quieting down my 6x9s?

RAZA · Post by **RAZA** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 9:11 am

Hi All,
Got an interesting problem that I'm hoping someone will have a clever idea of how to deal with...

recently I upgraded the stereo in my primera and installed a pioneer 6750, an eaudio 480ab, a pair of rainbow fronts and an infinity 10 inch sub in the boot. The fronts are powered by the front channels of my amp and the sub by the rear channels bridged.

For rear fill I have left the pioneer 6x9's (not sure of model but they look pretty low end) that came with the car and decided the easiest way was to run them from the rear channels of the headunit.

The problem is that when i came to tune it, after installing everything, the 6x9's are much louder than i expected and I had to turn the gain on the amp all the way up for the front channels to achieve a front/rear balance that I was happier with.

This means that at 50% volume, the speakers are all playing loud as hell. Not really a problem in itself, but...

My sub, being only a 10, is not the noisiest in the world, and even with the gain full up is not loud enough to match up with the speakers. If I disconnect the speakers and just run the sub, it plays loud and clear all the way to 100% volume, and is definately loud enough that it is capable of matching nicely with the speakers at higher volumes than i would ever listen to it at, however because the speakers are so loud it constantly plays at a lower volume than the rest of the system.

the options I can think of to get around this are:
1.disconnect the 6x9's and have no rear fill
2.get a small amp for the 6x9's so that I can control the volume they play at
3.get a bigger sub and hope it's capable of matching the levels of the speakers
4.get a new headunit with independant subwoofer rca output so that I can fade out the 6x9's without also fading out the sub
5.replace the 6x9's with something else hopefully not as loud
6.maybe add a resistor to the wires going to each 6x9

sorry for the long confusing post, if anyone has any more ideas or an opinion on which of my options above they think will work, I'd be greatful to hear.

Thanks

Snoozin · Post by **Snoozin** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 9:19 am

I'd go with option 1 myself. Free, easy, effective.

AE82 FXGT · Post by **AE82 FXGT** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 9:25 am

Gains are not volume knobs so I'd be careful messing around with them.

Can't you fade your headunit back/front?

RAZA · Post by **RAZA** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 9:41 am

I'm aware gains are not volume knobs, but they are a useful means of tuning your system. The fact that I am having to run them so high is why I'm posting here.

fading the rear speakers out doesn't work as the sub is run off the rear channel as well, so any fading towards the front decreases the volume of the 6x9s AND the sub

Mr.Phreak · Post by **Mr.Phreak** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 9:43 am

You could try and find yourself an L Pad for the 6x9's......I assume they're still around.

Chickenman · Post by **Chickenman** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 9:49 am

You could run the 6x9's off the amp and just run the fronts off the hu.

I would just remove them.

Chickenman · Post by **Chickenman** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 9:51 am

AE82 FXGT wrote:Gains are not volume knobs so I'd be careful messing around with them.

Can't you fade your headunit back/front?

Although they aren't volume knobs per se...

FFS they change the volume :lol:

Of course they need to be messed with.

Alex B · Post by **Alex B** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 10:12 am

Chickenman wrote:You could run the 6x9's off the amp and just run the fronts off the hu.

I would just remove them.

Nah rears are only to fill a gap for the passengers in the rear. Main speakers should be the front ones.

mycoolcar · Post by **mycoolcar** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 11:12 am

Just remove the 6x9's
Who cares about passengers anyway! The sub will provide all the bass you need, so any that the 6x9's add is pointless, and the fronts will take care of everything else.

Or get a head unit with a sub out on it as well as front and rear channels.

method · Post by **method** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 11:30 am

Getting a bigger sub wont mean its louder either, got to look at the sinsitivity.

Id say ditch the 6X9's and have no rear fill.

Nice setup you've got BTW

blackie · Post by **blackie** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 3:20 pm

disconnect the 6x9s for now..
maybe replace them with some smaller speakers..

Jazza · Post by **Jazza** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 3:32 pm

Run all speakers from head unit and run sub from the amp?

RAZA · Post by **RAZA** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 4:01 pm

Thanks for all the help guys, I have managed to solve the problem.

While playing around with the amp i discovered that there is a switch on it that lets you use the front input as the input for both the front and rear. It's obviously designed for people with only one rca pre-out, I paid no attention to it when i did the install as I have two pre outs.

By using this switch I can supply only the front rca's to the amp and it will still drive both the sub and front speakers. This means now I can use the fader on the head deck to fade out the 6x9's without fading out the sub as well.

xRyanx · Post by **xRyanx** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 4:39 pm

I thought it was a bad idea to run a sub with 6x9's, as the 2 different shapes of the speakers in question both emmited different frequencys, which in turn mad for a very muddy sound?

Alex B · Post by **Alex B** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 9:40 pm

Its not recommended. Each to their own though.

RAZA · Post by **RAZA** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 6:50 am

pyro_sniper2002 wrote:Its not recommended. Each to their own though.

I can see why too. Now that I'm able to fade the 6x9's in and out it is very obvious how bad they sound compared to the rest of the system when anything other than a very low volume is playing through them.

Website · Fri Nov 17, 2006 12:09 pm

another way to solve the problem would be to run the 6x9s off the front channel of the headunit, and run the front speakers/sub off the amp

then if you want to drop the volume of the 6x9's in the rear, you just fade the headunit to the rear, dropping the power to the front channel which is running the 6x9s in the rear and keeping full power to the sub/front speakers

i think i ran this setup in some rangi form in one of my old cars and it worked fine

rowan · Post by **rowan** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 5:20 pm

Hey dude much the same setup here, panasonic heady with all the outputs, twin pre's and sub. Fusion 1404 amp and rainbow front splits.
Pioneer sub and pioneer 6x9's. dont have the same fade problems because of my outputs, but i'm getting rid of 6x9's because if you have good fronts and sub the 6x9's will make your system sound worse.

DriftMonkey · Post by **DriftMonkey** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 5:50 pm

RAZA wrote:
pyro_sniper2002 wrote:Its not recommended. Each to their own though.

I can see why too. Now that I'm able to fade the 6x9's in and out it is very obvious how bad they sound compared to the rest of the system when anything other than a very low volume is playing through them.

Yea, AFAIK the soundwaves emmitted from the sub actually move the rear speaker cones around a bit, and as sound waves don't travel terribly fast this cone interference is a bit out of phase, which accounts for the bad sound. By themselves 6x9's sound allright (to an untrained ear anyway), but with the cone interference from the sub it exacerbates the problem.

Currently I'm running a Pioneer 6850 (triple pre-outs. One model number change solves your problem

) with Focal front components, DLS 6x9's and a 480AB running the lot. I'm buying a Rainbow Hammer 10" very soon, and I was worried about how shit the 6x9's would sound when they aren't the primary bass providers, so I may even disconnect them, we'll see...

rowan · Post by **rowan** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 6:03 pm

hey bro, just waiting for the 10 inch rainbows to come in myself too, hence why i'm getting rid of my 6x9's just figure spend so much on good quality stuff that its a waste to have them in my system.

Plus when your at the front of the car they sound alright, when your sitting in the back near them they sound absolutely awful!..