New System Sounds A Bit Rubbish!

[Dino 3]

Whilst on Paternity leave and seeing as new born babies seem to sleep a lot I've had a little time to do some odds and sods one of them being to fit a head unit and some speakers in the 306.

 

I bought a new Sony mp3 iPod head unit and some 2 way JBL front speakers. There are already some Infinity 6x9s fitted in the rear shelf (spliced crudely into the rear shelf loom)

 

I'm wondering if anyone knows how you can tell when speakers are out of phase? The previous owner had some crappy Fusion speakers fitted in the front door pods but had failed to connect the tweeters or the crossovers! He has obviously snipped the Pug connector that was fitted to the OE speakers and fitted some spade connectors to the existing wiring. I already had a block connector to connect the head unit to the cars multiplug loom and I know that is correct as I had used it my previous 306 S16 and the system I had in that sounded lovely on the standard rear speakers and Infinity reference jobbies I had fitted to the front.

 

Does anyone know what colour the positive and negative terminals are for front speakers in a 306? I'm assuming that perhaps 205 wiring could be the same colour wise?

 

The system just sounds harsh with no warmth or depth to it.

 

Any help is appreciated!

[DrSarty 90 1 Cars]

I hope this helps Dino. No, I can't tell you wiring colours, but there are some harmless tests you can do, which may well reveal the 'depth' (I read as 'bass') that you're missing.

 

The first test is a simple one. Did you used to have the 'loudness' button switched on and now haven't activated it on your new head unit? Probably not the issue; but it doesn't involve screw drivers.

 

Next test is using the fader and balance controls. Firstly fade fully front and check it does what it should. i.e. no sound in the rear. Then use balance to fully left (then right of course), and if the bass increases during this then the phase of one speaker is incorrect. If so, pop out a speaker, switch wires and try again. This could rectify any phase issues in the front.

 

Then repeat for the rear, same detail as for the front.

 

A future complete fix is replacing speaker wires, which is a bitch due to removing trim and door panels and threading wires through the door hinge rubbers. But it's a once only job and will ensure it's all connected correctly.

 

Keep us posted eh.

 

Rich

Edited August 9, 2007 by DrSarty

[steve@cornwall 100]

When sat in the car with either front only or back only, does the sound definitely come from the two speaker's location or does it seem to originate from anywhere within an imaginary arc between the two? If the former, swap the + and - on one of the speakers and listen again.

[jeremy 68]

Assuming all the wires and speakers are correctly fitted, it may just be simply the new head unit sounds very different to what you are used to. In the past I originally had the top of the range Alpine, with 4V pre-outs and basic bass and treble. When this stopped working I used a top of the range Kenwood also with 4V pre-outs but with limitless alternatives for the bass mid and treble. Now I'm using a JVC also the same as the Kenwood but not top of the range 4V pre-outs and limitless sound options.

 

The Alpine athough not the loudest was by far the cleanest sound and the easiest to adjust 10/10

The Kenwood was louder than the Alpine but never sounded as good as the Alpine and took ages to adjust the sound. 8/10

The JVC not as great as either the Alpine or Kenwood but with USB and a seperate bass pre-out 7/10

These were all run into exactly the same system set up with no change to the amp gains.

 

My point is my JVC is at least 12 years newer than my Alpine, and 7 years newer than my Kenwood, yet sadly sound has clearly been sacrificed just so they can cram it full of functions, many of with you never need to use.

Edited August 9, 2007 by jeremy