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Bryan G

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About Bryan G

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    Newbie
  • Birthday 08/29/1962

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    Male
  • Location
    Wisconsin

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  1. Bryan G

    Rear speaker problem, no separation.

    Well, it's been a while but I thought I'd give a final update. I decided to just make the fronts sound as best they can. Using tones, I set the crossover to as low as I could go before they started losing sound. That turned out to be around 60, when I went lower, they just didn't play it. Then I adjusted the sub amp to the same point tones. I wonder if time has anything to do with this, do speakers wear in? It sounds better now than ever. Drums from the front punch, loud, the bass is perfect and the high end is crisp and clear. My system does not have much power, but the sound quality is what I wanted, and have. My head unit blew up, I think that cheap Dual amp for the subs did it. It was making popping noises for the last year. Now I'm just using the KAC-8405 for the fronts and subs, and I swear it sounds better. I replaced the KDC-X397 with a KDC-X302, this one plays .flac so no more .mp3's, no more lossy music. I really want to thank everyone here, all the advice helped me to achieve my goal, quality sound.
  2. Bryan G

    Organic flavors

    I was looking for something healthier. I was using polypropylene glycerol Marlboro flavored juice, I like the real cigarette flavor but knew this wasn't safe. I found this place than uses vegetable glycerine instead and flavors it with natural ingredients and I didn't care how it tasted. I ordered what they call "Best Damn Tobacco" and was surprised, it tastes like I'm smoking mild pipe tobacco, or a strong Marlboro. Just throwing this out there for anyone who likes the real tobacco flavor https://www.virginvapor.com/products/organic-best-damn-tobacco-e-liquid?variant=14134406724
  3. Bryan G

    Rear speaker problem, no separation.

    you shouldn't trust the dial at all. pick a test tone, say 60 hz and play that through the sub. now start with the dial at 50 and slowly move up until the test tone starts to decrease in loudness. that will roughly be the -3db point. its not so much that you should pick the xover frequency ahead of time. that doesn't make sense. This is more so for comparing different xover points (ie. 50 vs 60 vs 80 and so forth). lets say you find that 60 is good but 80 isn't. next you would try something in between. repeat until you find the magic number. you can do this for the hpf on your mids as well. in this case you pick 80hz for example, start with your dial ABOVE (instead of below), and listen for the -3db point. Common sense, sometimes I just over look it. I have a CD with all the test tones, don't know why I didn't think of this. I do like the sound I have with it set at 50hz, but 55, 60 or higher might give me a little more punch on the fronts. It's worth the time to check it out. Thanks.
  4. Bryan G

    Rear speaker problem, no separation.

    I can't move the xover up, the subs just have a dial that is 50hz on one end and 500 on the other, so I would never find where 60hz is. But it's all good, I had Rush YYZ on today and the mid drums (toms?) almost made me blink every time they hit. Before I get some different crossovers or adjust anything, I need to get the SDS and seal & deaden the doors. If that makes any improvement I'll be satisfied for a while. I would like to know where I'm lacking though, I'm so close to the level I want, just can't tell if it's the front amp of the speakers that max out. My guess is the speakers, so eventually I'll want to upgrade. I just wish there was someone that lived around here I could have listen to my system and give me an evaluation.
  5. Bryan G

    Rear speaker problem, no separation.

    Back when I was removing the rear speakers I went over all the setting on my amps and noticed I had it all screwed up, don't know how I did it. First, the subs were crossed over at around 200hz. I thought I had the subs at 50hz and the fronts at the same. This might explain why the bass on the fronts got louder when I would turn the subs off, I'm assuming the matching freqs between 50hz and 200hz were canceling each other out. Then I looked at the front amp, it was set at 50hz like I wanted, but I noticed the LPF-OFF-HPF was set to off, so the crossover wasn't even on. So I turned the front crossover on (set to 50hz), turned the sub crossover back down to 50 hz, then things changed. I'm now able to turn the fronts way up, well, the whole system way up without over driving the fronts. I'm now happy with my system. I still need to deaden the door, but it's not such a priority. I was playing some Aerosmith last night is it was almost perfect, certain CD's have powerful mid punch but the overall quality is, well, perfect. I would like more volume, but to me, precision is more important than loudness. I wish I would have found this forum before I bought my system, then I could have use the money I wasted on the rear speakers and bought better fronts but all and all, at least I did find you guys and was able to get things right. And yes, I can tell just having fronts is better. For the last few weeks before I sold the rears, I would play around with having all 4 on, then back to just fronts, and I did notice the dead spots. The fact that some music would come from the rear and some from the front wasn't a good thing like I thought, the sounds moving around were dead spots and drop outs (I think that's how to put it), unwanted behavior. Once I knew what was happening I could not argue, the rears were messing up the fronts. Thanks for being here and helping.
  6. Bryan G

    Rear speaker problem, no separation.

