Advice for Tweaking Sound After Entire Nakamichi System Replacement

[ouzo12]

For those that have replaced their Nakamichi systems, I wanted to see which route you ended up taking and your satisfaction on the end result.

My route:

Head Unit - Kenwood DMX906s
Infinity Kappa fronts with tweeters and crossovers
Rockford coaxial rears
Memphis 6inch sub for stock location
Memphis amp
Sound deadening in all 4 doors

I realize the error in going piecemeal with this but I was really hoping for me when I finally got in the car and cranked up the tunes. The bass will never get the job done without a proper enclosure but I love using the 100 for everything and do not want to lose the cargo space. I feel like I am missing some of the mids and lows.

I use this song as a reference:



I can barely hear the opening bass line and the experience is similar with other songs.

 

[GTV]

Is your sub matched to the amp and wired correctly? Fader set correctly? Does your head unit have an equalizer? I just did a similar job and I’m still getting to know the equalizer.

 

[West Hill]

I built an external sub enclosure that is securely attached to the rear seat floor brackets. It takes about a minute to remove or put back. This allows me to enjoy a true sub when I am not hauling anything while allowing full use of the storage space when needed. My external amp has an integrated DSP and I have two tunes programmed, one set up with a sub and one without.

Full audio upgrade, speaker sizes?

Mount it over the wheel well where the current factory woofer is. At six inches thick It will be close to flush with the well. If you’re good with the wood You could build a wood platform that curves to the wheel well radius. Just trace with cardboard. Secure at the base

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[Pucker5]

The eq is your friend on your hu. Learn it and love it. set your filters correctly then start tweaking. Are those kappas amplified?..i think they are 2ohm anyways so I wouldn’t run them on Headunit at such low power. They will sound better and provide more midbass when amplified. Did you use sound matting on The doors? New heavier speakers can introduce funky resonance when attached to the factory mounts. Not saying it will but it can

 

[ramangain]

Kappas are known to be bright and tight. #1 cause of midbass issues are incorrect polarity and crossover settings. Try setting front xover around 63hz and sub at 100hz, fade fully forward. Start by turning off sub, xover flat, and balance L/R to ensure front woofers are polarity correct. Do same for rears, then fade to zero to ensure F/R polarity correct. Then turn on sub and try turning xover on/off in combinations for mains and subs. Leave the eq flat.

I like to set levels and xover such that midbass front stage is pure, but thump of lower bass "seems" non-directional.

 

[ouzo12]

Thank you all for the advice. I do think it's settings related rather than the hardware itself. Not looking for an audio file experience, just to enjoy music during road trips and just cruising around town.

Will report back so other can reference if they run across similar issues.

 

[Pucker5]

Thank you all for the advice. I do think it's settings related rather than the hardware itself. Not looking for an audio file experience, just to enjoy music during road trips and just cruising around town.

Will report back so other can reference if they run across similar issues.

Don’t overlook what I said about the kappas and amplifiying then. If you got em on a hu the headunit is 4
Ohms so not only are you putting strain on internal
Amp of hu
It you’re also giving those speakers half the power and they take some power as it is to get the mids movin’. Underpowered speakers can sound distorted like blown speakers because there’s not enough power to hit the deliver a full range in particular that lower frequency midbass (80-400). More often than not unless your into heavy rap that’s the bass that will matter when you listen to other types of music.

 

[ouzo12]

Don’t overlook what I said about the kappas and amplifiying then. If you got em on a hu the headunit is 4
Ohms so not only are you putting strain on internal
Amp of hu
It you’re also giving those speakers half the power and they take some power as it is to get the mids movin’. Underpowered speakers can sound distorted like blown speakers because there’s not enough power to hit the deliver a full range in particular that lower frequency midbass (80-400). More often than not unless your into heavy rap that’s the bass that will matter when you listen to other types of music.

Totally agree. I specified sticking the 2ohm kappas to stay line with the stock amp i had in there at the time. When there was no real sound quality gain, we decided to wire them trough the HU which definitely was not good. This led to rewiring everything with an aftermarket amp.

The sound system is hopefully one of the last pieces of my never ending puzzle with the beast. Getting close though

 

[ramangain]

What is the RMS power at 2ohms to your fronts and rears? Do you have a link to the amp?

I looked up the specs on your head unit. Do you have the Xover set to 2-way or 3-way mode? What are your Xover settings on the head unit? If you are using the Xover settings on the HU, ensure you turn off all Xover functions of the amp, if there are any.

It also seems as if your head unit doesn't allow reversing the phase of the subwoofer output. You'll have to do that manually at the amp.

 

[ed94r]

For what it's worth, I downloaded -speakerpop- on iphone. I had one phone playing the signal, and another listening to the individual drivers. I did have one speaker out of phase...

speaker polarity – Studio Six Digital

studiosixdigital.com

Ed

 

[ouzo12]

So I ended up taking it to a reputable shop and found that the cross over and other setting on the amp were way off. The fronts are still a little weak but I finally have mids! If anything I may replace my fronts with 4ohm variants but for now I think Ill move on to other projects.

Appreciate everyone's help.

 

[ramangain]

There is a single song I like to use to baseline a stereo system. It is Freddy Jones Band - Ferris Wheel. Completely obscure song, but it contains a few guitar fretboard squeals, contains some echos and imaging soundstage depth, and really exposes imbalance in mid-bass and lower bass. Get that song sounding balanced, and your stereo is set.

Unless you are a basshead and/or enjoy distortion.