discussion Sound deadening the car. And a few audio upgrades.

[lowfat]

Tried sub in house. It didn't have the same drop off. Tried subwoofer in a prefabricated box that came w/ one of the subs I've bought. In car it still has a steep drop off but not 10-15Hz higher. So I try to EQ w/ the prefab sealed box.... And I've come to hate this. It is so tedious. Try this, run sweep, making config changes, apply, run sweep, make more EQ changes, run sweep. I've been doing 2-3 hours on almost every single working day and 5+ on my days off. So close to ripping everything out and going back to stock audio. I've put in at least 100 hours in to the damn thing (not including sound deadening) so I'd definitely be pissed. But at some point I have to call it quits as its just taking up too much time.

 

[Shadowmeph]

Tried sub in house. It didn't have the same drop off. Tried subwoofer in a prefabriated box that came w/ one of the subs I've bought. In car it still has a steep drop off but not 10-15Hz higher. So I try to EQ w/ the prefab sealed box.... And I've come to hate this. It is so tedious. Try this, run sweep, making config changes, apply, run sweep, make more EQ changes, run sweep. I've been doing 2-3 hours on almost every single working day and 5+ on my days off. So close to ripping everything out and going back to stock audio. I've put in at least 100 hours in to the damn thing (not including sound deadening) so I'd definitely be pissed. But at some point I have to call it quits as its just taking up too much time.

ya that sucks, then after you have everything does it work well together do they play nice with each other.

there was a guy I sort of knew back in the late 1990s he was a young woman I knew boyfriend, apparently he built the best car sound system in BC kept winning awards which I didn't even l no existed he spent about 8+k and 4-5 months apaprently alone building that system the funny thing it was in a very tiny little sports car there, he removed the back seat, just the two front seats a pile of amp preamps by amps in the truck did a pretty decent job hiding them he had to switch out his alternator with something that actually could handle it juice pulled pus even had to remove the normal battery box so that he could fit in a huge deep cycle battery . when he turn his system on and say at half volume all the lights in his car used to go dim until it was one of those old style boom box cars from back then he talked about the nightmare of getting everything perfectly balanced and playing nice with each other it was way over my head I was still stuck on the 8+k I could of bought a used truck and motor cycle for that but he was from a very wealthy Indian family so he had nothing better to do , I did learn a few little tricks liek the old suitcase trcik where you have an old decent suitcase cut in two holes on each side for 6x9s wire them in reverse ( pushpull) and it actually turned into a kind of sub sounded pretty good for the poorer people like myself with little room in a small vehicle of it actually worked in a van I had for a short while i like had two of those upright and settled on the deck of the van in a rear sure it wasn't loud but it sounded decent at the time

 

[lowfat]

Did some research and someone on a forum has suggested to only decrease the peaks and leave all the valleys when doing the EQ. Boosting the frequencies could caused distortion, which is what they say is actually the cause of the harshness. Took a lot of time to EQ manually as before I was using the auto tool in the DSP. But finished up the main speakers tonight.



It does sound a whole lot better. Still have to do some testing to see if I completely like it or not.

As for the right side sounding louder. It was still happening. So I played a sound stage test track on Tidal. It sounds like it is coming directly in the middle of my car. I thought it should be directly in front of the driver. But internet says I'm wrong.


But I'm the driver so whatever. Bumping the balance 3 to the left makes it sound like its directly in front of me. Which I feel like it sounds better. I lose channel seperation but at least it doesn't sound like most of the music is on the right hand side.

 

[lowfat]

2 weeks ago I had redesigned the speaker adapters for the doors to angle the speakers towards the driver by 10 degrees. Hoping they'd help with imaging. Not sure they did. But I was really happy w/ the model I made. Anyways I had tried the cheap Hertz speakers I bought a while ago today. Shown in the new adapters.




Unfortunately they just didn't sound good. They had even less kid bass than the JLs. So this is what I've come too...


I know these have really decent misbass. I'm going to keep the rest of the upgrade hopefully. Will install the other tonight and time align them as they'll be slight different than previous speakers. Then see if I can get back to decent sound.

 

[JD]

Are you back to the stock speakers now? I guess what looks to be a 6x9 will have more bass though compared to what looks to be a 6.5x6.5 with your adapter.

But since it sounds like you're well over 100hr invested now, why not buy some premium speakers that have better frequency response and such? Surely that should be easier to tune as well?

 

[lowfat]

Are you back to the stock speakers now? I guess what looks to be a 6x9 will have more bass though compared to what looks to be a 6.5x6.5 with your adapter.

But since it sounds like you're well over 100hr invested now, why not buy some premium speakers that have better frequency response and such? Surely that should be easier to tune as well?

