Tackett

here is the story man. This may get lengthy, so if you have a short attention span, dont say I didnt warn you.
Here is every single solitary thing I have in my current set up and the complete story... In my old 01 mercury cougar, I had run a direct line out from the stock head unit to a phoenix gold xs2500 and cerwin vega "vega 128" In a Q-logic box. All four of my speaks were replaced with infinity reference coaxial 5x7 (or whatever size it was.) That setup, strangely enough, sounded totally killer. For whatever reason. Mids and highs were great, bass was transparent, the vega hit like a SOB. I then rid myself of the cougar after trading it in on my beloved Z. I ripped out the sub and amplifier and left the infinities due to the fact that I threw away the old OEM speaks. I thought I could get away with the same thing in my Z, should have been the same right? Wrong. I soon found myself getting a custom box made for the vega. I was still not happy with it and wound up sinking about 400 bucks on a pioneer DEH-P80MP. The sub hit a lot cleaner after setting it all up. But now, the mids and highs of the god awful "stereo" that nissan decided to put in our cars were being drowned out. So, without wanting to spend a buttload of money on componets, I went out on a limb and bought the alpine R type componet set..boy did that limb break. I absolutley hated those componets. Even after hooking them to an old crossfire dual channel 100w amplifier, they still sounded like crap. They fit horribly even after sanding plastic spacer after plastic spacer, and the window when rolled down, still bangs against the woofer magnet when I hit a bump. The tweeters distort something terrible when played at "high volumes" (really not high at all.), but the woofers, honestly, though a pain in the butt to fit, arent all that bad. So I figured I would spend a little bit more money and buy the JL evolution tweeters. I have heard them countless times and they always impressed me. I also thought instead of tossing away the old alpine tweeters, that I could put them down at my feet in the kick panels for a little bit better imaging and use them in conjunction with the JL's which are in the doors at the factory location. After installing them, to my shock, the JLs distorted exactly the same way the alpines did at exactly the same volume on the HU as before. I thought to myself..."well maybe the amplifier is sending a dirty signal." I then reversed everything and hooked the componets up to the phoenix and had exactly the same problem. So all the data now points to the possibility that the pioneer HU sucks major monkey *****. The thing that really gets my goat about it is that I have heard not ONE SINGLE bad thing about that HU. not one. Everyone that has one loves it, and I don't know what the hell I am doing wrong. So on top of all of the PITA about the componets. I wind up blowing my Cerwin Vega. I went to a local shop and picked up a Cadence solo striker 12 and shortly blew it too. I was mortally pissed and ended up dropping a lot of money on a JLw6. I went and had my box redone to specs and damn that sub kicks ***. That is the only plus to this whole delimma.

So currently I have four tweeters that may or may not suck, and a HU that may or may not suck. (or both or a combination of the two.) I just wish I knew what the problem was. It sucks to drop close to 1500 dollars on a stereo and be so displeased with it that you hardly ever have it on. My question, and the whole point of this huge thread is...Does anyone but me have this HU? If so, do you have the same issues? Does anyone but me have any of the componet sets that I have and have the same issues? How did you rectify it without committing more to the car audio money-pit?

groan.

sundawg

iTrader: (1)

daym dude that sucks, but if u have anything for sale lolz as far as speakers hit me up

arvin

iTrader: (2)

Yeah, been there, done that. Good luck bro.

disturbed2483

iTrader: (9)

maybe your gains are turned up to high and hence the crackling or distortion from the tweeters, have you tried "tuning" your set up. here is link that helped me out with my setup and i love my setup, but it was a pain in the a** to it get how i wanted. believe i have spent many weekends tearing my car apart running and re-running wires for clearness and crispness, i have spent more money on wires and my time "tuning" than i have spent on actual components. any ways if you need any help let me know but by any mean i am no expert but i have done countless amount of hours doing my research.

i pmed you the link.

Paul350Z

iTrader: (1)

+1 on the over driving the amp - something is clipping.

If you've got access to a spectrum analyzer I would run a white noise CD and put a lab microphone in the driver's position and measure the response across the spectrum.

Keep searching.

VO...

iTrader: (25)

1. For the tweeters. I have heard some people say that they should be down in the kickpanels. IMO this is incorrect. Tweeters should be @ head level pointing toward the listener. I wasn't too sure if you had aftermarket tweeters installed near the factory location or not.
2. The mid-bass driver in the door should fit with a spacer. I have 6.5 inch Infinity Kappas in the door. Bought spacers from PartsExpress.com. Had absolutely no problem with window bumping. No sanding or shaving necessary.
3. Reguarding the dirty signal from your HU. Are your output RCA's from your head unit running closely parallel with an amp 12vdc power wire? If so, you may want to relocated one or the other. Remember it is ok to cross them perpendicular. Cross inductance generally occurs with wires running parallel and within close proximatey of eachother.
- Some easy trouble shooting methods are:
a. swap RCA's out with a known good set. Does static or buzzing go away?
b. If you have this option and it is easily accessible, get another car that belongs to a buddy. Use his output RCA's from his HU to power your amps- ect. Does the noise go away?
c. Distortion can also be a cross over problem. Place an ohm meter at the input leads to the x-over. The reading should be what the manufacturer specs calls for, either 4ohms, 8ohms, ect..
d. You could also have a grounding problem. Remember that you always want all of your audio equipment to be as close as possible, with reguards to ground reference, to the car's battery ground as possible. Meaning - You don't want you amp's path the ground sitting @ 100 ohms while your HU's ground is sitting @ 10ohms.

