New Speakers have no bass!!!

[boombastictiger]

Hi I just bought these:

http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product_m-infinity-kappa653-7i_p-22421.htm

Meant to be decent speakers to compliment my sub..I also bought new 4inch speakers aswell..

Now i wasnt expecting significant bass from them as I already have a sub, I got them to add to general quality of my whole audio system. However...................................THERES NO BASE FROM THEM....nothing at all, i mean they are totally like tweeters......The clarity of them is good, but like its all treble and no base...???

During the install process once I plugged 1 in to test it before the screws went in...it was working, but when i switched the fade to the OLD speaker on the other side the difference was huge when it comes to bass..I mean my old speakers are £20 kenwoods (halfords, so real value probs £10) and they were pulling out considerably more bass...

Now....the speakers came with crossovers but i didnt connect them up as i dont have an amp for them, i just connected them to the existing wiring from the supra which i thought would be good enough as it was running the old kenwoods considerably to thier limits, without the sub connected it sounded like there was bass from the cheapo kenwoods...

I mean this is the summary...

I wasnt expecting massive bass from them, but is it normal to get NO BASS at all...? its the case on both speakers...? Could it have something to do with the headunit?, if so why as it was pulling bass from my old kenwoods that i had in there? Could it be something to do with me not installing the crossovers, was i supposed to do something if i wasnt going to install them? I installed them exactly the same way as the kenwoods were installed...

Helpaaa please :)

[RobSheffield]

I am no expert by a long way, but id say that if they came with crossovers, then fit them!

[boombastictiger]

I am no expert by a long way, but id say that if they came with crossovers, then fit them!

Im goin to fit them as soon as i get an amp for them, but i just thought that atleast a little bit of base would come out of them...

[Steviekid]

I fitted 17cm speakers in the rear (not the same ones) and I've got the same problem. I was putting it down to them basically not being big enough but that might be wrong!

[uk-rich]

6x4 in the back, plenty of bass

[boombastictiger]

I had a pair of Kenwood 6.5" £19 cheapo 110watt peaks in the rear, they produced bass, not a bad amount either....only the clarity of the voices was not that good, thats why i opted for the Infinity... I have a feeling it has something to do with the headunit....as i have a kenwood headunit maybe it brought out the best in the speakers???? Either way tomorrow i have a new head unit comming so once that is fitted ill see what else...

But for now if anyone has any ideas as to what could be going wrong...

[Chiefgroover]

They are good speakers. Its just you have not fitted them properly.

Not using crossovers usually mean a blown tweeter pretty quickly.

Lack of bass can be ........
air from back of speaker mating with air from front (phase cancellation occurring)

minor vibrations in the speaker mount - speakers vibrate air, if the mount resonates at the same freq as your bass then it cancels it out.

Could have have mixed up the +/- ? reverse polarity will loose you bass or mixed L/R polarity will do the same usually.

Speakers parameters unsuitable for the enclose space you are using?

Process of elimination. Check the +/- is correct, fit your crossovers, make sure you isolate the rear sound wave of the speaker from the front, deaden the mount by adding mass (e.g. deadmat) and try again.

[uk-rich]

6x4 in the back, plenty of bass
i should have said 6x9 :rolleyes:

[boombastictiger]

They are good speakers. Its just you have not fitted them properly.

Not using crossovers usually mean a blown tweeter pretty quickly.

Lack of bass can be ........
air from back of speaker mating with air from front (phase cancellation occurring)

minor vibrations in the speaker mount - speakers vibrate air, if the mount resonates at the same freq as your bass then it cancels it out.

Could have have mixed up the +/- ? reverse polarity will loose you bass or mixed L/R polarity will do the same usually.

Speakers parameters unsuitable for the enclose space you are using?

Process of elimination. Check the +/- is correct, fit your crossovers, make sure you isolate the rear sound wave of the speaker from the front, deaden the mount by adding mass (e.g. deadmat) and try again.


Well out of all them im thinking i could have mixed up the +/-....because i fitted it the same on both sides ,i will change that tomorrow and see whats what....the fit was quite perfect and basically fitted in place of the old speakers just the annoying screw positions on the supra to deal with....if i dont have an amp how can i connect the crossovers?

