Question about Radio Speakers

[mrnapolean1]

I just bought 2 Kicker speakers from Crutchfield, Installed them, Wired them into my radio and reinstalled the dash pad.

The problem I am having is when they are basing they sound like they are blown but for normal singing they work perfect. Would my dash pad causing them to sound like this?

[danno_73c10]

How many watts are you supplying to the speakers?  What are they rated at? From past experience I've found that if the speakers aren't mated with the correct type of amp (ohm rating mainly),and too little or too much wattage can cause what you're describing. 

[blazing816]

I use to hook up car audio.....what I need to know are you using the stock radio??? aftermarket head unit/radio?? what size speaker did you buy the 3 or 4" that fit in the dash?? and did you wire them straight to radio or to an amp??? Did you use the stock wire??? (that wire is old and thin, I usually only use 12ga wire for speakers leads, to make sure I have a strong signal to all the speakers.)

In general though if you bought 3 or 4" speakers to fit under the dash you will need to set your radio accordingly and turn down the bass or fade more to the back....3" speakers, really no matter want brand or price are not going to sound that great without a crossover on them, with a crossover it can delete all the low signal and only send higher sounds to it....kind of like a tweeter. However, the cheapest and easiest fix would buy and older style equalizer (non digital) and hook it inline of the front speaker wire...then you could adjust the bass and what not down on the fronts only and still be able to have some in the back speakers (unless your using stock 2x10 which also are not a great speaker either).

You have to remember that when these trucks came out it was am/fm radio and cassettes, there was no digital awesome quality sound. This is why many people put bigger more normal size speakers in the doors or kick panel by the floor....and probably 90% change the back to 6x9. So there is a few options for you and my $.02

[mrnapolean1]

I use to hook up car audio.....what I need to know are you using the stock radio??? aftermarket head unit/radio?? what size speaker did you buy the 3 or 4" that fit in the dash?? and did you wire them straight to radio or to an amp??? Did you use the stock wire??? (that wire is old and thin, I usually only use 12ga wire for speakers leads, to make sure I have a strong signal to all the speakers.)

In general though if you bought 3 or 4" speakers to fit under the dash you will need to set your radio accordingly and turn down the bass or fade more to the back....3" speakers, really no matter want brand or price are not going to sound that great without a crossover on them, with a crossover it can delete all the low signal and only send higher sounds to it....kind of like a tweeter. However, the cheapest and easiest fix would buy and older style equalizer (non digital) and hook it inline of the front speaker wire...then you could adjust the bass and what not down on the fronts only and still be able to have some in the back speakers (unless your using stock 2x10 which also are not a great speaker either).

You have to remember that when these trucks came out it was am/fm radio and cassettes, there was no digital awesome quality sound. This is why many people put bigger more normal size speakers in the doors or kick panel by the floor....and probably 90% change the back to 6x9. So there is a few options for you and my $.02

What do you mean crossover?
The radio I am using is a brand new Pioneer Model DEH-X6500BT
The front speakers are the 3.5" Kickers and the back are Jensen's of unknown size.

[ehjorten]

I put in a Pioneer DEH-9400BH in my Crew a while back and was very selective in my speaker purchases.  I ended-up with Pioneer 4-way 6x9's in the rear, installed in custom brackets that I made. and a set of Infinity X-Ref-3002cfx 3-1/2" speakers in the front.  I tried the 4" ones, but they just didn't fit as well as the 3-1/2" ones because the magnets were so big.  Good 3-1/2" or 4" speakers have a high-pass filter built in for the tweeter to filter out the low frequencies.  You will see a small capacitor soldered in.

I picked these speakers specifically because they matched the RMS Power output of the Pioneer head unit, they were all 4 ohm impedence speakers to match the head unit and the number of speakers I was putting in, the rear 6x9's that I chose had the best frequency response of the 6x9's that I was considering, and the sensitivities matched at 91 dB each.

I don't have any issues with distortion and it sounds great.

Your Pioneer DEH-X6500BT has the following specs:
14 Watts RMS Power Output
22 Watts RMS continuous Power Output
50 Watts Peak Power
20-20kHz Bandwidth
4 channel, 4 ohm speaker Impedence

There are currently (2) 3-12" Kickers available:
both have 88 dB Sensitivity and 4 Ohm Impedence
The KS35's have a 6-20 Watt RMS power range (Peak 40 W) and the 40CS354 have a 2-30 RMS power range (Peak 90 W)
Neither of them look to have a high-pass filter on-board (which could be your issue)
I also hope you have the 40CS354's as they better match your power output of the head unit.

I can't comment on the Jensens you have because you don't know the number.  If you had a 91 dB speaker and an 88 dB speaker the 91 would be 3 dB louder at 1 Watt.  3 dB is about the limit of most people to tell a difference in sound level.  What is important is that for every 3 dB in sound level increase it take a doubling of power.  So...for your 88 dB speakers to play as loud as a 91 dB speakers let's say...you need 2x the power.  You can sometimes get into a situation where you run out of power.

[mrnapolean1]

The 40CS354's are the ones I have. Here is where I got them from: http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Vkuut463B5c/p_2064CS354/Kicker-40CS354.html

My next plan is to put a subwoofer with an AMP in this truck. But I don't know what I am going to do for a box yet.

[81_Chevy]

custom box. theres only 2 or 3 ready made sub box combos on the market that will fit behind your seat (and mine) ive looked. so i just broke down and spend the 15ish dollars and made my own dang box for my subs. alot cheaper than buying one for 30-40+

as far as the speakers in your dash, your getting to much low frequency to them, thats why you get that buzzing sound, or why they sound like the blow out. go online and search for these things call Bass Blockers, you wire them into the + wire to the speaker and it will solve all of your problems. ive been using mine for about 3 months now and i can crank my radio up to the max and there is no distortion what so ever. lol

-Nic

[blazing816]

What do you mean crossover?
The radio I am using is a brand new Pioneer Model DEH-X6500BT
The front speakers are the 3.5" Kickers and the back are Jensen's of unknown size.

A crossover you buy separately to pull out the low noise out of the speaker and there would be another spot if you wanted to put 6.5" or something the door or kick panel for the mids. You can also put in a bass blocker '81_chevy' talked about work...but to me the crossovers are a lot better option but they also cost more, so it all depends on how much you want to spend and how far you want to go with quality and volume.