Ran into a little problem today, I installed Kenwood 1687's in the front speaker doors and a tech installed four inch speakers today in the rear...problem is that the front speakers distort badly at half volume now and actually doesn't sound near as good as before I put the new speakers in. Should I be able to turn the fade knob and hear both front and back speakers separately?? Would the OEM HU be enough to support a small amp?? Any suggestions would sure be appreciated. Been doing the search but to no avail yet...Thanks, Jody

 

On the stock HU there are outputs for both front and rear..
yes you can use the fader.

Perhaps your installer went off the front channels only? that would cause impendance problems and sound like crap..if it doesn't blow your HU first.

PS Lucid provides an adapter so that both front and rear mute.
what happens when you hit the mute button?

 

Sounds like your installer didn't know about the second set of speaker outputs on the stock HU. You really need to use these outputs as they give you "free" watts (in which case, you may not feel the need for an amp). And Lucid's harness will allow the mute to work on the back speakers too. Without his harness, you should not be able to mute the back. If they do mute, then the installer has spiced the rears into the same outputs as the fronts as Mindcore just stated.

 

yeah sounds like the front and rears are on the same channels. Put the fronts to the fronts rears to the rears and you'll have fade and won't have the issues.

 

You guys hit the nail on the head...I appreciate your help. The tech fixed it and that's the way my stereo SHOULD sound...I'm very humble and grateful for heading me in the right direction...Thank You, Jody

 

Distortion is one of two things.
1) your speakers can't handle the output or
2) your amp is not sufficient enough
I belive it's your speakers. Kenwood component speakers only handle a max of 50 watts, you need at least a max of 75 watts. The best thing you can do for now is adjust your channels so your fronts are getting a max of 50 watts per channel.

 

dream,

The stock head only puts out about 10-15W rms, so just about ANY aftermarket speakers are going to be able to handle the power. As was suggested, the tech most likely wired each pair of front and rear speakers in parallel which showed a 2 ohm load to the head's amp. The stock heads were never designed for stability at that low of a load, so once the power went up, the stability went to hell and it sounded like crap.