Joined
·
40 Posts
Well, after my happy post about upgrading my stereo (shoebox sub, Eclipse amp, Kenwood Excelon components in the doors) I've decided my speakers actually sound like crap.
Not the shoebox sub - it's great.
It's the door speakers. The Eclipse 3-way coaxials that were in there before (prev. owner) had a lot of "honk" to them, sounded cheap and cardboardy, and thinking these Excelons were better, I replaced them. But they're just as honky - only in a different frequency range.
What's wrong? They sounded great at the dealer. And the speakers in my Prelude aren't all that special (factory in fact) but they sound worlds better than these. Ditto my wife's BMW 325.
Could it be the wires? I ran new 14-ga. speaker wires to the dash, where I butt-spliced them into the existing Honda wires. Inside the doors, those Honda wires are butt-spliced again into a section of 14-ga. serving as an extension to reach the crossover, from which point it's all 14-ga. Those Honda wires are pretty thin and kind of crusty looking.
Could it be that the plastic speaker baskets in the doors are negatively affecting the sound? Maybe I should cut them out altogether - just leave enough to screw into. When doing my install I mistakenly thought I had to cut the small (3" or so) back out to fit the speaker in. I did this on one door before realizing I didn't need to - so one door has it cut out, one doesn't. Can't detect any real difference between left and right, but maybe I need to cut out the entire basket.
Or, could it be that's as good as this car is going to get? Or as good as 6" speakers are going to get (even components)?
I'm frustrated and disappointed. Anybody out there have some advice?
- Bob
Not the shoebox sub - it's great.
It's the door speakers. The Eclipse 3-way coaxials that were in there before (prev. owner) had a lot of "honk" to them, sounded cheap and cardboardy, and thinking these Excelons were better, I replaced them. But they're just as honky - only in a different frequency range.
What's wrong? They sounded great at the dealer. And the speakers in my Prelude aren't all that special (factory in fact) but they sound worlds better than these. Ditto my wife's BMW 325.
Could it be the wires? I ran new 14-ga. speaker wires to the dash, where I butt-spliced them into the existing Honda wires. Inside the doors, those Honda wires are butt-spliced again into a section of 14-ga. serving as an extension to reach the crossover, from which point it's all 14-ga. Those Honda wires are pretty thin and kind of crusty looking.
Could it be that the plastic speaker baskets in the doors are negatively affecting the sound? Maybe I should cut them out altogether - just leave enough to screw into. When doing my install I mistakenly thought I had to cut the small (3" or so) back out to fit the speaker in. I did this on one door before realizing I didn't need to - so one door has it cut out, one doesn't. Can't detect any real difference between left and right, but maybe I need to cut out the entire basket.
Or, could it be that's as good as this car is going to get? Or as good as 6" speakers are going to get (even components)?
I'm frustrated and disappointed. Anybody out there have some advice?
- Bob