technobable sounded good.

fitted em yesterday... (my pal made me some awesome mounting doodars....i only called in for his jigsaw...) the are the danglies....

good bass, good full sound range.... no distortion up to ear bleed volume....

prolly my best ebay purchase....

if anyone wants the spec then feel free to ask or pm...

e

Leeber · June 25, 2006, 20:45

did you get the sound deadening stuff in as well? How do they do in the "top down 90 mph" test?

enid_b · June 25, 2006, 23:16

awaiting test results for the 90+ top down test

i never go above 70 harumph !

Anonymous · August 1, 2006, 14:37

I had my standard speakers and HU replaced by a very professional outfit called Auto Audio in Acton, West London( m http://www.autoaudio.uk.com/ m ). They are probably about as expensive as you can get, but the service and quality is excellent. (Though the MR2 did look out of it's depth between 2 x Lambo's and 2 x Rolls Royce's in the service bay!)

They have replaced the standard speakers with Morel Pulse 6 (these have a cross-over in the doors behind the arm-rest). The Sony HU has been replaced by an Alpine CDE-9850Ri and they built a custom fascia including a small tray under the unit in the spare space left by the double-din. The iPods connector is in the glove box. They wanted me to have a sub-woofer but I declined - the new set-up is easily able to wake the dead and sounds great as fast as you can go with the roof down.

One criticism of the Alpine unit is that controlling the iPod is not as easy as my previous set-up (Dension Ice Link connector to the Sony) - that used the iPod controls as it was mounted on a cradle on the dash.

Apart from that wee gripe - which is due to Alpine, not the installer - everything is perfect and I thoroughly recommend them... if you don't mind paying for good advice and great service.

Anonymous · August 1, 2006, 15:27

I sell R-blox on my website ( w www.autoaudioaccessories.co.uk w ) if anyone wants some sound deadening.