I want loud, clear undistorted sound so that I can drive at 80 mph top down and hear my cds without horrible distortion.

My first step was to upgrade the speakers from stock to Kenwood XR600s.

My second step was to upgrade my head from stock to Alpine CDA7876 which is supposed to be 60 watts x 4 or 27 watts rms x 4.

My third step was to replace the speaker wires to the front speakers with high quality 16 gauge wire and to wire the Kenwood speakers for "bi-amp" wiring, supplying the tweeter from the front and the woofer from the rear.

I'm a long way from what I want. The distortion is horrible when I approach maximum volume on the head.

I'm considering better speakers and/or rear speakers and/or an amp. The better speakers I'm considering are MB Quarts Reference series and a/d/s three way coaxials. For rears, I'd match the front speakers: 4" Kenwoods if I stick with the Kenwoods; 4" MB Quarts if I go with the 6 1/2 inch MB Quarts; 4" a/d/s three way coax if I go with the a/d/s front.

I spent some time in my local stereo shop's sound room today comparing with amp/without amp using the Alpine head and various speakers. However, their soundboard has a weak power supply. In fact, the lights of the CDA-7876 dim during loud passages. In any case, when I drive their speakers through their JL Audio amp, even with the CDA-7876 volume turned all the way up, I don't hear the horrible distortion I'm trying to get away from.

Does anyone think I can get sound loud enough to be pleasant and undistorted at 80 mph top down without an amp? If I upgrade the speakers and add rear speakers I'd think I could get what I want from this Alpine head, but maybe it is just a pipe dream.

By the way, Alpine recommends wiring this head directly to the battery and a local ground rather than through the stock harness. We did it that way with a large gauge (8 or 4 I forget) power supply wire.

I've already purchased a used Alpine MRV-T407 two channel amp but I haven't installed it yet.

What do the experts think? Shaner? Pinky? MacGyver, Lucid? Goldtrom? Utah S2K?

Hellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllp!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By the way, I'm enjoying the chase. This is my first stereo upgrade. My Prelude still has the stock 7 speaker system. Also, for now, I'm not considering a sub.

 

i'd wire the amp. it will give you better control of the amplification heading to the speakers. that will probably make the difference. by tweaking the gains on the amp and the volume of head unit, i have distortion free listening. probably an option you might consider is a high pass crossover which filters out low bass frequencies that 6 1/2 inch speakers weren't designed to handle (another cause of distorted sound). if your interested in some top of the line component speakers, let me know. hope this helps.
ric

 

Amp it! Im in process of going balistic! To get sound loud enough as you want it then an amp is a must. Never repeat NEVER go past 3/4 of full volume on the radio. You will be pushing more and more distortion into those speakers. Distortion is bad we have proven that.

What my system entails..........im not telling! Hopefully I will get off my tail and get pictures.

Simply. Separates up front, bass shakers and a 12" sub above the tool tray. Powered by 1 - 4 channel amp 4 ohm stereo and 1 - 2 channel amp mixed mono.(look it up) Should sound awesome!!! Whole new floor is being made(flat) Enough about me.

If you drop in a good high quality set of separates and an amp maybe back speakers as well........you should have the volume your looking for.

 

The best way to fully appreciate any stereo upgrade, is to do things in steps. If you do it all at once you'll never notice the nuances in improvement.

Your upgrade head has pleantly of juice to run rear speaker well. People are happy running them off the stock head, and you got 27 RMS on tap unused. I would try these BEFORE adding a amp because its a quick inexpensive upgrade that yields amazing results. The moment you fade front to back you'll notice the difference. If feel you need for more punch, add the amp later.



Jim

 

My current setup has three ways to limit the low frequencies that the 6 1/2 inch speakers see: a selectable high pass filter with cutoff at 80 hz or 120 hz or 160 hz; a bass tone control of variable widith with variable center frequencies; and a "bi-amp" wiring that lets me put more power to the tweeter componenet and less to the midrange component by using the fader. I'm going to scrap that though.

When I use the high pass filter I do cut out most of the troublesome distortion.

 

I like lucid's idea. Do it in stages. That is exactly what I have been doing, and it really does let you appreciate all the differences... However, there is no point in not thinking ahead. If you are running wires, run them all at the same time. You have what, two pairs of pre-outs, plus one single sub out? Run all 5 RCA cables at once. Need power wires? Run the biggest and fatest one you can.

I haven't tried the rear speakers yet, but Chad is on his way here as I type and we are installing my kenwoods in the front and Lucid's mod in the rear. I will let you know what I think.

As far as the amp goes. You are going to need at LEAST 100 WRMS per channel. I have 50 WRMS right now, and I can tell you it is not enough.

I'm also planning on the PRO bass shakers... I really wish I could try them first, I'm skeptical of how they will "sound".

My suggestions are as follows:
Get the A/D/S front and rear combo, drive them with your Alpine head unit (27 WRMS) but use the 80Hz HP on the HU. That should be perfect. It may even be as good (or better then) my 2 speakers with 50x2 amp.... The theory is that if you double the speakers you double the volume...(db)... so You will have twice as much volume as you did before...

Take pics and let us know how it turns out...

-- Robert

 

Well, I heard the rear speakers today. They sounded great. They actually sound better then my two high end speakers +50x2 at very low to mid volumes... They really fill nice. But, once you get to pumping the juice they still distort... An amp is really nescessary for anything with lots of bass and mid-bass. My speakers hit a lot harder with the 50x2... having rear speakers would really make my system sing at all volume levels.

Barry, try the rear speakers first. If that is still not enough get some new fronts... then if your still not happy get a nice 100x4 (or 100x6 if you plan on bass shakers too, amp...

Hope that helps!

-- Robert

 

I just ordered panels and rears from Lucid. He's installing Polk EX402a speakers and that will be a good place to start.

I reverted my wiring from my "bi-amp" setup tonight and now I have some kind of short in the Honda harness speaker connection. If I can't sort that out, I'll use the new wire to supply the bridged xr600s.

I'm going to pretty much follow your advice: add rears, then if necessary upgrade all speakers, then if necessary add 100 watts rms x 4 amp. Somewhere along there I might add a powered sub but not a massive one.

The xr600s sound hugely better with the hi-pass filter dialed in. I have a hunch that with the rears and the hi-pass filter set to 120 hz or 160 hz, I'll be fine.

Barry

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Barry WY Silver/Black '01
[B]Does anyone think I can get sound loud enough to be pleasant and undistorted at 80 mph top down without an amp?

 

Barry,

Did you install the amp? I agree that for great sound quality at high listening levels, you're definitely going to need good clean amplification. I always purchase amplifiers that can provide way more power than I will ever need: so the amps never get near clipping, play cool, and play very clean...

Let us know how the amp changes things... While you already own the amplifier you had might as well use it.

Don't mess with bi-amping the front speakers... use two channels up front and two channels in the rear... Your only problem with using high-pass filtering is that you are removing frequencies from your music. Sure, your smaller speakers are not going to reproduce the <130 - 160Hz frequencies very well but removing them with a steep sloped-crossover is not the solution. Maybe reduce their low frequencies with an EQ or the bass function of a head unit...