Hmmm... New HU, crappier than stock sound

[1200mk]

i just installed my 9833 and my speakers have no midbass at all. With my stock unit the speakers had a pretty good thump to them. Is it bc the stock speakers were amped?

thanks for any insight.

[ST185]

Did you adjust the control on the HU properly?

[1200mk]

i tried to mess with the eq settings along with the crossovers.... i dunno whats wrong....

the new alpines apparently dont have a regular "treble" or "bass" function.

its confusing me.

[dna59]

I noticed the same thing when I took out my stock HU from out of my Camry. i had the premium sound package and after I took out the HU it my speakers didn't have as much bass again. At first when I would just play my mid ranges and not subs I would get really good bass and people would think I was playing my subs, but after without the subs they now sound crappy alone.

[DMDrew812]

I'm having similar problems with my 9847, where either the subs and lows are blaring and almost distorting, or it sounds like plastic and no subs. Need to take a bit to fine tune everything still.

[JohnCWms27]

Originally Posted by 1200mk

Is it bc the stock speakers were amped?

this is definitely a possibility. the purpose of sending a low-level signal to the amp is because if you send a higher signal and the amp amplifies that sound, it will not sound as good as if the amp amplified a low-level signal. (this is why we run RCA's instead of speaker-level inputs to the amp). i have heard several systems in cars with factory amps where they put a new headunit in, and it sounds much better if you run new speaker wire to each speaker, thus bypassing the factory amp. this should result in a much cleaner sound.

[1200mk]

does my car even have a factory amp?

its a 03 se v6 w/o the jbl system.

[JohnCWms27]

if it does not have the JBL system or the "premium sound system" then it is probably not amped...when u said "is it because my stock speakers are amped" i automatically assumed that u knew that u had a factory amp in the car. if u dont have a factory amp in the car, one cause for the different sound might be because the new radio is putting out so much more power and the factory speakers arent rated so high...new speakers definitely make a difference, although toyotas generally have better factory speakers imho than many other cars do. It might just take some fine-tuning on the radio to get it how you like it.

[1200mk]

i c.... hmm maybe ill call crutchfield.... if they cant get my midbass back i might have to return the unit. good thing for the 30 day return policy.

[Luc]

First, any stock system WITHOUT the JBL logos anywhere will NOT have a JBL/OEM amp. Second, what you are experiencing from a "lack of bass" is normal. What you are hearing is how much the stock system likes to increase the bass output, whether OEM amp'ed or not. I particular don't care for it since it drones out the rest of the music. I don't believe the Alpine is the culprit, it's due to prolonged exposure to the stock system, and then expecting something better with an aftermarket deck, which in fact, is better.

[JohnCWms27]

agreed

[1200mk]

after messing with the hu eq it sounds a lil better now.... do you guys know which band affects the tweets?