How does the stock stereo system sound?

[OrangeCrush]

No prob just glad to help! Let us know what you come up with!

[D113]

A Forte SX Sedan owner friend of mine just upgraded his stock speaker to somethign aftermarket. No amp on them, just the speakers. It's amazing how great the Forte's deck sounds on it's own when you swap out the speakers!

[OrangeCrush]

I'll actually be swapping out all four of my stock speakers to JL Marine speakers. These speakers are meant for boats but in a car they sound ridiculous. They're designed to be crisp and clear in a loud open space so let your mind imagine what they'll do in an enclosed Koup... so much noise to make.. so lil time... lol...

[D113]

Gringo.. I can nearly garauntee you wont get one there. Not only do you need the woofer, but the woofer needs an enclosure.

Get one in the trunk that you can easily remove!

Cheers

D

[Gringo]

Hey D113!

Thanks for the feedback. Wrt the sub under the seat vs an enclosure in the trunk; that's exactly what my installer said however I'm unwilling to give up the trunk space or put up with the annoyance of removing the sub box when i need trunk space. So we're gonna try the Kenwood KSC-SW10 (self-powered, self contained, 150W 5x7 driver w 5x7 passive radiator) set-up under the seat and see if that satisfies my ears; the reviews on the web are favorable when it's used to fill up the lower end (as opposed to blowing out the windows...) If I'm not happy then the box in the trunk...

Here's the list of components for the upgrade:

The aforementioned Kenwood sub;
Pair of Infinity Reference 6032CF for the rear speakers;
Pair of Infinity Reference 6030CS for the front speakers;
Infinity Reference 475A 4x75w RMS amp.
Stinger line-to-RCA converters for Main amp and sub.

All instaled by BestBuy on Sat morning. 'Let you know how it sounds Sat pm.

[Gringo]

Hello everyone,

Had the sound system upgrade done 2 days early (change in my work schedule...). Satisfied with the results with a few caveats:

Without checking with me prior to re-installing the doors/quarter panels, they set the crossovers on both speaker pairs to '+3db' so the whole set-up sounds a little too bright for my taste. Setting the stock head unit treble control to around -4 cancels that out but as a result, the mids are slightly depressed so I increased them to +2 then, and then, and then... You get the picture. They (BestBuy) said they'd pull the doors/quarter panels to (correctly...) set the crossover to 0db free of charge;

There is an engine-speed related whine, fairly faint but clearly audible at low volume settings. I think it's caused by the Stinger conversion boxe (which converts the line level output of the head unit to RCA compatible signal for the 4 channel amp) being set too high. If somebody here knows about this (D113...?), please let me know. The guy who did the work at BestBuy said this was unavoidable but I'm not convinced.

About the Stinger being set too high: the max volume setting (on the stock head unit) that I can reasonably use (without risking permanent hearing loss...) is 16-17 whereas I could safely crank it up to the max (30) before the upgrade. The Stinger is feeding an Infinity Reference 475a 4x75w RMS amp. I'm thinking about reducing the gains on the Stinger so as to arrive somewhat short of the pain threshold at the max volume setting on the head unit. Again, any advice on this would be most welcomed (D113...?).

I'm very happy with the Kenwood self-powered subwoofer and yes, it does fit transversely under the driver's seat, away from the feet of any eventual rear seat occupant. The sub very nicely rounds out the bottom end. I recomment it to anyone who's not looking for a killer, gangsta-rap kinda of punch.

Overall, the upgraded speakers/amp sound clearly much, much better than stock. Audiophile quality sound is at hand once the (hopefully...) minor problems mentioned above are fixed.

Gringo

[D113]

Originally Posted by Gringo

Hello everyone,

Had the sound system upgrade done 2 days early (change in my work schedule...). Satisfied with the results with a few caveats:

Without checking with me prior to re-installing the doors/quarter panels, they set the crossovers on both speaker pairs to '+3db' so the whole set-up sounds a little too bright for my taste. Setting the stock head unit treble control to around -4 cancels that out but as a result, the mids are slightly depressed so I increased them to +2 then, and then, and then... You get the picture. They (BestBuy) said they'd pull the doors/quarter panels to (correctly...) set the crossover to 0db free of charge;

There is an engine-speed related whine, fairly faint but clearly audible at low volume settings. I think it's caused by the Stinger conversion boxe (which converts the line level output of the head unit to RCA compatible signal for the 4 channel amp) being set too high. If somebody here knows about this (D113...?), please let me know. The guy who did the work at BestBuy said this was unavoidable but I'm not convinced.

