Help with speakers

Hi, I put some 4x6 120Watt JBL's into my Cabby to replace the knackered originals and i've got them working but i can't seem to get any sort of bass from them at all, i've played around with my head unit but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

Can someone tell me where I'm going wrong?

Cheers

Drew

drewpro said

Hi, I put some 4x6 120Watt JBL's into my Cabby to replace the knackered originals and i've got them working but i can't seem to get any sort of bass from them at all, i've played around with my head unit but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

Can someone tell me where I'm going wrong?

Cheers

Drew

i fitted some 6x4's today too..my sub gives out the bass, but the 6x4's seemed to act as tweeters??
 :dontknow: no bass from the at all…

6x4 are mids, so not much bass will come out, you may need to amp them to get any decent bass response though.

Unless…. what you may have done is crossed one of the sets of wires, so you'll be getting noise cancellation.

ive got some of them jbl 6x4''s in the back, only got them for a bit of rear fill and use a pair of subs for bass, youll never relly get good bass from a set of speakers un less amped up and even then they would have to be top end gear

Madferret said

6x4 are mids, so not much bass will come out, you may need to amp them to get any decent bass response though.

Unless…. what you may have done is crossed one of the sets of wires, so you'll be getting noise cancellation.

Does that mean putting the wires on the bits on the back of the speaker?
Was thinking of putting an amp in as I want decent sound but not a thumping system, am going to upgrade the front set of speakers as well any suggestions?

I've never heard proper bass coming from a 6x4". Best probably to fit a high-pass filter and then at least, you can turn the stereo up without flapping the fronts; and let the rears try their best for bass.

Of course, best would be to get the bass up front eg using 13cm door cards from a later cabby or a door build of your own. But that's more complicate.d

paul_c said

I've never heard proper bass coming from a 6x4". Best probably to fit a high-pass filter and then at least, you can turn the stereo up without flapping the fronts; and let the rears try their best for bass.

Of course, best would be to get the bass up front eg using 13cm door cards from a later cabby or a door build of your own. But that's more complicate.d

I've got a 1992 cabby so will a straight swop for some decent speakers up front work better do you think?

yeah definitely. Make sure you buy some proper component speakers, not coaxials.

ok cheers, a couple of quick questions whats the difference between those and does it matter if it's 2 way, 3 way etc, and would output power of the speaker depend on the head unit anyway?

And thank you for your time so far.

The power of a speaker isn't that important, it should be more/less matched to the head unit power. Try to ignore peak power ratings, they vary a lot, and look for the real power which is RMS. For example a peak 200W speaker might be 40W RMS, and a stereo with 4x40W = 160W peak might be 4x 18W RMS.

The thing that makes a speaker loud or quiet, relative to other speakers, is sensitivity (expressed in dbA). 3 more dba means its twice as loud. Eg a 90dbA speaker is twice as loud as an 87dbA speaker, if they were fed from the same stereo with exactly the same setting and volume control knob in the smae place. Its important if you have a lower power amp (eg, anything from a head unit is in relative terms, low power) but if you have a bit more power, doesn't really matter cos u can simply turn up the gain. Of course, the only downside being it uses more electricity to create the loudness you hear.

Another measure to compare is THD, total harmonic distortion. Basically, if the peak power is achieved at a high distortion, then its not much use. So they might quote figures at peak power, 1% THD, 0.1% THD and it gives a comparison of the speaker flat out, or actually in its listenable state.


2-way and 3-way are terms normally used with coaxial speakers. 2 way means there's 2 cones, and 3 way means there's 3 cones in it. The problem being, their very design means that the tweeter cone is mounted in front of, or near to, the other cone, which is probably the worst position to put it! Hence, ANY component speaker (where there is a plain old cone, and a separate tweeter which is separately mounted elsewhere), is better than ANY coaxial. Think of it like the lowest spec Mercedes is still better than the highest spec Skoda.


Remember that by far, the speaker install is the most important part of the stereo, the head unit, especially CD ones, really isn't that important for sound quality these days. Other things such as how badly they skip on bumpy roads, how easy the controls are to use, etc to make a significant difference. And if you're into radio as well as CDs, then the more expensive head units generally have better tuners.

I've always kinda stuck with mid-range Alpine stereos and speakers.

Cheers Paul, I appreciate the help, now I know what I'm looking for.

6x4in are more than capable of producing bass, especially JBL, however in a cabby it'll be 'drowned out' due to engine noise and such.

If you strapped a couple to your ears with a piece of metal to clamp them to your head you'd hear a great deal of it, and go deaf in the process

If you've ever heard a set of professional speakers you find that a good deal of bass can come from something tiny, but….

As I said unless you put 120W of amp under it you'll be constricted to the head units output which will sacrifice bass in order to get a more powerful upper range. Bass is what uses the power and drains the amp cicuits of the juice, the power supply is in-adequate in most head units for bass.

If you look at the dynamic range of your head unit that will tell you…

All a speaker does is shift air, if it can shift enough air then the bass will be fine. Tweeters can be small because the frequencies are high and dont use much of the power available in 'one go'.

dont know much about the technical side of this, but ive got alpine speakers in my door cards & they sound crisp & have bass coming from them too, im in a cabby & can hear them over the engine etc, without the sub turned on

I've got a pair of JBL's in the front doors and they're fine, mine arn't even amp'd (yet)

Are yours amp'd Louby?

ye, ive got a amp & sub in my boot, couldnt have one under the seat as there too low to the floor, but i can only have the amp on 2 otherwise the car rocks & my lad moans the bass makes him feel sick

i replace my front speakers with the same size ones i got sorted out from audiofile i dont know if this is a local shop for me or a national shop. then i got a sub and amp given to me and had to get this is from backseats. rattles the car a bit but   ( i drive cab btw) but i know what you mean my front speakers before sub was in wearnt very bassy and blew the orignals in back trying to get bass in process haha! but my answer buy a mini sub and amp surely they will work the tric. or pop halfords haha

Putting a pair of speakers is a simple job, getting them done right is more complex, get the rattles sorted out and it'll sound sweet.

You can use sound deadening stuff like the stuff in the footwells, or there's more expensive stuff you can get from most (if not all) audio shops.

Right finally put in some JBL'S today, the sound is sweet, however there is distortion on the bass when the volume is turned up. Does that just mean the speakers are working to capacity or is there something i can do to improve them?

My advice would be to put a high-pass cutoff on that particular speaker, so that its not fed the bottom end, so it can be turned up higher to handle some bass, and the middle and treble at higher volume.

As a reminder…

paul_c said

I've never heard proper bass coming from a 6x4".

The ones in the front are 5 1/4 and 55 rms and it's those with the distortion, also using a clarion head unit so power from that should be decent, how would you put in a high pass cut off?