Ok the 6 disc head unit for my Mach 460 went south and I replaced it with an aftermarket headunit. The HU was installed using the amp integration harness, but I lost a good bit of sound quality. After going round and round, both here on the forums and at Best Buy, I cannot find a way to improve my sound quality back to where it was with the stock mach 460 HU...so it looks like I will be eventually replacing the whole sound system.

1st: I know nothing about audio components
2nd: I will be on a budget, but I still want to use quality products where it matters
3rd: If I am going to spend the money to build this system, I want it to at least sound better than the mach 460, but it doesn't need to be over the top.

Best Buy recommended removing my stock amps as well as replacing all of my speakers with the exception of my tweeters. The tweeters will be removed but NOT replaced. The new door speakers (5x7) would be powered my old tweeters lines. The new 5x7 in the rear will be powered by the existing rear speaker wiring. All the 5x7's will be powered from my head unit. I would also be installing a 10" sub with its own amp, prob 300 watt, in the trunk.

Let me know what you guys think. Here is the info on my existing headunit:
Pioneer - 50W x 4 MOSFET Apple iPod-Ready In-Dash CD Deck with MP3 Playback
Model: DEH-2100IB, 1 set of pre-outs and pre-out voltage is 2.2v. RMS wattage is 22W x 4.

Sorry for the long post....just looking for some advise.

 

the bass is lacking in the woofers and the tweeters are crackling from the bass going through them? You used the rca output on the back of the deck to power the subs?

 

Best Buy did the install. There is one set of RCA jacks on the back of my unit and they are used for the amp integration harness. The bass is def lacking. I can't figure out whether bass is coming from the tweeters...which I know it shouldn't. Overall, the my music just sounds muffled.

I don't know that there is anything to do except to replace the system. I even asked if upgrading my HU would help, but the installer didn't think it would. He said it sounded pretty good to him, but if I wanted better quality, ultimately I would need to bypass the stock amps and replace the system. I feel like he was being honest with me because he wasn't even trying to push me in any direction.

 

By integration harness, do you mean the $50 one that bby sells?

what store are you at just for kicks? I am a former employee of BBY that has not purchased anything from them in almost 15 yrs since leaving there. I have promised to bite my tung(its bleeding now) as there is another regular on here that is still employed there and if I have nothing good to say, I'll stop there......... You paid to have the system installed and have it sounding good, they can fix it for you.

The problem is that the factory amps use some funny systems to make integration a little harder then normal. It is not impossible once you figure it out, or if I figure it out for you. The factory sub amp likes a fairly hot signal at its input. What ford/jlb basically does is takes the regular high level output that normally drives a speaker and just plugs that into the amp. Your new decks RCA output even if it has a 4V high voltage output is still less then it likes. Look into a little box called a line driver that will boost that output voltage to a higher voltage that will make the factory amps happy, these run $20-50 depending on brands and I think I might even have mine left over if you are interested.

The tweeters are probably playing full range if it sounds bad. Tell them to throw some 100 microfarad caps on them and it will cross them over at 400 hz.

 

They didnt put any caps(bass blockers) on the 4 tweeters?

http://www.installedge.com/products/...roduct_id=6820

http://www.installedge.com/products/...roduct_id=6821

http://www.installedge.com/products/...roduct_id=6822

Man if you lived anywhere close to me I do it for ya.... links above are all 3 sets of bass blockers(caps) that they sell....

They do not have any sort of line driver anymore. But here is the link for what they used to carry.....

http://www.installedge.com/products/...&item_id=57536

They will fix it for you just since you paid already.

 

Thanks so much for the help guys.

I am going to check with them about the bass blockers on the tweeters. My reciept/work ticket does not mention anything about them, so I would imagine that they were not installed. Where do the caps blockers get installed...in the radio/integration harness or at the tweeters in the door?

As far as the line driver goes... The stock 460 harness is connected to the aftermarket amp integration harness which is tied to the pioneer harness. So the RCA plugs for the radio harness get plugged into the line driver and then there are another set of RCA plugs that go from the driver to the RCA jacks on the headunit? It goes between the harness and the radio, correct?

 

Is this what I need for the line driver?:

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_142SLC4...ch=line+driver

Also, which bass blocker do I need? Crutchfield has ones that cutoff at 150Hz, 600, 800, 1200 etc.

 

that line driver will work, don't forget you will need a short rca extension to go from the deck to the line driver.

150-600, that is tough. What kind of music do you listen to?

 

I listen to just about everything....but I bet that doesn't help you pick a bass blocker. I primarily listen to rock and rap.

 

go with the 150 hz then. you need 1 per speaker for a total of 4.