I dont get it... I spent all this time installing
6.5's in my doors and tweeters in the A pillars.
I adjusted everything like 10 times now, messing
with the crossover points, etc. Can't figure it
out.. my system sounds like donkey farts.
I already tried messing around with phase, etc
I dont want to use a crossover cuz i'm into that whole KISS philosophy

Here's the setup:
Eclipse Component Series 6.5"
mids in doors, sealed up decently with caulk and dynamat
tweeters in A pillars, custom grille, flush mounted
tweeter attenuation set all the way down (I dont like harsh tweeters)

Eclipse Point Source 6x9's
bolted directly where old bose 6x9's used to be

Kenwood Excelon KRCX657 cassette deck
built in HP crossovers front set to 100hz
rear set to 80hz

Kenwood KDCD300 in dash cd player


Rockford Fosgate 800a4 running the mids
and highs... crossover currently set
to full range and bass adjustment all the way down

now one thing i cant figure is why i have terrible imaging
and staging bad midrange, unclear sound
my system does play loud with no distortion, but it just
doesnt sound good... i heard stock systems destroy my car

when i compare it to turbo95max's setup with
MBQuart something or others in the doors with tweeters in the doors
cheapie Clarion deck, rockford fosgate 600x4, his knocks mine
into the ground

I took out my subs for now, just concentrating on pure SQ...

 

You probably need to aim the the front speakers better, for a good left/right balance. Most tweeters are very directional.

 

So far I agree with Micah. It could definitely be the tweeter angle, or a combination of the tweet angle and the mid angle. Of course there is also the fact that the tweet and mid are over two feet away from each other. Max'n'out had his tweets and mids a large distance from each other and I believe he used a 24 dB/octave crossover to accomadate. Have you tried adjusting the phase of each of the front drivers individually? Also, describe what you mean by - "bad midrange, unclear sound".

 

well... the tweeters are pretty well aimed... not perfect
but they point in the general direction of center of the car

im getting tired of my car sounding like crap... is it the
components i'm using? i know those fosgate amps are garbage anyway

jmax-
to answer your question... the sound is odd... there is very
little left/right separation and the sound seems overly bassy
no matter what I do to it... the highs are loud and sharp,
and seem clear... but they dont seem to have the detail
of the music

my MR2 has a cheapie alpine deck running 4" infinity kappa components
and I think that car sounds nicer than the maxima

sucks

 

That's difficult to diagnose over the internet. That's kind of a hands-on problem.

 

must be the installer

 

....
true true hard to diagnose over the net
all the morons at my shop don't seem to have
an ***'s clue why the system sounds like it does

 

Kinda hard to fix it on the internet, do you have a clue what your doing when you acually make adjustments? NO offence intended by that. But for imaging you need to first match the gains. Then if thats not enough you have to play with each drivers phasing. If that does not work you need and can't get away from new locations for the speakers ( kicks for example). You also should look heavy into an x over. With drivers large distances from each other i suggest using a lower slope. Ie my mids and tweets run active on a 12db slope, and the subs on a 24db slope.

 

Lack of stereo seperation is normally a phase problem. Maybe a single tweet or mid out of phase, or a pair, or some other combination. Also, you could have crossed the speaker wires and might have the left tweet on the right side or vise-versa. Or the same thing but the mids instead of tweets. I once did this with my mids but it only took a few minutes to figure out.

 

well... i'm very positive about the phase of the speakers
they seem pretty good... in general I'm quite good at tuning
systems, etc... i've installed quite a few high end systems
in cars, which is why this bugs me so much

you know, I think the tweeter positioining is probably
the biggest issue so when i get my car back, I think im gonna
do a complete teardown of my system and redo it

besides... my car needs a lot of work done soon

 

Cuzz its a POS and you love Matthel too much!

 

you should be one to talk... you and eddie seem
inseparable...
dumb half moon gay boys

 

 

you have your mouth permanently secured to matthels nuts

 

oh, i didn't see you walk in
did you *** in the back door?

 

I really think you should recheck your balance. Turn it slowly from left to right. Are you really wired correctly? If you are and it really sounds the way you say, it's almost got to be a phase problem.

 

the more i think about it, the more i think you're right
the phase may be off, i'll check it out
i may just ditch the seperates and get a set of the
Eclipse Point Source coax's... I like having the tweeter
sit in the middle of the mid.

i do plan to seal up the door with some dynamat or
something of the sort..

 

Don't ditch the separates yet. Try bridge-mounting the tweeters across the mids. That's what I do. That gives you point-source response, and also the ability to aim the tweeters.

 

I had a similar problem with my car, it had to much bass and it just didn't sound right. I also have a Rockford amp. It was the gains that was ajusted wrong. They have to be ajusted to the head units voltage or something like that. I read it on the rochford fosgate web site. After I turned the gain down it, the bass was cleaner.

 

well... i tried putting them there but
there just isnt enough room between the tweeter
and the mid...

anyway the first thing i do when i get the car back
is rewire all the highs, run 12 gauge for all the speakers
(got like 60 feet of it from work)
if that dont work, then ill try all the other options

 

Label both ends of all wires before you run the wires under the carpet, behind dash, under seat, or whatever.