[Chiefgroover]

Crossovers - put the wire from the headunit into the input section and the speakers into the correct outputs as marked on it. You dont need an amp for this :)

[boombastictiger]

Crossovers - put the wire from the headunit into the input section and the speakers into the correct outputs as marked on it. You dont need an amp for this :)

Hmm i actually feel like an idiot now if its what i think ur saying lol...do u mean the wire which i would normally connect to the speaker, i connect to the crossover instead? I just saw in the manual that there are woofer terminals and tweeter, i only connected the tweeter terminals up :taped: , however it looks like that to connect the tweeter and the woofer terminals up i need to use the crossover no matter what....i feel like a right idiot i just hope that the corrisponding wires match up from headunit to speaker..

[Chiefgroover]

You'll get it, just a little patience needed. make sure the speaker connections are tight or they may crackle as time goes by.

[boombastictiger]

You'll get it, just a little patience needed. make sure the speaker connections are tight or they may crackle as time goes by.

Thanks for your help :), gonna try and sort it all tomorrow...I have the headunit comming aswell so hopefully will all be good..

I also must have made the mistake on the front speakers aswell, looks like im going to have to redo them all lol..

and while im at it..

do you know on an amplifier, when it says 2 channels....well ok i have a 2 channel amp, i have 1 sub connected, so i have 1 channel left?...does this mean i can hook up a pair of speakers to the remaining channel or just 1 speaker? When i mean a pair i mean as in both rear speakers ( or both front)... If you can connect a pair, which would you think would be better to connect front or rear?

[creative]

do you know on an amplifier, when it says 2 channels....well ok i have a 2 channel amp, i have 1 sub connected, so i have 1 channel left?...does this mean i can hook up a pair of speakers to the remaining channel or just 1 speaker? When i mean a pair i mean as in both rear speakers ( or both front)... If you can connect a pair, which would you think would be better to connect front or rear?

no... in short.

You will need another amp to run a pair of speakers. Is the amp bridgable? If so, bridge the sub on the amp
( + off one channel and - off the other)to show a different load to the amp and give you a bit more bass.....

[Chiefgroover]

"IF" you can find a old school high grade amp like a phoenix gold M25 or M50 you can run it in tri mode, which means you can use the bridged ouputs (as marked on the amp) and still add a pair of speakers, as these amps can handle 2 ohm stereo forever, and your load will take it to 2ohm, something most newer amps crap themselves doing. They were about £400 12 years ago, and make about £50 on e bay now. You would need a seperate passive tri-mode crossover for the sub/mid area.
Front and sub is a better idea than rear and sub as its harder to get some decent volume out of the front your using.

[boombastictiger]

Hi all just to say i got everything working, i managed fittede the crossovers and managed to conseal them within the supra for both the front and rear speakers...Nice huh?.... Plenty of bass and now the speakers sound the quality they were hyped to be....also i got my new head unit today aswell .... http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/product/products_id/4828.html , nice visuals can customize everything...all i have to do now is ground the parking brake sensor so that the screen can work whether im driving or not...I will need help on how I can do that heh....

A huge difference all together with the sub connected....im proper happy :D

[boombastictiger]

everything is fitted and working, apart from the dvd player...I have to connect the wire to the parking brake light, however I want to bypass this...apparently all i have to do is ground the wire....I know its going to sound stupid but how to I ground the wire? Do i connect it to a screw or to the chassis? What safe ways can I connect it to the chassis if thats what i need to do?

[tyre_worx]

when you refer to bass from speakers i wouldnt suggest puttin anything lower than 100hz through 6.5 components because it will shorten the life of the speaker and the crisp quality will dissapier pretty fast, if your h/u has a high pass filter set it at 125hx for best sound quality and just tap the parking wire onto the black wire in the iso easy.

[Chiefgroover]

when you refer to bass from speakers i wouldnt suggest puttin anything lower than 100hz through 6.5 components because it will shorten the life of the speaker and the crisp quality will dissapier pretty fast, if your h/u has a high pass filter set it at 125hx for best sound quality and just tap the parking wire onto the black wire in the iso easy.

The above is true. You could also consider using sharper x-over slopes like 24db and run down to 70 or 80hz then your sub would integrate better with your fronts rather than sounding like its a seperated relative in the boot, it always works very nicely for me.