but that doesn't explain the loss of bass. The stock headunit with the stock speakers put out considerably more bass. Therefore, I would think it reasonable to conclude that the head unit is not the cause of the loss of bass but something to do with the speakers or their instalation.

 

Dave makes a great point, but i'll go w/ the assumption you may not want a new HU right away.


the lack of bass concerns me. double check the crossover and speaker connections.
it sounds like you may be going in thru an out door. make sure that the output from the door speaker is going into the IN on the crossover, and that the phase and connections are correct from both the crossover to the speakers. (are you familiar w/ what i mean when i say phase? that means + to + and - to -. getting that backwards will destroy your sound.)

also -- make sure the seal around the speaker to door/bracket is tight w/o excessive air leakage... that will ruin your sound as well.

what source are you using for listening? make sure you're using a good clean sounding source, like a CD w/o a lot of distortion.

and try turning down both the treble and bass settings on the HU to the center position. your newer speakers will perform better WITHOUT the added equalization that dialing the bass and treble up provides. this is because your new speakers will be more accurate than the OEM speakers were, thus those changes will sound much more extreme.


in the end though -- a new aftermarket HU will generally provide you w/ a cleaner and more powerful signal... but it may not be needed (especially if budget doesn't allow) if we can get you happy as is...

 

thanks for the info.

I have a new Eclipse head unit...I don't want to install it though until I figure out why I'm getting such poor performance from the speakers. I would rather have one variable than two.

I'll have to open the door and check the terminals again, I was sure I got everything correct. My thought was that maybe the speaker baskets were to restrictive and killing the bass. The problem is that the only way to find out is by cutting the whole back of th basket off and there is no return once that is done.

As for zeroing out the bass/treble controls: If the bass is not all the way up there is absolutely none, I mean it is nothing but mids and highs, its hard on the ears.

 

the basket is partially/mostly open (as it is stock), cutting it entirely out will make no real difference in the sound.

if the bass is as bad as you say, it really does sound out of phase to me or is improperly wired.

also -- once you've got the aftermarket HU harness wired up, swapping between the OEM HU and a new HU is a matter of 2 quick plugs or so... wire up the Eclipse HU, plug it in, and see if that addresses your issues... if not, swap back to the OEM, and go from there.

 

edit

I will explore those areas that have a high probabilty of causing these symptoms and provide the results of my testing.

 

instructed...

sorry....


let me know if/what you find, hopefully we can get this figured out.

 

are you sure crutchfield has infinity 60.5cs? they have some 60.7cs now. and they're not cheap.

but i'm really interested to see how your system turns out as i want to keep my stock head unit and wanna see how everything sounds.

 

when this topic was started, Crutchfield was clearing out last years Infinity models...

it's been a month, and i'm guessing they are now sold out. at those prices, i'm not surprised... they were good, even compared to the typical web hunter prices.

 

aw darn, guess i missed out. shitake!!!

 

PJK3, you were correct one of the speakers was out of phase...I had reversed the input wires from the HU to the crossover. There was a noticable improvement in performance after. Bass specifically is much improved although it still lacks low end bass. I also still have to boost the bass, with everything zeroed out there is still less bass response than with the stock speakers.