    I sold the rear speakers, so now I have the money to get some SDS. But I have a question, is the Speaker Tweaker Kit worth the money?
  7. Bryan G

    Rear speaker problem, no separation.

    Sorry for sounding dumb, but I'm not sure on this. I thought I heard this years ago, that you need not only the right size box for a speaker, but the right shape. So, let me see if I'm getting this. The box will only fix my problem if it is the right size & shape. Because I can't do this properly, I need to have some material to absorb the back wave so it doesn't reflect??
  8. Bryan G

    Rear speaker problem, no separation.

    Thank you, I will read that when I get back home tonight.
  9. Bryan G

    Rear speaker problem, no separation.

    Not sure what you meant but "back wave". I know that Styrofoam is light, but I was going to cover the entire box with the sound deadener. The thing is, I usually am sitting with the car off when I listen to music, the fronts just don't have the mid to low bass that the rears 6x9's had. So maybe my first thing is to just buy new front speakers, at least the woofers and deaden the door without sealing anything off. That is why I came here to ask before starting, I had a feeling that the speakers might not be meant to be in a sealed environment but I've learned to ask as I have a lot to learn.. I think I have another problem I'll have to look into, I adjusted the sub crossover and think I brought it up to where it overlaps the front woofer and that might be canceling out the fronts lower mid bass. I'll try and re-adjust that. Okay, so for now, until I get money, I'll just wait. First I'll fix/deaden the door, then if I need to I'll get the speakers replaced, but I won't box off the speaker in the door. Would 8" be better for the door or will 6"s work just fine?
  10. Bryan G

    Rear speaker problem, no separation.

    They never called back. I'm not going to worry yet, I'll just keep them posted on craigslist. Right now I'm working on what to do with the doors. I came up with an idea. I was thinking about using that Styrofoam they use in construction (3" thick) to seal off the door, making like a box. I'm thinking I'll roll the window down, then put the Styrofoam up against it then use that expanding foam to seal it, fill in the gaps. After that I'll get that high density stuff and coat the whole thing, should make a nice sealed box and improve the bass. I'm pretty sure that the speakers have too much freedom, I'm not sure of the proper term, but there is no back pressure, the speakers sometime just can't play the bass, they just move too much and no sound comes out. The blue on this picture shows where I'll put the Styrofoam. Am I out of my mind, or would this be a good idea?
  11. Bryan G

    Rear speaker problem, no separation.

    Someone just offered me $100 for my rear speakers. I paid $170 last August and they're still under warranty. I was thinking at least $125. Rear speakers: Kicker 40CSS694 Should I take the $100 or hold out for more?
  12. I found a site where you can make your own tones for anyone looking. Here you can make a single tone you choose the frequency: http://www.audiocheck.net/audiofrequencysignalgenerator_sinetone.php and here you can choose 2 freqs and it will make a sweep from one to the other: http://www.audiocheck.net/audiofrequencysignalgenerator_sweep.php
  13. This is progressive music, it continually gets better as the song progresses. Yes - Dreamtime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=302ui77e3MI and if you like that, this is just as progressive and it will make any system sound even better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvBknHFa8PQ I've been into Yes since 1980 and I never get enough.
  14. Bryan G

    SSA Member Survey

    k lets get the survey started ..... 1. How old are you? 51 2. When did you get into car audio? 1978 3. How did you first get into car audio? I've always been into music, all my life, when I got my license dad let me put a system in his red ford galaxy 500 stationwagon, wha a geek car that was 4. Whats your favorite color purple 5. Male or female? male 6. Your first Car? 1965 Monte Carlo 8. How did you find out about this site? Google 9. What was your first system? Pioneer super tuner, the obe with the round tuner, 7 band eq powerbooster and Jenson 6x9's in a homemade box 11. Were do you live? Wisconsin 12. Whats you favorite car audio brand? Kenwood 15. Who is our hero in the car audio industry? 16. Whats your dream system? 17. Whats your dream car? Ferrari 458 Italia 18. Whats the fastest car you have driven/ridden in? my 2nd car, 1978 Z28, it was not stock 19. Were do you buy most of your car audio products? Crutchfield 20. What is your job? Computer technician 21. Whats your favorite saying? 24. Whats your favorite brand of cars? Toyota 25. What do you like better, cars, vans, trucks, or suv's? Vans 29. Whats is the most recent thing you have purchased? mountain bike 31. Who do you think is the most knowledgeable person on SSA? 32. What is your personal best on the TL? and with what equipment? 33. SQ or SPL? why?
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