Hey guys I'm very new to car audio and I could use some help. First off I have a 5th Gen w/o Bose. So in other words the stock stereo is worth nothing. I bought some Audio Bahn 6.5's for every door and installed them today. They are 3 way speakers with a detachable tweeter. I mounted the tweeter in the factory location. OK now the problem. They sound like crap!! Now of course they aren't the best speakers in the world but damn. You can turn it up the whole way and they seem so quite! The power rating is 100 watts RMS each so I think that my factory deck isn't enough to make them sound good. I mean when I say bad, the factory speakers hit harder than these things. So I guess my question is this...would an amp and aftermarket head unit make things better? Or do the speakers just suck. OR worst yet am I just doing something wrong?? Any help would be great!! Thanks guys!

 

First...u bought AudioBahn and expected something good

Secondly, Bose speakers are 1 ohm...so your speakers are not compatible at 4 ohms. Impedance Mis-match....that is most likely your problem...in fact I wouldn't be surprised if they blew...soon..due to it..

I'd either see if they make a harness or something for the Bose system or go back to stock if you don't want to change the whole system

 

nupe500 you might have missed something...I dont have Bose...nor do I want it. I bought these Audiobahns just to get me by because the factory ones were junk. Anyhow...now I'm running into this problem. I didn't want to go all out with the stereo but at this rate I might as well. So we are back to the first question...why do the speakers sound like crap? I know they aren't the best...but they should sound better than stock right?????

 

See if you can return those audiobahn spkrs. If you can't, I would also check to see if the speakers are in phase. When the speakers are out of phase, it makes the music sound like crap. try swapping the "+" and "-" of 1 speaker and see if that makes a sound difference.

 

buy a headunit to power the speakers. or a 4 channel amp. or both

 

Sounds like something is wrong. even though the speakers aren't the best they sould sound better than you are describing. Any chance you could describe the crappy sound? If one or more of the speakers are out of phase the sound will be very diffuse and thin. You might want to invest in a audio setup disc that will have a in phase/out of phase imaging setup track on it. I bought one from Parts Express years ago and it's bailed me out numerous times.

 

Ok here goes: I installed the drivers side door speaker first. All the rest were stock and this is what it sounded like. I adjusted the balance and fade so that it was just on that speaker. I could turn it up the whole way and just barely could I get the woofer to move. No bass what so ever. With the rest of the speakers you couldn't hear it at all. Its not even a matter of sounding better or worse its just the thing barely made any noise. I only had one day to do this install so I put the rest in. I really wish I hadn't now because I could have returned them. It looks like i'm going to buy an amp and headunit to fix this problem. What a waste of money!!

 

you'll be happier with a complete setup IMO. other options open up when you get a HU and an amp

 

my fault I would check what Dex (Supa Lao) said

 

i would never buy audio bahn speakers. and i guess its a push to either pay for new components, i.e. cdt's or a 2 or 4 channel amp. i say go with the amp because eventually you will change out the speakers and you will have a nice amp to power them.

 

There is definitely something wrong here, and I have a feeling it has to do with the "detachable" tweeter. The detachable tweeter, I believe, needs to be wired directly to the speaker- NOT to the factory tweeter wiring. There should be built in crossovers/capacitors on a 3 way speaker and I think you screwed with them.

Audiobahn is actually good stuff. Do you have a link to the model you bought?

 

Here is all the product info that I know as of right now...

They are the AS65Q's

 

Did you use stock wiring for the tweeters? Or did you wire them back into the coaxial? I think they need to be wired together.

 

The speaker has terminals to wire the tweeter if you want to use it externally. I know that isn't the problem. It might been that I have the wires coming from the factory deck switched around. But it works both ways and sounds the same. This is just mind blowing. I dont want to spend the $$ on an amp if its a simple wire problem....is there anyway I can test the phase?

 

I would avoid doing this. Before you just start switching polarity of the speakers, you may just want to double-check the wire diagram to verify that all speakers are wired up properly.

 

Another question...lets say that the problem is simply that my stock headunit doesn't have the power for these speakers...will 25x4 RMS from an aftermarket unit be enough? They handle 100RMS each??

 

yeah, most headunits will power your speakers fine. my headunit is pushing my aftermarket speakers (alpines and boston acoustics) and can make my ears hurt. but if you decide to get some power hungry components in the future, a multichannel amp would be best.

 

exactly. my cdts front and back sound great on my 8500 h/u.

 

This is likely your problem, since it seems like you have the wiring figured out. Your new speakers were designed to handle a lot of power and you aren't giving them much. Your stock speakers are probably 15 or 25 watt paper cones that don't take very much power to be loud. I have never had a Nissan without Bose, but I would venture a guess that your stock HU puts out about 8 watts RMS per channel.

Compare what you are doing to subwoofers. If you buy a JL 10w7 and try to run it with a 25 watt amp, you probably won't hear the bass outside of the car. If you add more power to it, in the form of a 1000 watt amp, people five blocks away will feel the bass.

You need to try and match your speakers with the type of power they need. I would guess that a quality HU with a built-in amp (Alpine, Kenwood, Eclipse, etc.) would give you decent sound quality with those speakers. Of course, you would need an amp to maximize their potential, but that makes the $$$ factor go up, too.

 

the audiobahns are too powerful to be heard with the stock headunit. you would have better off with their lower model speakers that require much less power. if you are happy with ur stock headunit i would suggest just adding in a 4 channel amp that is rated at about 50 - 75 rms x 4, that way the speakers will get much more power and sound crisper and cleaner.

 

I can't believe that Audiobahns are too powerful to run of stock HU power...my Boston Pros rated at 150rms ran great with just the HU, and even better with the amp. IMO...Audiobahn sucks...you're better off with a used set of MBs or Bostons rather than Audiobahns...but just my opinion

 

Ok it looks like I'm going to have to finally spend money on my stereo. This quick fix with the audiobahn speakers has turned into a nightmare! I'm going to give it a shot with a new headunit....if that doesn't work forget these speakers! I have some old Bostons out of my 3rd Gen max I can put in the front for now then. Thanks guys for all the help, a huge lesson has been learned here.

 

Do not buy more stuff yet. The sensitivity of these speakers is 94dB with one Watt. That's pretty good. The power handling capacity might be 100W but that doesn't mean that they require 100W to play loud. Either the speakers are bad or the wiring is somehow F'd up. If you have another speaker that you know is good try putting it in.

 

..

 

exactly. but if i learned 1 thing from car audio its..... do it right and get the good stuff the 1st time.