I am trying the stock door speakers. Will see how they sound after the time alignment, phase correction, and a basic EQ.

Not like the JLs are cheap speakers. https://www.visions.ca/jl-audio-c2-...dy12ETqDNF8eh29ariI_nHj6UcMhsLp8aAt1lEALw_wcB

But they have the same issues as the $750 JL components I had previously. The sibilance (harsh sounds w/ 'S', etc) is unbearable. Even w/ the tweeters set to -4dB on the crossovers.

There is a guy selling some old school MB Quart 6.5s speakers for $50. Made in Germany so before 2007 when they were bought out and made in China. But I think I'll still have the same problem with midbass. If I crossover the sub @ 80Hz to cover the midbass range, it sounds terrible. Some of the music I listen too will just have a non-stop rumble.

When I started this I wasn't going to spend a cent besides the $350ish I spent on sound deadening. I've spent most of the summer on this and just want it working. I've spent about $450 now on audio equipment and supplies (not including deadener). Which ain't a lot but $450 I absolutely could have spent elsewhere.

Car audio sucks. Never again.

 

[Bond007]

WOW. Down and down the rabbit hole. I really hope you get the results you were hoping for. I have done speaker replacements/amp and sub installs years ago, but not in my last few cars.

I am going to be honest...my 2014 mazda 3 (work car) has a stock 6 speaker setup, and the front passenger door speaker decided to fail. I was on the fence for either switching to 4 decent coaxial speakers (front and rear), or keeping 6 speakers and going coaxial in the rear and replacing the component setup in the front. But after reading the issues you have had (even after putting all the work into your car) and me being generally happy enough with the stock speakers (doesn't play really loud or hit low, but its pretty good for stock at normal volumes) led me to just drive to my local Mazda dealer and buy the OEM door woofer for thirty some $ as a replacement and call it a day. Swap was easy and quick after the door panel came off and I am back in business. Easy button complete.

 

[JD]

I decided to quickly look around at speakers and realized this market feels a bit dead. I guess it kinda makes sense as most cars come with a bagillion speakers and a subwoofer now, and I imagine the headunits are EQ'd for those specific cheap ass speakers. Generally sounds "good enough" for most people.

Looks like a lot of companies have been consolidated too and bought out. Like Garmin owns JL Audio... so I suppose it's really only for the marine market now?

I guess it was popular back in like the Future Shop era, where they had installers on site and that wall of car speakers and decks to try. Those ones with the flip out screens were always cool to try! I don't feel like I've seen a car speaker wall in decades though...

 

[lowfat]

Took a couple week break but need to finish. The stock 6x9s didn't sound good. Not sure if its the amp or the speakers at this point. So I install the mids from my old JL C3-650 components I had in the old van. Something ain't right. The left speaker is substantially louder than the right. But only the mid. This is the opposite of how it was stock.

So I pull out the Hertz amp. Go to reinstall the old Hifonics amp I used in the van. Hmm. Seems like it may be too large.


Nope. Won't fit!


Labelled all the wires and put ferruls on all the speaker connections. Going to install a distrubition block for the power,ground, remote I believe as I have too much crap in them.


Anyways I test it w/ the Hifonics amp and it does seem to sound better. But the left is still louder than the right. Makes no sense to me. So I pull the drivers and hook them up to the Dayton Audio DATS V3 to measure the specs. Now most of this makes absolutely no sense to me. BUT they are wildly different. Specifically the SPL. 3dB is technically twice as loud (not that we hear it twice as loud).


So I guess I'll maybe try swapping the drivers in the car and see if it actually follows the driver.


Edit: so I swapped drivers. But since the right side was 3dB higher normally I think I can make it work. It sounded pretty good.

So I go and install the Hertz amp again. Im thinking it just isn't powerful enough to drive my speakers at the level I want maybe. It is likely harsh because it's clipping. The other amp is almost 3x as powerful foe the main channels. But its only 4 channel not 5.


Im going to reinstall the hifonics again just to verify it sounds better. If so I'll go from there.

 

[lowfat]

So happy I need another update.

So I reinstalled the Hifonics again. Played on the JL door speakers alone. I'm pretty sure it was more clear. But then I try just the 3" dash speakers. OMG. I honestly had no idea they could sound so good. The highs were so crisp and clear. Previously on the Hertz amp I had to turn them down substantially lower than the door speakers due to me finding them harsh. But now its the opposite. I am turning the gains up substantially over the door speakers.

I'm going to keep the Hifonics, will just have to figure out how I can install it. I'm thinking maybe false floor behind passenger seat. Add a fan running @ 5V. Then install a subwoofer amp under the seat.