How much bass is too much bass?

[michael hurd]

To clarify, the Type R crossover for the woofer is mounted on the woofer. Only the tweeter portion is in a small plastic enclosure. Screws or other mechanical fasteners are really not needed in building an enclosure at all, the glue will create a bond stronger than the wood itself.

 

[greasemonkey2014]

I would try to find an amp with a bass control knob on it. Turn the knob down and just the bass gets turned down. This way the bass is never overpowering or lacking.

Amplifiers that I really like are the Audio Technix amplifiers. They have changed their name to CT sounds and have amps on eBay with the old name selling for very cheap.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Audio-Techn...3254611?pt=Car_Amplifiers&hash=item19db4a2fd3 I would suggest if you get 1 single sub that you would get a dual 2 ohm sub woofer to get the most out of this amp. This amp is way under rated and can actually put out between 500-600 watts at 1 ohm.

They have a bass control knob with a clipping light that will tell you if the amp is clipping the signal. Clipping is then the amp essentially clips the top of the wave. This will cause heat and will damage your subs/speakers.

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Sundown, digital designs, SoundQubed, Ascendant Audio, DC Audio, are all very good subs. The biggest factor is the box as someone as stated earlier. A really low quality sub in a very good box will sound better than a top of the line sub in a low quality thrown together box. Sundown make a good shallow mount sub woofer. One SD-10 in a sealed box will help a lot in the lower end.

I do suggest getting an aftermarket stereo. IIRC The factory stereo alters the sound to remove some of the bass so that it doesn't ruin the stock speakers. You cannot get full range signal to supply the amp with the low frequency signal. A few people I know have had subs and a factory radio then switched to an aftermarket radio. The difference is astounding. I do understand your fear of the stereo being stolen. The head unit could be hidden somewhere that a thief could not see if at a quick glance.

 

[boy&hisdogs]

Woohoo! I got my aux thing today. I just finished installing it. To me it sounds like its better than the cd. Maybe its just the ipod's equalizer but listening to the same exact song on the ipod has a bit better sound quality than that same mp3 burned to a cd.

One small step for sq, one giant leap towards a full system bumpin' in the trunk.

 

[michael hurd]

Clipping is very similar to playing back a signal that has gone through hard knee compression with a fast attack and high ratio, if this was the case, then you would damage your speakers playing some 'modern' music.

It does increase the amount of average power in the signal.

Speakers can be damaged either by thermal issues or mechanical issues, IE: running the coil into the backplate, tearing the spider of it's landing, etc.

To re-iterate, clipping itself does not damage speakers. Klipsch uses a pair of zener diodes to protect the K77 horn tweeter in their AA networks for the Klipschorn and the Lascala.

At 2.5 watts at the output of the crossover to the tweeter (4.5Vrms), they produce 6.7% distortion, but below 2 watts, they are around 1.7%, at 1.5 watts they contribute a third of a percent distortion. They were added to keep people from damaging tweeters from over powering.

The K-77 with the newer copper beryllium lead out wires can handle about 5 watts RMS long term before failure. The same tweeter can handle over 100 watt input at 20khz with a very short burst of one second on, one second off.

If you looked at the tweeter output of the zener diode equipped crossover on a scope, you would see it flattening off the tops of the waveforms, when the voltage got high enough for them to start conducting. Below this, they are essentially 'out of the circuit'.

 

[boy&hisdogs]

I got the speakers and sub today. It was like Christmas.

I put the speakers in the truck and they sounded great for a little while but soon after got very distorted in the lower frequencies, like the singer was singing though a fan. The bass was also noticeably weaker than stock. I noticed when installing that the woofer bracket provided did not click in very solidly, and that it took very little force to get it to come out. I suspect that while opening and closing the door I may have knocked the speakers a little loose. Tomorrow after work I'll get in there with a file and open the notch up a little. It didn't seem like it was quite big enough to get a solid purchase on the door.

Long story short, I think I've got a handle on this, but is there anything else that might be causing this that I should keep an eye out for? I tried messing with the bass/treble knobs on the h/u as well as the eq in the ipod, but the distortion was still present.

