installed a new HU and now I get no bass
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=44079
Printed Date: May 15, 2024 at 12:17 AM
Topic: installed a new HU and now I get no bass
Posted By: Sonnyg007
Subject: installed a new HU and now I get no bass
Date Posted: November 29, 2004 at 8:16 PM
Hi everyone. Was wondering if I could get some help for my problem. I have a Pontiac Trans am 1993, with the stock everything. The stock radio was only cassette and I wanted to play cds so I got a new Pioneer DEH-P4600. So I have it installed at Best Buy(free installation) but when I get home the sound is all screwed up. There was no bass coming from the speakers and the sound quality was crap.. It sounded like my friends radio which is just 2 speakers. I brought it back to best buy and had one of the guys look at it...He messed around with the settings on the HU for a while and came back saying that the old stock radio that was taken out had a built in amp. So because I replaced it with the new pioneer there is no amp powering the speakers. He suggested to get a cheap 2 channel amp so that I could get the sound quality back to when it was stock. My sister had a sony xplod 480 2 channel amp that she doesn't use so i bought it off her and came back to best buy...There was a different guy there that said the 2 channel amp could only power 2 speakers and that much power on 2 stock speakers would blow them. He said he never heard about an amp being built into the stock head unit. He also said that the 50x4 watt on the pioneer should be enough to power the stock speakers just fine. He also said installing the amp would be $140:o):. So my question is....What should I do?... Honestly all I want to to be able to play cds. I know nothing about amps or speakers or anything to do with car audio. How do I bring up the sound quality to the way it was before...I think I've been getting misleading information from everyone I talk to. Any help would be greatly appreciated
Replies:
Posted By: jeffchilcott
Date Posted: November 29, 2004 at 8:29 PM
I would replace the factory speakers, I would say adding a amp to factorys, espically that old would end in disaster
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Posted By: Sonnyg007
Date Posted: November 30, 2004 at 12:31 AM
I don't see the why I should get new speakers...The stock ones sounded perfectly fine with the old HU. I'm wondering if the pioneer just isn't compatible with the stock speakers. Or is it possible the pioneer is defected or the install was bad.
Posted By: Ravendarat
Date Posted: November 30, 2004 at 12:52 AM
To me it sounds like the installer messed up and hooked the speakers up outta phase. It would cause it to sound like there is no bass. Pioneer decks work great with stock speakers and that car should be no different. Almost eveysingle stock deck has a built in amp and that one falls in with that group, but the new deck you bought also has an amp internally and I can tell you right now its more power and a cleaner amp so thats not your problem. Like I said I am almost certain you have at least one speaker out of phase, mabye two. All that means is that the installer might have mixed up the positive and negaitve leads on a speaker wire. Mistakes happen so I wouldnt bust their balls on that but you have been back twice now and no one checked the wiring, thats rediculous and I would be complaining about that.
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double-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer
Posted By: Sonnyg007
Date Posted: November 30, 2004 at 2:49 AM
thanks ravendarat. I'll be heading back there tomorrow morning to have them check the wires. But just in case for some reason they refuse to check the system(or god forbid ask me to pay them...heads will roll) what would be the correct way to check it myself. Thanks again for all the help.
Posted By: Xracerx
Date Posted: November 30, 2004 at 8:23 AM
Sounds like the speakers are hooked to a floating ground. Use the install section here to see your cars wiring. If they used one of those wiring adaptors it could be tied into yours wrong. Not all those adaptors workout right.
Posted By: Sonnyg007
Date Posted: November 30, 2004 at 10:17 PM
Ok I wasn't able to go to best buy today so I checked the radio out myself...I found out the wire colors for the speakers from here.... https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/detail.asp?info=alarm&year=1993&make=Pontiac&model=Firebird&ID=18766&type=Stereo And using the color chart that came with the radio I found out all the speakers wires are connected to the right ones... so they are not out of phase I guess nor is the wire adapter connected wrong. Also I did a little experiment...I disconnected the pioneer unit and reconnected my old stock radio....And the music sounded great...great bass great everything. When I changed it back to the pioneer the bass is gone. I've been messing around with the settings but I still get nothing.. no bass at all. There's only 2 things that I can think of. 1. The pioneer is defective. 2. The internal amp on the stock radio is more powerful(way more) than the internal amplifier on the pioneer. I was wondering if anyone knew the specs on the stock radio for a 93 Pontiac Firebird/TransAM. I believe it's a monsoon sound system. Thanks again
Posted By: Xracerx
Date Posted: November 30, 2004 at 10:53 PM
I think it was around 80 watts total. The factory units had a floating ground inside or something like that. I know when I added a amp to mine I had to buy a bridge or something to get it to work. Been to long to remember what it was I bought.
Posted By: dantemc
Date Posted: December 01, 2004 at 12:33 AM
i got a question for sonny. its been awhile since i worked on a 93 ta, but didnt some come with a factory sub woofer located all the way in the rear of the car located on the right side. its like a 6x9 sub or something like that. i mean the car comes with 6x9 speakers located by the rear seats right? and if the wires are in phase, you can get some decent bass from 6x9s. the pioneer unit is pretty powerful, but more power doesnt neccessarily mean that much more bass. if you have awesome bass with a factory head that was maybe 20 watts per speaker, you would still have decent bass with 15 watts per channel, the difference is slight you know. i personally would check the speakers myself, the ones in the rear are real easy to get to. take them out, make sure a previous owner didnt mess around in there, make sure the colors match in the front behind the radio, and at the speaker it self. if its all " in phase" look for a factory sub in the trunk area. good luck
Posted By: BulletTooth
Date Posted: December 01, 2004 at 3:05 AM
I know a lot of BEST BUY installers use capacitors when they install aftermarket stereos, that's how I could usually tell if the stereo was installed at BEST BUY. Anyways those things block the bass so your speakers supposedly don't distort, however in my opinion they make the system sound like crap, so if I was you I would remove those capacitors if there are any. Let us know if this helped.
Posted By: jc18750
Date Posted: December 03, 2004 at 6:40 AM
sounds like the speakers are out of phase to me. i have never heard of a cap removing bass qualities though. and if it is a pioneer, it most likely has a mosfet power suply which is way more powerful than your factory deck.
Posted By: Terrandus
Date Posted: December 03, 2004 at 6:59 AM
since it seems you aren't getting anywhere, I would suggest taking your car to a quality audio shop (I don't consider Best Buy a qualtiy audio shop) and tell them whats going on and ask them to look everything over for you. In my opinion its a lot easier to diagnose and fix a problem if you can actually touch it.
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