CleanSC

Okay here's a new one.

I got too much bass.

In my 4" speakers on my SC, that is. I replaced them all and they sound GREAT **IF** I have the bass **** at zero. As soon as I add bass you can visually see these poor things going full excursion and distorting horribly.

How do I stop this? I can only enjoy my system with the bass off and that's not much enjoyment!

I tried those bass blocker capacitors and they made the speakers cut out at higher volumes. They make a nice improvement when installed however. You can visually see the speaker working easily and sounding clearly. Until you crank it up. Then you hear nothing. They cut out during the bass peaks. I recently had another post about that.

Anyway, what can I do to stop the bass frequencies from slamming my shiny new speakers? They sound so good when they aren't trying to reproduce 50 hertz.

I need some sort of crossover I can install at the speaker or something of that nature. Why do they build the system like this in the first place?

I have system-building experience (from the ground up so this has never come up) so no worries there.

Thanks all. After I figure this out I can worry about properly adding some bass where it belongs.

/Aerostar\

iTrader: (2)

Yea all you need is a simple crossover to send only high frequency waves to those speakers

PERRYinLA

Yeah, www.partsexpress.com sells cheap crossovers, so see if a set helps.
Here is one for $8.80 each: Partnumber=266-150

There's plenty of posts from those that have replaced their stock speakers with aftermarket drivers, but I don't think anyone has reported this same problem, which leads me to believe your speakers, no matter how good they sound at low levels, do not have the power-handling capacity necessary.

TwentyTen

Like everyone else said, a simple crossover will work

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...715279106&rd=1

sc3boost

i don't mean to sound judgemental but there are other causes other than lack of a cross over.

the main thing is do you have a proper radio.
if you want to be able to tune your system i'll say get a crossover but if you speakers are poping and getting bass a crossover will just cover up the problem and will keep you from getting the full potential out of your system.

i dont know who instaled your system but figure out what is causing the problem and change it, then if you want to get a crossover, the only way your speakers should get bass is if you don't have a midrange amp or the amp is'nt tuned right.

this is just my 2 cents.

CleanSC

Thanks for the advice guys.

I went to a car audio place and bought some crossovers that they recommended. I told them I had some overworked 4 inchers and needed a crossover to fit them. They sold me a very nice set of crossovers that I installed in the door just outside of the speaker enclosure.

It resulted in a total lack of mid and low end. The 4" coaxial turned into a tweeter. Seems the crossvers cut off at 5kHz which is way too high. I need something closer to 800Hz or so. So obviously these won't work, I'll return them tommorow.

In the meantime I quickly tried the bass blocker caps again but this time outside the enclosure where the crossover was wired (the caps were wired at the speaker inside the enclosure before). And now they work perfectly. WTF.

Go figure. Maybe the tweeter had something to do with the cap not working before, I'm not sure. Either way, problem solved with a $3 cap.

sc3boost: The system is totally stock minus the four 4" speakers that I replaced. I'm obviously not looking for anything fancy here. But the overworked front speakers just sounded unacceptable.

I've installed complete systems from the ground up and never had an issue. They have always been crowd pleasures and exceeded all my expectations. But here I'm trying to work with the stock setup so there's somewhat of a handicap. I'm not expecting much but so far I am very pleased now that I have the front speakers sorted.

Now to upgrade the subwoofer and I'm done.

sc3boost

yeah those front speakers are some strong sounding sob's.

there is a wireing harnes that allows you to connect aftermarket amps to the stock radio(assuming you have the stock radio) then maybe you get a line driver, but that sounds like alot more than you're looking for.


what kind of radio are you using..............................................

Theodore

Nah 4 inch speakers can not pump personally there grabage, i installed fosgate fnq 3414 there 400 bucks for the front, and they blew out because a 4inch speaker can not handle power no matter who makes it.

Now inorder to equalize ur music or corss it over, u need to have amps installed and connected to ur equalizer or cross over. Most of the new aftermarket radios have built in equalizers thats why u wont see to many eqs for sale. check to see if u aftermarket radio has 4v 3 RCA inputs Front/rear/sub. Then connect ur amps to the back and equalize the sound restrict bass from the inside speakers and make the sub do all the hard work

Hope it helps...

engin_ear

iTrader: (1)

4 inch speakers are not meant to "pump", in the sense that a sub does. They are just not meant to move a lot of air. Your comment that 4 inch speakers cannot handle power is not accurate, it certainly does depend on who makes it and depends on how the input signal is filtered (via crossover). A good 4 incher can handle a surprising amount of power for its size. This power is handled dynamically (non-continuously), and many 4 inchers can easily handle 100W+ of dynamic power during the attack section of an instrument's waveform (such as a drum). It is most often the midranges ability to handle power in its frequency band during kickdrum attacks that imparts realism and fidelity to drum sounds, otherwise they sound mushy, or distant. This applies to other instruments as well.

As for your second comment, CleanSC has a stock system, not aftermarket, so no EQ, but thanks for your willingness to help.

CleanSC

Thanks for all the input guys.

In my Celica I have MBQuart Premiums in 4" in the dash and 6.5" in the rear. They are powered by an Alpine MRV-F540 that's 100Wx4 RMS. So those 4" speakers can definitely handle the power. They play loud and crystal clear all day long at full volume (which incidently you can't be in the car at this level -- it's too intense).

For the record, the SC door panels pose an *significant* audio barrier. I had them off for a few weeks doing some mods and then reinstalled one. *WOW*. Playing with the balance switching from the covered door to the uncovered door is like listening to music covering your ears and then uncovering them.

Seriously, the difference is substantial.

I am considering amplifying the front stage to increase clarity. sc3boost, what harness are you talking about so I can look into it?

Thanks all.

retrodrive

Kinda obvious but you never know. I hope they hooked the midrange to the "midrange" output on the crossover and not the "tweeter". Also a real good set of crossovers won't make much difference at this point.

engin_ear

iTrader: (1)

CleanSC, I don't recall what the SC door panel looks like, but have you considered cutting out the grille portion of the door panel and recovering it with a more transparent cloth? You may not be willing to do that with your door panel, but it would be a way to allow more of the sound energy through, more like when you have the panels off.

CleanSC

The issue with the SC door panel is that the speaker grille is on the underside of the armrest so the speaker is essentially pointing down.

When the panel is off, it's not so bad because the sound just radiates in all directions. With the panel on however, it's funnelled into your knees.

Not much I'm willing to do about it, especially considering the mission I just went thru to get these new from the DEALER (OUCH) door panels.

sc3boost

i had the same problem with my front speakers so i turn the gain on the front higher than the back now it's fine...............

CleanSc where in florida are you...........................................

CleanSC

Miami. It's in the sig.