why are my component frnt speakers so quiet?

[Adrian_Visser]

I just installed some Infinity reference 5 1/4" component speakers in my car on the weekend, I have an alpine 9853 headunit putting out iirc 65w peak a channel. I can barely hear the woofers on the front speakers. The tweeters which I mounted in the stock premium sound sys. tweeter location are loud but the woofers aren't. The crossovers have two positions for the tweeters 0 Db and -3Db I tried both positions and it didn't make any difference in the amount of sound coming from the woofers wtf?

Do I need an external amp to get these fuckers to make some noise?

PS I have a pair of alpine type S 6x9's in the back which are loud it's just the front woofers that suck... and the headunit does not seem to had a fade control either which kinda sucks

[Adrian_Visser]

Anybody ever tried reversing the polarity of the tweets? i was just reading that you can do that to compensate for differences in distance from the ear between the tweet and the woofer

[bryant.cw]

Without time align hardware switching the polarity on the tweets is kinda a waste of time, will be hard to tell the diff.

When you say quiet do you mean quieter than you'd like in relation to the tweet, or like barely any output at all. It can be tough when the tweets are on axis (pointed right at your head) and the woofers are way way off axis.

Try unhooking the tweets from the XO's and see what it sounds like. You kinda need to figure out if there is actually something wrong or its just that the tweets are just too loud in comparison.

Your deck is pushing max 20 watts, def not 65. That said you shouldn't need a ton unless you want to crank the shit outta them.

Make sure loudness, bass boost, EQ settings etc are all turned off.

[thereisnoyun]

sounds like a settings issue.

[StereoInstaller1]

Adrian, did you do the actual install yourself?

If so, tell me what wires you used.

More importantly, tell me what you did to make sure the cone can move on your midranges.

[Adrian_Visser]

Without time align hardware switching the polarity on the tweets is kinda a waste of time, will be hard to tell the diff.

When you say quiet do you mean quieter than you'd like in relation to the tweet, or like barely any output at all. It can be tough when the tweets are on axis (pointed right at your head) and the woofers are way way off axis.

Try unhooking the tweets from the XO's and see what it sounds like. You kinda need to figure out if there is actually something wrong or its just that the tweets are just too loud in comparison.

Your deck is pushing max 20 watts, def not 65. That said you shouldn't need a ton unless you want to crank the shit outta them.

Make sure loudness, bass boost, EQ settings etc are all turned off.

I said 65 peak watts not sure exactly how much that is in RMS watts obviously much less though. Anybody know the formula for RMS power? I did have the loudness/bassboost (called mx on this deck) off at first then i tried it with it on all i noticed was more bass from the rears.

I just went out and checked the x-over again and with the x-over in the 0dB position I get too much from the tweets with it in the -3dB pos. I get nothing same as if it is disconnected altogether, the volume from the woofer is always the same a damn whisper. the range of sound coming out of the woofer seems to be in a pretty high range almost the same as the tweeter.

Adrian, did you do the actual install yourself?

If so, tell me what wires you used.

More importantly, tell me what you did to make sure the cone can move on your midranges.

I did do this myself I re-wired with 18/2 speaker wire, twisted and electrical taped (i know ghetto method i was in too much of a hurry for heat shrink and crimps) the wiring from the deck was color coded and i used the legend on the back of the deck to figure out what was what.

iirc it was grey(+) and grey/blk (-) for the front right and violet (+) and violet/blk(-) for front left

That is an interesting point about the freedom of movement on the mids the speakers did fit kind of tight behind the kick panel, however even with the kick panel removed and my hand on the speaker there is no movement coming from it and barely any sound. wtf are they underpowered or what?

Also how much difference does it make that the rears are a higher impedance (3.6 ohms rear versus 2.65 ohms front)? My logic makes me think the front would be louder because of the lower impedance...

Thanks for you input,

Adrian

[bryant.cw]

You have def got something hooked up wrong. Hard to say without seeing it. Are you 100% sure that it is hooked up right? Can you test them on something outside the car, ie another amp in your house? If your woofers were hooked up to the hi pass, there would be very little sound coming out. I can't understand why the -3db makes them go from too loud to off. Do you have the inputs hooked up the the outputs? Are these XO's biamp capable?

Check the install manual and check your wiring.

Sorry, hard to be more clear, I wish I could just see what you had there with my own eyes.

[Adrian_Visser]

the XO's are clearly marked with input, wf and tw, with two positives for the tweet, one for 0dB and one for -3dB I am positive they are hooked up right

[bryant.cw]

pull 'em out and test on the bench. Since the problem is common to both sides it virtually eliminates the chance that there is something wrong with one of the XO's or the drivers because it would be so unlikely to happen to both sides the same way.

I would test the drivers individually at a low volume to check for proper operation (too loud running without a XO could easily blow the tweets)

Hard to diagnose over the interwebs.