About the Stinger being set too high: the max volume setting (on the stock head unit) that I can reasonably use (without risking permanent hearing loss...) is 16-17 whereas I could safely crank it up to the max (30) before the upgrade. The Stinger is feeding an Infinity Reference 475a 4x75w RMS amp. I'm thinking about reducing the gains on the Stinger so as to arrive somewhat short of the pain threshold at the max volume setting on the head unit. Again, any advice on this would be most welcomed (D113...?).

I'm very happy with the Kenwood self-powered subwoofer and yes, it does fit transversely under the driver's seat, away from the feet of any eventual rear seat occupant. The sub very nicely rounds out the bottom end. I recomment it to anyone who's not looking for a killer, gangsta-rap kinda of punch.

Overall, the upgraded speakers/amp sound clearly much, much better than stock. Audiophile quality sound is at hand once the (hopefully...) minor problems mentioned above are fixed.

Gringo

Alrighty, here goes:

1. First thing I want to ask is: Do you get the engine noise from all your inputs? Try a cd, the radio, mp3 player

2. Ask them where they wired the turn-on wire or if the amp is auto-sensing.

3. Ask where the 4x75 is grounded. Whine usually comes as a result of a grounding issue. as well as a noise floor issue. (will get to that later) Since your amp is likely grounded to the chassis, as is the kenwood basebox. When these items are grounded to the chassis, more than 10 feet from the engine compartment there's a ton of resistance in the path to the true ground which is the battery negative. You can ask them to run an identical 4-8AWG wire from the battery negative to the same grounding post these amps are grounded to to get a true path directly to the battery. If they tell you they can't do it because there isn't room, I have two 0 AWG wires (+ and -) running together along the same path in my car

4. Output power of the stinger. Since this is a passive LOC the voltage out of it will likely be quite low. This means that the noise-floor is quite suscepible (sp) to engine noise. Think of it this way, pour milk in a slow moving stream and you'll see it dissipate very slowly... pour milk into a fire hose stream and you'll blast it away and won't be able to tell the milk is even in there! You need to do what you can to lower the noise floor. If you crank the out put of the stinger, you're going to then amplify any noise coming through it. Try lowering the stinger output and raising the amp.

5. Try to disconnect the kenwood box to see if it's adding noise to the system. pull both positive and negative one at a time and electrical tape the wires. DO NOT let them touch bare metal or you! The run your system to see if it was the culprit.

6. Buy a better LOC. Passive one's especially stinger consumer-grade ones are quite lousy.

7. This might help Stinger Electronics | Product Details if they carry it.

The wiring description would be very helpful. You could always take it to a better shop and see what they say. Just make sure you have written down what they installed. and be prepared to pay more for a unit that's better than the stinger.

I pulled out my Audio Control EQS because it put noise in my system. Sound electronics just do this.

[Gringo]

Thanks a bunch!

Will run thru the list, let you know the results but I'm confident it's not a grounding issue 'cause both the 4x75 amp and the Kenwood are grounded to the same post the battery is grounded to... and turning off the Kenwood has no effect on the 'whine'.

I'm not sure about where the stinger is grounded though... and I suspect you're right in that the stinger's output is set too high. Will try to lower its output and raise the amp's to better match.

Also, you say stinger is low-qual; who makes a good one?

Cheers!

Gringo

[D113]

i have this installed

Caché - OEM Integration and Audio Solutions

[Gringo]

Originally Posted by D113

i have this installed

Caché - OEM Integration and Audio Solutions

Called the only dealer located in Québec but they're not picking up the phone and the voicemail is full . I presume you're using the cloc-d; How much $$ was it?

Called the dealer in Vaughn, Ont. They'll ship UPS on Monday, $49+tx+shipping.

Cheers,

Gringo

[D113]

I'm using the C0E6 actually. Blends the Front and rears if you want and sends them to the sub out. Comes with a Sub level control. More work as they have to run all speaker wires to it.

try these guys:
Ultra Auto Sound
(905) 270-5355
tell them Darryl told you to call them.

D

[Gringo]

All right, finally had the Stinger Sven4 LOC replaced by the Caché COE6 LOC which solved all my problems; no more engine ignition noise, highs are now crisp'n clear (turns out the high-end harshness was due to distortion by the Stinger LOC) and as a bonus, a much smoother blend curve in the subwoofer output.

Speaking of the sub, the self-powered, under-seat Kenwood (KSC-SW10) sounds really good; it nicely rounds out the bottom end. It wouldn't cut it for really loud hip-hop but it does the trick on everything else.

D113: Thanks for the help!

Gringo

[D113]

The Cache's are really nice eh? Where'd you get it from?

[Gringo]

Syd's Audio in Vaughn, Ont. Syd was really nice'n easy to deal with; I had already found (via Google and the Caché website) and been in touch with Syd when you recommended your friend. So sorry...

Gringo