zachzachz

Ok so I bought a pair of alpine type-s 6x9's yesterday and installed them today. The thing is I wasn't sure which was the positive and which was the negative wire so I guessed. Both speakers work, but when I turn them up a little bit the bass gets distorted. The highs and mids sound great no matter what. Like to compare I have infinity 6.5's in the doors and they put out at least twice as much bass power without distorting than the alpines right now. Is this a sign that I have the wires switched? I dont know what else the problem could be.

97tibby

Yeah. WIth my subs if u haved them switched, u can hear them, but there is no voice, its all bass, so i am highly sure that is what ur problem is. Switch them, and u will definently notice the difference.

RedShark

A dark stripe on the wire indicates negative polarity. A light stripe on the wire indicates positive polarity.

zachzachz

The only stripes on the wires were the wires that came with the speakers that I had to attach to the wires currently in my car. There was a brown wire and a white wire. And to screw me up even more on the left speaker the brown wire was attached to the positive post and on the left speaker the brown wire was attached to the negative post????? How does that work???? I cut the wires and soldered the new ones to it.

What makes me question that the wires might be right is the speakers dont sound bad, only when I turn the volume up fairly loud. I think I expected more from the speakers, I dunno. My solution is to switch the wires, see if it sounds better and then continue from there.

01tibby

they just wont work if the wires are switched. so yeah, you were hoping for more out of the speakers.

i bet getting a seperate amp to run them would make them sound better.

zachzachz

thanks tibby01, that thought crossed my head but I wasn't sure. lol, one of my friends said he thought if you switched the wires the speakers "suck in" instead of "blowing out"
haha.gif

Yeah an amp would be nice to have but I dont have the money right now 02.gif

01tibby

actually, take back what i said. i dont know if that is correct.

a lot of higher end speakers require more power to sound good though.

zoned019

Sell your HU and get something that supplies more watts. I don't complete understand about RMS and wattage and stuff, but I do know that if the #s on your speakers are more than the ones on your deck, these are the symptoms you'll have..Why didn't you check the wattage and compare it with your HU's before yo bought em?

tibbytib

zoned019 is right. It is always best to overpower your speakers, but adjust them so you DO NOT blow them. I have Alpine 10" type R's, rated at 300 RMS, I am running about 600RMS. Also, I have a 400 watt 4 channel connected to the stock speakers in the car. Its amazing what more power does. The stockers really sound good now! So... Get a better HU or buy an amp for your doors and backseat speakers.

zachzachz

Well I checked and my HU says 18w RMSx4. I dont know if that is good, decent, or bad. Would hooking up all my speakers to an amp and leaving the HU alone give me more power, or do I need to replace the HU also?