Is it just a general pain to pull the soundstage off the rear wall in these trucks?

[BadDecisions]

Setup - '96 K2500 extended cab, Joying double DIN Android radio, Infinity Reference coax in the doors & factory speakers in the C pillars, both powered by the radio's built in amp, dual JBL GT1200 12" subs in a underseat sealed box powered by a Kenwood 500x1 Class D amp.

Problem - no matter how I set the EQ, fader, or surround sound adjustments, the best I can get the soundstage pulled off the rear cab wall is in line with my head....and that involves turning off the rear main speakers altogether. Otherwise it's around the midpoint between the front seats and rear bench. I've also noticed that it seems like the front left & rear right channels seem stronger than the other two. It's a really odd effect inside the truck that's hard to explain.

I figured it could be easily attributed to the Chinese Android head unit, but I've had good results from these Joying units in the past, and have had them in half a dozen other vehicles before, though this particular unit has only been in this truck. When I bought the truck, both front speakers were trashed, and I didn't get the faceplate to go with the radio, so I swapped everything out at once without knowing what it sounded like before I put these parts in.

This particular set up wasn't any kind of planned thing, other than using what I had on hand that fit at that point in time, just to get some tunes pronto, with the plan to make it a better, more cohesive set up in the future. But on the other hand, if I'm never going to achieve a proper front oriented soundstage, I'm also not going to want to drop a ton of money in there either.

I'm thinking it's just the result of mixing rear pillar speakers with door speakers, and my head is just much closer to the rear pillar speakers than the door speakers? Though it seems like if I turn the rear speakers off, I should at least be able to get the soundstage to the middle of the dash? I'm also thinking i need to pull the headunit out and verify that the speaker wiring wasn't crossed up inside the unit somewhere and/or the wiring isn't reversed in the harness. I've played with in phase/out of phase test tracks, but they've come from YouTube, and I know YouTube doesn't handle more than 2 channel audio.

 

[deckeda]

Many vehicles have rear speaker locations that do more harm than good. Don't feel compelled to use them if they don't work like you think they should. Measure the basic distance. If the rears are up higher (yes) and closer than the fronts (maybe) you're listening with your back to the concert all the time. It ain't your fault.

I once had a '70s Camaro and refused to cut into the door panels at first. I took a tiny pair of bookshelf speakers (Realistic Minimus 7) and placed them on the floor on front of the front seats, on their backs aiming straight up. That was really very good for soundstage! If you tried that in your living room it wouldn't work, but car interiors are voodoo. I don't recommend speaker boxes rolling around your feet however. Dash speakers remain a good idea for this due to the windshield bounce but alternatively freaks out frequency response and smears everything. Give some, take some.

Yes it's possible that proximity to the rears pulls the balance backwards, but since you're not getting a strong sense of forward stage with them off, the acoustics alone are a factor. The subs will also pull the stage backwards simply because they add a lot of non-directional sound. Higher crossover points and/or volumes exacerbate this also. Your main speakers are in the doors; they can't throw sound "forward" without the help of reflections that don't exist to do so.

Yes verify polarity. Any mono recording, or stereo recording that's been converted to mono will work. Turn off the subs. Cut the power to that amp if you need to, don't try to merely reduce bass on this step since you need the system to output actual bass for the test, only through the doors or rears.

Test fronts and rears separately and then together. If you notice more bass when one speaker is off, that L-R pair is out of phase. Hopefully all 4 are in phase with each other.

Now turn the subs back on and compare. They may or may not benefit from being in phase with the other 4. Acoustics can be weird like that, especially since you're pressuring the air in the middle of the cabin by putting them under the seat.

 

[df2x4]

The soundstage in these trucks is definitely biased more towards the center of the cab than the front. One thing I did notice though, you say you're using coaxial speakers in the doors. You'll get better results by switching to components with a separate tweeter you can mount under the factory tweeter grille in the door panel. That will direct the high frequencies up and towards your ears a little better.

 

[BadDecisions]

As I said, it was really just about slapping in whatever I had on hand at that point that fit, and not at all about any kind of proper system design. I've just never had a vehicle that the soundstage was so different in right out of the hole like this one.

I'll run through those checks next time I get a chance and report back. thanks!

 

[Ehall8702]

Easiest fix is a dsp and a small 4 channel amp. Time alignment helped alot with my setup , finally dumped the rear speakers all together, sold the dsp and added more front end . The rear speakers location is just horrible in these trucjs, takes forever to get to the spots and put new speakers in ( i used 4" kappas on a 4x6 plate) just to figure out they sound like crap anyways! Like the other post said, get sum components and you will be way better off. As far as those Android units, I have personally never heard one that had any real soundquality. You would also do urself a big favor getting a decent headunit ( I have a pioneer avh-600ex) that has time alignment and network mode ( can run front outs to tweeters and rear outs to woofers) . And you can use the pioneer mic and it will set up eq and time alignment for you or you can tweak it yourself to ur tastes. Very powerful tuning abilities and can make ur truck sound very very good. I'm way over board , here are my doors ( 500 watts each door, 100 to tweet, 200 each woofer). I started off wanting stealth but am working in fiberglassing the doors now to make them look not thrown together like they are now. Audio is my addiction

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[df2x4]

Time alignment does make a huge difference. I also agree that most of the cheap Android powered head units I've seen were pretty terrible when it came to sound quality.

 

[Cablguy184]

Depending on what dash you have in these trucks will tell you what you need to set up stage and image. I’ve done Sound Quality competition with both and I can tell you it’s no easy task ... To do it correctly, it’s not going to be cheap either ... Just Saying