Realistic

iTrader: (3)

now i'm pretty noobie at car audio, and dont know very much
i bought two 10" diamondaudio subs and have a kicker amp l5 850

It sounds like absolute ****.

I still have the factory deck in it. do I need to get a custom one? or can i run my gear off of the factory?
can someone please let me ASAP before i go rip them a new *******, and end up looking like an *******.

Thanks!!

06 Ralliart

CF-Ninja

iTrader: (2)

buy a new deck.. set the EQ on it properly.. and if ur subs sound like **** you probably have the gain on the amp way to high.. turn it down a tad.. and you shouldnt have the bass on your head unit turned all the way up

Realistic

iTrader: (3)

awesome, thanks.
the bass on my head is at 0 and ... it sounds.. poopy.
thanks for the idea.
wheres the gain ? ahah

CF-Ninja

iTrader: (2)

there should be little knobs on the amp.. you may have to turn them with a small screw driver. Also check the manual for the amp to see what it says.. but i'm assuming its just the gain on it.

MyRoN

When it comes to audio, It is the desck that is the most important Part. I threw a pioneer deck with stock eveyrthing, and it sounded NICE, then i threw new speakers and 2 12's and it was great. Focus on the deck...then comes all the other stuff

Thats my experiance and 2 cents
Good luck

bigdoggy_dog

iTrader: (1)

There is a lot of things that could be at fault here, but first and foremost we need to know EXACTLY what "poopy" means. That is a very vauge term. To be able to proplerly find the problem and solution we need to know what it really sounds like. Are the subs new or used? If they are used they could have been ran really hard by the previous owner/s. Check the subs really close for any kind of damage. Is it the subs, the speakers, or the entire system that sounds bad?

There could be a number of things at fault. You sub box could be the issue. If it's not made well it could be leaking. A sealed enclosure is sealed for a reason and the dimensions of the box were made specifically for a sealed enclosure. If you have a leak, in essence you now have a ported enclosure. A ported enclosure requires different dimensions and different internals. So that would cause a lot of wave cancellation making your sub sound "off" and basically like crap.

Another thing at fault with the box could be just basically its size. Check with diamondaudio and I'm sure they have a recommend enclosure size, with all the dimensions, for their specific sub. It's best to have a custom box made specifically for you sub than to buy a straight off the shelf box. Especially when you get into the higher end model subs.

Another problem could be how your trunk is sealed. When you have a sub in your trunk you essentially turn your trunk into a sub enclosure. You have a new car so I can only assume that wouldn't the the problem, but it wouldn't hurt to check for leaks.

Your cables could be an issue. Using cheap cables is the easiest way to have degraded sound. Speaker cables is not all that big of a deal but the quality of RCA's is. Don't skimp on those.

Then what about your amp. Is it the right amp to run both of the subs your have? I don't know because I don't know anything about your amp or you subs. And what about the settings? Do you have them set to where the manual tells you to start at? I say start because that bring me to my next issue....

Tuning your system. You need to get the tuning cd's to REALLY have you system sounding correct. The most basic cd to start with usually costs about 20 bucks. Most car stereo install stores can do the tuning for you.

Your head unit is really secondary to the amp. The amp is the first place to start when getting your system sounding correct. The EQ and the all the other gadgets on your headunit are for fine tuning. Make sure everything is set to the factory settings on the head unit first, adjust your amp, then make the final corrections with the head unit. Only issue that I would think that could be from the head unit for you is the quality of the RCA outputs. On your stock unit they probably aren't the best. Is it just the sub that sounds bad or is it the entire system? If you are running your speakers directly off the head unit's power then you are probably going to want to upgrade to a more powerful headunit. Especially if you have aftermarket speakers. Also, always make sure the power ratings for the speakers you are buying match up with the power ratings of your power source. Whether it is the head unit or an amp.

In the end, I can't stress enough about how you need to make sure you are setting your amp correctly.

TogueMonster

iTrader: (14)

Wow, thats alot of information. I don't think he's trying to enter a Sound Q competition at IASCA. Check to see that your box is the correct type for the subs. I doubt that your RCA's would make such a significant difference in sound quality. Scratch those off your list unless your using toaster cords. If your amp is too weak that will be a problem, also you might get lots of clipping from an underpowered amp. It'll overheat and shut down. Check your settings, not just your gain but your crossover frequency. Usually if its too high like 180hz, you'll get crap bass. Lower it to at least 100hz or lower. Diamonds don't like anything over 100. You don't need to buy a CD to tune your system, it sounds like you don't know that much to need to buy a CD to tune your system. Your still a car audio rookie. Take baby steps. The head unit.... a better one helps, however you can still run a factory deck and get decent bass. I think what we need here is more info on your system so that we can get a better idea on how to help you.

TogueMonster

iTrader: (14)

Oh yeah, one more thing. Make sure you have a clean ground to your amp. If youre using the chassis to ground your amp make sure you take a bit of sandpaper to the area to remove the paint and get good metal to metal contact.

bigdoggy_dog

iTrader: (1)

That's basically what I said. I just got a little carried away with the details. I realize he's probably not going for competition standards, but you still need to start with the basics if you want it to sound good. And you're right, to properly help him troubleshoot he needs to give more info on what he has done and what it sounds like.

ralliartvickers

On mine I peiced two pioneer 12's and a 1000x1 crunch mono block {had to use a rca line-converter tho'} on my stock infinity deck, and i really can't complain other than the deck skips on the heavy rap cd's...lol

ralliartvickers

but on the crunch i also have a sub-sonic filter that really beats on 15htz

usacchamp

iTrader: (12)

buy a new deck it will sound better

04WWRS

iTrader: (18)

If it's only the subs that sound bad, you can try reversing the polairty. Your amp may have a switch to do this. Should read 0 deg on one side and 180 deg on the other. If the amp doesn't have this switch, just reverse the the + and - speaker wires.