So i finally save up some cash to get a new radio and i get the pioneer. and let me tell ya i tried for 2 hours tuning the thing so it sounds good.. and forget it.. i have new speakers in the car and it distorts at like half way up.. my old pioneer sounded wonderful but this one just plainly sucks.. i tried all possible possibilities with out any luck... what should i go with next please advise!!!

 

read the manual...pioneer made that unit harder to use but it has many tuning options. an obvious thing would be to turn off the loudness feature.

 

it didnt help at all.. the sound isnt natural its very dull and has no highs... believe me i almost know that manual by heart

 

hmm... can you tell us what you have every setting at? i have no played with the 8600 but i can get a good idea from what you tell us.

 

Built in crossover settings?

 

alright man the way that i have it set up is the following...

the eq/ the 12.5 khz is at 3 then the next one at 2 then the next at 1 and the rest are all at one... the cut offs (hpf) is set to 120 on both front and rear.. the loudness is on the bee isnt.. i tried using the self adjusting eq but it works like crap it makes the sound very dull with no highs..

 

what speakers are you running and are they amplified or run off the h/u?

 

i have pioneer 4 ways in the back and kenwood component in the front.. less then a week old..lol.. they are not amped.. get power from headunit

 

there lie your problems....a new HU just doesnt turn your setup into miracle- amps in HU's are just not ballzy enough to drive aftermarket speakers and have high distortion to boot.

If I were you....
*Keep the HU-its actually the best you can get outside of an Eclipse 8series for the $$
*Invest your $$ in an amplifier- either a 2ch for your front components, or a 4ch can drive all 4 corners or the components and a sub, leaving rear doors off HU power
* Ditch 4way speakers-they are ridiculously bright, in the rear doors a simple set of coaxes is all you need-
* Try to match speakers/speaker lines so that they exibibit the same tonality thoughout the car

 

There MIGHT be a chance you got a defective head unit. I doubt it, but possible. Otherwise, if it's working okay I strongly believe you wouldn't notice much of a difference with another brand. Pretty much all modern head units should provide a similar level of SQ. Features such as EQs, time alignment, etc. can vary widely, but they shouldn't degrade the audio signal in a manner you're experiencing. And since you got new speakers at the same time, I suspect your unhappiness is mostly due to them and/or their install. Also, I'd give it a week or so for your ears to adjust before you completely give up.

Also, you stated the speakers distort at about half way up? How do they sound at low volume? If you can get them to sound good at low volume then you know for sure the main problem is not enough power, like Manny said. If they sound terrible at low volume as well, then it's probably a speaker and/or speaker installation problem.

Bottom line? Keep the HU. It's more than likely NOT your problem.

Tony

 

Turn the loudness off they make it distort when you turn the volume up cause they bring out the low sounds and in theory turn off when you go higher but I don't think it did when I turned things up. Use your BBE and adjust your SLA level. Did you try that thing with the microphone?

 

If this is your first component set, make sure you have it hooked up right, Kenwood components could be the problem. Speaker sensitivity plays a role in how they sound turned up. Try some Pioneer or MB Quart comps if you can. Eq/crossover for pioneer should be on mid or high. Pioneers have clean sound but for moderate levels, for high levels, it's better to just go amped with a 4 channel.

 

well fellas heres teh problem.. everything is hooked up correctly iv been installing car audio for years and iv never ran into a problem like this one.. i mean the speakers sound very very nice on the old headunit which puts out the same power and is set to pretty much the same setting levels.. i tried like i said every possibility to get this thing figured out.. i did the microphone thing i did the loudness thing i did the bee thing as well ... it just sounds real real flat and when i get the volume to like 17/40 u hear the highs distort but it werid cuz the highs dont sound like they are supposed to... so i dont see how the speakers could be the problem since like i said they sound real sexy with the old deh-p6400 headunit..