Also, I noticed that the stock tweets have the same color wires as the woofers, but they have their own separate plugs. The new Alpine tweets plug into the woofers via the crossovers, and then the woofer goes to the stock woofer plug. This leaves the stock tweeter plug just hanging. Is that okay? Since they're all the same colors of wire (IE, light green and dark green for both on the pass side) then they're getting the same signal, and I'm not missing out on anything? It doesn't sound like it, but I just want to be sure.

 

[homeijer]

haha wow all the audio engineering i just "read" makes me feel stupid... i went and my truck and these made me feel happy The one good thing about a burban lots of air to move around!

 

[jonnyukon]

Very good info here!
As for too much bass... This was way over kill in my poor 2door

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Shattered my dash and 2 windshields and I was over it lol... Now I'm down to this an love this way more... Sounds almost the same to the ear but a lot less damaging to the truck..

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[jonnyukon]

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[michael hurd]

I got the speakers and sub today. It was like Christmas.

I put the speakers in the truck and they sounded great for a little while but soon after got very distorted in the lower frequencies, like the singer was singing though a fan. The bass was also noticeably weaker than stock. I noticed when installing that the woofer bracket provided did not click in very solidly, and that it took very little force to get it to come out. I suspect that while opening and closing the door I may have knocked the speakers a little loose. Tomorrow after work I'll get in there with a file and open the notch up a little. It didn't seem like it was quite big enough to get a solid purchase on the door.

Long story short, I think I've got a handle on this, but is there anything else that might be causing this that I should keep an eye out for? I tried messing with the bass/treble knobs on the h/u as well as the eq in the ipod, but the distortion was still present.

Also, I noticed that the stock tweets have the same color wires as the woofers, but they have their own separate plugs. The new Alpine tweets plug into the woofers via the crossovers, and then the woofer goes to the stock woofer plug. This leaves the stock tweeter plug just hanging. Is that okay? Since they're all the same colors of wire (IE, light green and dark green for both on the pass side) then they're getting the same signal, and I'm not missing out on anything? It doesn't sound like it, but I just want to be sure.

I would try another source: IE, is it still distorted on the radio or the factory cd player? ( if equipped )

As far as the bass goes, they should have as much or more bass than the factory speakers, however if one is wired out of phase with respect to the other, bass response will take a huge nosedive. Check to make sure the adapters were made with correct polarity.

I would want to set the bass and treble knobs on the stock head unit to their center position, and set the eq on MAN, rather than any of the presets.

On the earlier question, yes it is fine to leave the stock tweeter wire disconnected, it's not going to cause any issues. However, if you are trying to use the stock tweeter with the component system connected as well, this may be too much of a load for the stock head unit to take.

 

[boy&hisdogs]

I would try another source: IE, is it still distorted on the radio or the factory cd player? ( if equipped )

As far as the bass goes, they should have as much or more bass than the factory speakers, however if one is wired out of phase with respect to the other, bass response will take a huge nosedive. Check to make sure the adapters were made with correct polarity.

I would want to set the bass and treble knobs on the stock head unit to their center position, and set the eq on MAN, rather than any of the presets.

On the earlier question, yes it is fine to leave the stock tweeter wire disconnected, it's not going to cause any issues. However, if you are trying to use the stock tweeter with the component system connected as well, this may be too much of a load for the stock head unit to take.

With all the knobs centered, and the Ipod eq flat, there is less distortion but the bass is nearly non-existant. The highs are crisp and clear, and the wires appear to be all correct polarity. AFAIK Tan, light green and white are positive, and connect to each other. Grey, dark green, and black are negative, and also attach to each other. I tried turning the fade knob all left and all right and there wasn't much difference. I believe that everything is wired correctly. I took photos just in case I missed something.

Right:

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Left:

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I doubt that it's source because the same ipod, same song, same flat eq plugged into my computer speakers sounds fine, even at high volume.

Could it be that my head unit just doesn't send these speakers enough power? I know wattage wise it's equivalent to most aftermarket decks (12-13ish watts rms) but could it be that I simply need more juice for those low hits? Would that explain why my highs are so clear and strong yet the lows are either weak or distorted?