Do I really need new speakers?

Question

I have a Lexus LX 450 1997, and I have one subwoofer installed. I recently installed an Alpine CDA 9883 head unit. I have factory speakers and amp.

My Alpine head unit achieves a very treble sound. Because I already have a subwoofer, I have good lows as well. I feel as if the songs do not sound very "full", as if the mids are missing. I already configured the sound settings in hopes of resolving this problem, but it still sounds the same.

I spoke to a Crutchfield technician, and he told me that I should hook up a separate RCA to my subwoofer instead of hooking up the subwoofer to the head unit, and that I should be able to hear more bass and mids in my songs. (right now I am able to change the subwoofer level when I change the bass control)

Bottom line: I want to achieve a full sound in my songs, but all I'm hearing is high treble and strong lows (from my subs). What can I do? (I hooked up sub to the headunit where the subs are controlled through the bass control - prob?

Answer 1

I would just buy a good pair of 3 or4 way component speakers to replace your old ones. You don't want your subs hitting on anything but bass because that is not what they are designed for. Wal mart actually sells decent component sets in many sizes for very reasonable prices. The x-plods and pioneers are actually decent with just the wattage from your head unit.

Answer 2

I'm not sure I'm clear on what the Crutchfield tech was suggesting; it doesn't sound possible. Obviously the subwoofer has to get its sound from the head unit, so any adjustment of the bass control on the head unit will affect the subwoofer as well. There's no way around that.

The 9883 does have a dedicated subwoofer pre-out, so you should have a separate "subwoofer" volume control in the audio menu so that the subwoofer volume can be adjusted independently. If your amp's RCA cables are plugged into the correct output behind the deck, then you can at least adjust the sub volume. I just don't know if that's going to solve your problem.

It sounds like you integrated the new head unit with the factory amp, so if you take out the subwoofer, the system should sound very similar to the way it did with the stock head unit. Are any factory speakers not working? ie, are you only hearing the stock tweeters and not the mids?

Depending on how the new head unit is wired, it's possible that the speakers outputs are wired out of phase. That would result in a serious loss of mid-bass. However, I seem to recall that your vehicle harness uses the deck's RCA outputs to feed the factory amp. If that's the case, then a phase problem is not likely to be the issue.

If I were troubleshooting, I'd start by turning off the subwoofer and listening to just the stock speaker system with the new deck. Verify that all factory speakers are actually playing. Try fading and balancing to the front, rear, left and right. If you hear more bass when only the left speakers are playing compared to both left and right, that points to a phase issue.

Good luck!

Answer 3

The guy at crutchfield is wrong, if you already have the sub amp hooked up to your head units subwoofer out then its where it needs to be.

But yes you probably do need new speakers. 10 years is a long hard life for auto speakers.

Also did you seem to lose mids when you changed from the stock unit to the alpine? You may have a stock amp thats not getting turned on.

Answer 4

if you've ever looked at any factory speakers you would know that they are garbage. the last set i did for a friend was basically a big magnet with a cardboard cone (it wasn't even colored) there is a huge difference in mids and highs when you change the speakers. I doubt that lexus factory speakers are as bad as the saturns that i took out but again, for an upgrade that might cost 150 bucks and an afternoon, how can you go wrong?

Answer 5

ya know i had the same problem in my car,the way i fixed it was with mid bass speakers,i have focal components in the front and 2 ways in the back with a sub and it sounded just like you described "something missing",id suggest a 4 channel amp,front channel running the fronts and the rear running the mid bass,if you mount the mid bass where the rear speakers are you'll get totally kick *** sound,you should be able to put this all together for around $400 and trust me its worth it