Ahsmo

iTrader: (13)

What about phasing?(time delay?) On axis response?

there is some but hardly any truth to that. If the shielding on the RCAs are not paper thin then it should be fine to run the RCAs next to the power wire. Hiss and distortion would be present at all times if this was the problem.

RANDY350Z

I would return the equipment and start over. If you can't, get someone who can adjust the amp to specific setting. Also, did you run your RCA cables and power/ speaker wires separetely?

That is strange with Alpine speakers, try the type X--they pound. --one other thing, does your unit have a 5-8v pre-out?

Badfish25

iTrader: (3)

I"m willing to bet the amp is gained to high, or more likely crappy RCA's were used. Try better RCA's?

Tackett

My RCA's are monster cable, they were expensive as hell. I doubt they are the problem.
The amp could possibly be to high, I have not thought of turning it down. The sound is definatley something clipping, without a doubt. It sounds exactly like it. I can just picture a spectrum analyzer jumping into the red. The gain is probably the issue, I have not thought about that at all. It could possibly also be grounding, but I am doubtful, I use enormous grounding wires, they are the same size as my thumb. I am headed outside as we speak to turn down the amps.

Thanks a bunch for all the input guys. I really appreciate it.

will keep you informed.

l8er

VO...

iTrader: (25)

I don't think an amp for mid's / high's would clip, when compared to let's say a sub amp pulling maximum current. Amps usually clip due to insufficient current/voltage. Bass is very demanding of this. The higher end the frequency spectrum is generally not. I could be wrong though. I just haven't ever experienced that in my installations. Anyhow, good luck.

Tackett

WHAM BABY! The amp was cranked too high, that was precisely the problem. My stereo ROCKS now.

This is exactly what I did....

I turned the amp all the way down, turned the headunit up to where I normally listen to it, and then slowly turned the amp up. When the system clipped, I backed the gain back down. It is unbearably loud now.

A happy little accident though...two sets of tweeters: two in the kick panels and two in the stock locations, create some pretty nice spread and imaging.

Thanks a load guys and gals, I dont think I would have ever thought of doing this.

GQ 350z

iTrader: (13)

Please give impressions of how the 12w6v2 sounds both inside/outside the car. Can I hear you boomin' like 3 cars down? HA! Congrats on the fix...where did ya mount the sub?

Thanks!
Ravi

Paul350Z

iTrader: (1)

Sage advice except that an ohm meter reads DC resistance where the crossover presents an AC impedance to the AC load we call music - your ohm meter isn't going to work. There are purpose built speaker impedance meters for use measuring speakers. They'll sweep the frequencies ploting out a graph of impedance vs. frequency - normally a very complex plot.

dannichols

[QUOTE=Tackett]
A happy little accident though...two sets of tweeters: two in the kick panels and two in the stock locations, create some pretty nice spread and imaging.


Totally agree. But second set might be better set to ambient (8.5k and above)..like BA

Tackett

currently workin on that. Going to get a crossover and run the low tweets on about 8 or 10k+.

The sub is unreal man. I've never heard a single 12 hit like that thing. I would recommend it to anyone. I mean, I have not a single bad thing to say about it. It's accurate as hell, subtle when you want it to be, loud as a mother when you want it to be. It's just an all around incredible sub. It makes me even happier now that it doesnt drown out my mids and highs. I had the box custom made so it sits where my spare used to. A bottle of fix-a-flat rides with me at all times. The box is around 2.8 cubic feet, the only thing I had to have rebuilt was the port size. The port is freakin huge now, I can almost shove my entire arm down it. Going to get my amp rack reworked saturday and pick up my crossover for my fill tweets. I barely even have the amplifier turned up now. I always knew those old crossfires were powerful, but I never realized how powerful untill now. I would still like to have one more small amp to run my tweets seperatley. The high pass filter on the HU sucks. I am also going to have my woofers fixed up. Ive been meaning to post pics of the install, but everytime I get around to doing it, I change something and dont want to take it. Everything should be taken care of saturday, Ill post pics then.

thanks for all the help.

dannichols

dang, a 12" in the tire well..you have my exact same setup now if you run the crossovers!! Oh..from personal experience I would recommend the upper tweets for ambient crossover and the lowers not..but you may have a different experience. I'm running the rear 6.5s and upper (ambient) tweets from HU power and the front 6.5, lower tweets, and sub from 2 amps..seems to work fine as those first two sets don't need much juice.

Tackett

sweetness. I would love to get another amp so I can run the woofers and the tweets seperate, but I have had such a problem with this stereo that I really dont want to screw with it now that it sounds good. I will see what tommorrow brings, regardless, I will post pics soon.

thanks.