I was wondering what would be the best way to get bass/performance from my speakers, I just installed some alpine sps 6.5" in all 4doors and the bass doesn't really feel like it's hitting like it should, so I was wondering if I were to cut the "grill out of the door and mount the speaker right to the door panel and cut out the factory mount, if I would get better bass/performance from them cuz then they would have more room? Or is the factory mount going to be the best?

I ask cuz I know these speakers should have a kick to them because my friend put 6x9 sps in his mustang and you basically get a massage wen the bass hits, but his rear speakers (6x9 sps) have the whole trunk open under them, so that makes me wonder if there just isn't enough room under my speakers and the factory mount restics them to much?

 

Did you phase check your install?

 

^This is the first thing to check.

If it still isn't up to your expectations, something you can do is cut out some wood baffles to mount the speakers to. The factory speaker mounts are just flimsy plastic and like to flex when the bass hits. Altoncustomtech has mentioned many times before that some wood mounts really help. I've done this for my rockford components and it really helps.

 

I agree with Thogert and LeWhite, check to make sure the speakers are in phase first. On higher frequencies it's not as easily noticeable but on lower frequencies the cancellation it causes can be VERY evident. When we say phase we're talking about the + to + and - to - relationship of the speakers and the outputs from the HU. When a pair of speakers is wired out of phase it literally means they're moving opposite of each other which means the sound waves are opposite as well. The opposing sound waves cancel and what your ears actually hear is a muffled sounding response or almost no sound at all. One quick way to test the phase theory would be to put on something with some bass and move the balance from one side to the other. If you get more bass response with the balance adjusted to either side than with the balance centered then they are very likely out of phase. If there's no real difference either way then the way the speakers are installed in the doors, or some settings on the HU could be to blame. As Thogert mentioned I am a big time advocate for building custom speaker baffles for mounting. I could go into a long and detailed spill about the why's and how's, but suffice it to say that the more solid the mounting the better the overall response is but especially the bass since it has the most energy to lose. Another installation practice that helps with the response from your speakers is sound deadening. It's simply amazing what one to two hundred dollars of sound deadening can do. Done right with a custom baffle and a person could make their run of the mill speakers sound about as good if not better than their friends high dollar set that isn't installed correctly. Also since the sound deadening doesn't wear out or go away it's money well spent toward making a nicer set of speakers sound their best as well. As for the HU settings, check and be sure you don't have the HPF or high pass filter turned on and turned up too high. Last but not least, if you want to get truly great response and output with the least distortion possible perform the above steps and put an aftermarket amplifier on the speakers. A HU's internal amplifier simply can't provide the power that an external amp can. When you read the fine print a HU is often rated in the 17 to 22 Watts RMS range, the 50 watt per channel or 200 watt MAX rating is meaningless. Even the 17 to 22 WRMS they can provide is pretty puny in comparison to an external amp of even the same rated power (of which there are VERY few rated that low anymore). The HU has only the 12V supplied by the vehicle with minimal current capacity to provide that power rating with. An external amp has it's own built in power supply that raises the car's 12VDC voltage up giving it more voltage to work with and with it's much larger MOSFET transistors over the IC chips in the HU has the current handling capability to give much stronger and cleaner power output.

That's enough of that, check your phase and if it's good move on to improving the installation.

 

If you don't have the speakers on an amp that could do it to, the speakers may need more power than the amount coming from the deck, even if it is aftermarket, i have 2 alpine type r's in my blazer on a 4 channel 300 watt amp, and it sounds better than when they were on the deck by far.

 

ok so my speakers are the sps-610 (coaxial) the Speaker Rating:
Max RMS Power Capacity: 75W
Peak Power Capacity: 230W
I was thinking of putting them on an amp but i dont know what i should get. How much power should it put out, do i get a 2 or 4 channel? and i am in the process of getting the things together to make new speaker baffels out of MDF.

And a side question, does anybody know much about hidden am/fm antenna? i shaved my stock antenna and i got a dual amplified AM/FM hidden antenna and the reception quality is nothing near what the stock was, anyone have any suggestions or know of a good brand? i have it mounted at the top of my windsheild (Inside).

 

The amp will depend on how many speakers you're replacing. If you're only replacing the ones in the front door then you'll only need a 2 channel amp, if you're replacing all four of them then a four channel amp would be recommended. RMS power is the only power rating you should ever concern yourself with. On that note, you don't HAVE to buy an amp that will give the speakers the full 75w rms. If you want to, there's nothing wrong with it, but it's not completely necessary.

As for the antenna, I have never had any luck at all with amplified and/or hidden antenna's. Think about it, even your cell phone can lose a bar or two getting inside a vehicle, why wouldn't it affect the am/fm reception? The factory antenna did better because it wasn't encased in a metal box, and at that a metal box that acts as earth ground for every piece of electronics that runs inside it. Someone else may have a better recommendation but mine is to find a nicer to look at antenna to mount somewhere outside the truck.

 

well all four of my speakers are currently the SPS-610 and i was looking to power all four with an amp and i rewired all 4 with 16 gauge wire from the HU to the speaker and it got a little bit better but nothing overly noticeable.
But i dont understand all the, ohms, watts, rms, so on and so fourth. so i dont really know how big of an amp to get with out underpowering them or over powering them or having them distort the sound. so basicly, im just kind of looking for someone to say look for an amp that has blank and blank, lol. I can figure out mechanical, and i can do electircal to the point of physicly hooking this to that.
Also looking for some dimentions on the speaker baffles ID and OD *cough cough* alton... lol

Also wanted to say thank you for all the advice so far and i REALLY appriciate all the replys, I absolutly love this site and how knowladge able people are and willing to share what they know with others.

 

lol, sorry about that. So many things going on it's hard to remember everything.

The OD on those circles is 7.25" As I mentioned before the ID will depend on the speaker being used, so the documentation that came with those Alpine's should tell you what the cutout ID should be for them.

When I built mine I traced the left and right factory speaker baffles and the holes where the factory rivets mounted them onto some MDF. I cut those out then I cut out the mounting rings for the speaker, both cutting them out and cut out the center for the speaker to mount through. Then I mounted the main board up to the door and put the door panel back on. Then I stuck the speaker rings through the opening to line them up and finished putting everything together.

That's basically how I did mine. If you need any other help just ask and you're welcome. We're all here to help one another.

 

another quick question, so if the rms is all i need to worry about, should i look to get an amp that will do 75w rms x 4 and send all 4 speakers the max rms? or would the distort and/or blow out? or would getting 50w rms x 4 be better?

Im thinking i should go with the full 75 because i think the HU is sapposed to be doing 50 x 4, but on the other hand it is a cheaper HU so i doubt it really is putting out the full 50.