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Need rca cable opinion


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doombious 
Member - Posts: 37
Member spacespace
Joined: March 21, 2003
Posted: April 03, 2003 at 6:16 PM / IP Logged  
I have been going crazy trying to find out why my mids/highs are so crappy. They were not like this in my other car. They are tinny and distorted and I have the gains set lower than before, therefore it is not as loud as before. So the only difference I could come up with is the wires/cables. So recently I was on a site pertaining to my specific car and I was reading in the car audio section people talking about rca cables and how one person said after he change his cables to a better quality his sound was louder and excellent. Then I was at Best Buy and I made sure I told the guy I was just looking right now and not buying so that way he wouldn't try to say oh yea thats what you need so I would buy some cables (bad past experiences) and he new what I was talking about.  What I have in there now is from a Scosche install kit. Very cheap looking. And I am now have 4g wire which is thicker so I think this is better. I have a 200w amp and a 600w sub amp but will soon be getting the jbl 600.1. Does this sound like it could be my problem? I was also thinking of getting the Stinger Dream series. Any opinions on them? Thanks
Spec83 
Member - Posts: 8
Member spacespace
Joined: March 13, 2003
Location: Australia
Posted: April 03, 2003 at 9:49 PM / IP Logged  

Hmmm if u want to spend the money the dream series of rca's r great products.... but might not be the solutionsto ya problem... as long as u get twisted pair and shielded rca's u should be right (think stinger hyper series the blue ones), as it is a pain to spend a heap of money and see no improvement!

Have u been careful to run all rca away from power wires??? the larger gauge might be the problem so before u spend any money  on new rca re run the current ones.... Also have u checked the positioning of the speakers in ya new car compared to ya old car???? could be that the old car had better angling/mounting than your new car thus totally altering the sounds of the speakers... installation makes the big diff in how ya system sounds...:)

Signal: ///Alpine
Front: JL Audio
Amps: ///Alpine & PG
Sub: PG
esmith69 
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Joined: November 26, 2002
Location: United States
Posted: April 03, 2003 at 9:53 PM / IP Logged  

Most likely there's some sort of problem with the install.  Either the power wires are too close to the signal cables, or the speaker wire is too small,or the amp and/or head unit is not set properly.  When routed properly, the RCA cables from scosche install kits will do you just fine and would be one of the LAST things I would think about being the problem.

Did you have the same head unit in this other car you're talking about?  If not, then I'd start right there when trying to figure out why it sounds worse.  Is it a factory head unit?  did you use a line out converter? etc.  What was the first vehicle, and what vehicle do you have now?

doombious 
Member - Posts: 37
Member spacespace
Joined: March 21, 2003
Posted: April 03, 2003 at 11:09 PM / IP Logged  
92 ford escort to 2002 ford zx2...used line out converter if that means the red and white outs on the back off the HU...Same equipment...pioneer HU not factory...speakers pretty much in the same place..except the back were on the sides - I had a hatchback now they are on the ledge by the back window. Power wire is not on the same side as rca. 16ga wire on the rears but the front were run off the stock. The settings were left the same on the amp after the transfer and it ended up destrying my rear od blaupunkts. The tweeters were severly damaged. I've adjusted the amp endlessly. It was ok in the other car. I don't know what kind of cables were in that car but I was using 8ga power wire. The rears though have about 6" of the original wire that came with the speakers and the it goes to the 16ga and then to the amp. Don't now if that makes a difference? If so I don't know where to get connectors to hook it to the 16ga to the speaker. It seems like the rears do it more than the front but it also seems like the fronts aren't as loud as the rears with balance and fade at 0. Oh and also when it was first installed The rca Y connectors were falling off so I had to go to another brand. So I am wondering if mabye the means the scosche rca is not fitting good on the back of the HU and is not sending a good signal. I have to find directions on taking out the metra face thingy not sure what its called to get to the back of the HU cause the person who installed it put another cage on it and I don't have a key for it so thats going to be a pretty big pain unless someone knows how to pull it out?? Thanks for your help
doombious 
Member - Posts: 37
Member spacespace
Joined: March 21, 2003
Posted: April 06, 2003 at 11:34 AM / IP Logged  

I have directional speakers in the rear and I moved them to hit after the back window. That helped in imaging but not the bad sound. What if I put in spacers in the door speakers to make them angle upwards some...would that help in imaging? Can a bad ground distort sound. Only on some songs do I hear an airlike sound and occasionally like a click here or there but that is rare and seems to be song related. I looked at the grounds and it doesn't look like it was sanded under the terminal. Either that or that person did a very good job of getting exactly under it. How much paint should be sanded area wise? The other amp is grounded about six inches away. Is this good or bad? Can I ground them at the same spot? Put the 600w amp down first then the 200w?

thanks

Spec83 
Member - Posts: 8
Member spacespace
Joined: March 13, 2003
Location: Australia
Posted: April 06, 2003 at 11:53 PM / IP Logged  

If u r only noticing this sound on the mids and highs and not the sub then u can pretty much eleminate that amp. The around should be sanded down the bare metal where the connector attaches to the surface and a little bit around the connector doesnt hurt...BUT make sure u put some vaselene over the exposed metal where u sanded the paint off to prevent rust or any other type of oxidisation...

U can ground at the same point or at different points, i have found it doesnt matter too much... and also i have 1m of cable between sub amp and ground without any probs... Does your ground wire match or exceed thet size of your power wire..? if not change to same size and see if it makes a difference.....

Install will play a big part in how a system sounds too, from what u have described as a lack off mid and high output i would say that the install might not be as well placed as your previous install.... position is importent but how the speaker is attached is also importent.. Things like mounting to a soild MDF baffle and SD'ing and sealing of the doors all have noticble effects on the performance of speakers in the car....

Signal: ///Alpine
Front: JL Audio
Amps: ///Alpine & PG
Sub: PG
doombious 
Member - Posts: 37
Member spacespace
Joined: March 21, 2003
Posted: April 07, 2003 at 1:23 AM / IP Logged  
At one time I put my fronts and rears on my subs amp and it sounded exactly the same. Sometimes it sounds pretty good though. Depends on the type of music. It loves techno dance and disco. Rap R&B ok. It hates metal rock and get this party started/sweet dreams version. Is there anyway to tell for sure if it is the amp or possibly the HU? I'm guessing I would have to go through checking the wires and connections first. I don't know, maybe it is just me not being able to set the gains and the freq right. I never knew this was going to be so much trouble. The freqs is set just around the spot everyone says to put them. I had a 4ch 80w amp before all this and ran rears front and sub off of it and it was excellent. Full range though. One channel went out so I decided to upgrade. I never knew of crossovers til then. Right now my bass is just adequate since I need a better amp for the subs so I couldn't say if they weren't right or not. I wanted to check the back of the HU connections but it doesn't seem to want to come out. I don't know about going back to the person who put it in because when I had a problem with the rca connection (see above post) he said it had to be my equipment and then after fighting with him he found it was the rca. I didn't have the sub amp in there yet and I thought it sounded ok but it was on full range in the rear. After that I found a loose speaker connection and fixed it myself so I could believe maybe bad install but if only I could get the darn HU out. The speakers are in there stock spots with baffles behind them. This helped alot with the rears. I think I'll start with them and do some rewiring. The 4ga is run to the dist block and then 8ga to the amps and the ground is 8ga. Should I chane this? to all 4ga? Its just how the install kit was. I sanded the ground...no change there. Thanks for the reply

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