davis4005

I finally got around to doing away with all the Bose in the third gen this weekend and it doesn't sound like I thought it would. I can't get the same bass and it distorts real bad when I turn it up even remotley to like 20 whenever the bass hits. I put in an Alpine 9803 and Kenwood 6x9's rear with 4's in the front. Used original wiring. I'm wondering if maybe the polarity is off and if that could cause it to sound like sh*t. When I hooked the speaker up I didn't know which of the factory wires was positive or negative. I actually had to turn the bass on the HU down to -4 for it to sound alright without distorting right away. Thanks guys and let me know if it could be something else making it sound so terrible.

JeremyMarkham

I saw upgrade your wiring and see what happens. Go with monster cable or Rockford. I do understand what you mean though. I have Bose in my car right now (currently collecting my full system before I replace the Bose) and I really enjoy the sound. My co-worker has a 97 Max and has an aftermarket and my Bose sounds way better. I hope that once I do the full install of my aftermarket I can get it tweeked just right...

LeX

iTrader: (14)

your car probably has a bose amplifier, you will need to rewire it, because your HU is being amplified by the factory amplifier and putting out too much power?

I think this would be the cause, heard it was a problem in a different thread

davis4005

I'm pretty sure the polarity is off because I paid no attention to this when installing. I checked the faqs but still could not find a color chart for third gens. Also I believe that the only amps in this system are connected to the speakers, please let me know if I'm mistaken.

Tony Fernandes

Davis,

To find polarity, use a 9-volt battery "pop test". Find the beginning of the wires near the HU, and using your fingers, put one speaker wire lead onto the negative terminal of the battery and then momentarily touch the other wire to the positive terminal. Watch or have a friend watch the speaker that you are testing. If the speaker cone pops outward, then you have correct polarity (in other words, the speaker wire you touched to the positve terminal is your positve speaker wire). If the speaker cone pops inward, then it's backward.

As far as your bass distortion goes I would suspect some of it's due to incorrect polarity. But do you have your 4" front speakers high-passed to keep low frequencies from distorting them? When you say your system distorts and you have to turn the bass to -4, are the front speakers distorting more than the 6x9s? Since the 6x9s are able to produce much more bass than the 4s, you need to limit the low bass frequencies the 4s are seeing so they aren't over driven.

Try these two things. They need to be done anyway.

The other problem you probably have is that you arent' using an amplifier. You can't expect the HU's built-in amp to sound as good as the Bose system. Once you add an amp you will see what I mean. But try the other two things first and go from there.

Tony

davis4005

Tony
Thanks for all the help. I traced the wires and fixed the polarity today, the whole left side was off so it made a huge difference. The bass is better and it sounds like it should now. What do you mean by high-passing the front 4's?

Tony Fernandes

Well, 4-inch speakers are not meant to be reproducing low bass frequencies. You need to cut out these low frequencies so when you turn the system up they won't distort. By having such a variance in size between your front and rear speakers (the 6x9s are more capable of handling bass) you either need to: 1) don't turn the system up too loud so the 4s won't distort but then you're not using the 6x9s to their full potential, or 2) if you turn the system up loud enough for the 6x9s to sound good, the 4s distort.

Tony

davis4005

Thanks for all the help Tony. The 4's do some pretty small to be matched with th 6x9's. I'm wondering if I should switch to 6.5's. Would 6.5's make a big difference?

Cliff Clavin

iTrader: (11)

I would recommend 6.5s. They will produce more of a mid-bass than the 4" speakers. You will need to fabricate or buy speaker pods for the 6.5s, however. James92SE makes great ones. You can look at my cardomain (www below) to see what they look like.

I also recommend getting an amplifier and a cross over or an amp with a built-in cross over (that's what I have). It will allow you designate how much power you want to each set (front or rear) of speakers and at what frequency levels. It is difficult to get "matched" sound quality out of different sizes of speakers when you are using just a HU.

Tony is right about the high pass on the front speakers. At minimum you can buy in-line high pass cross overs (talk to someone at a local stereo shop) so that the bass isn't coming through your 4" speakers.

One bad thing about going aftermarket is you have to almost completely start from scratch and that costs some money to do a good job. To do the job right, it usually takes a good HU, quality speakers, quality amp(s) and wires. A subwoofer will also add a tremendous amount of depth and richness to the sound of you system.

Just some things to think about. I know that money doesn't grow on trees!