hey all i have 280w kenwood 6 1/2" Front n Back, 2x Kenwood 1000w Sub and a pioneer 700w mono block and a s**t head unit and its sounds crap for some reason by anychance could it be the head unit wats causing the problem..

cheers Harley

280w/1000w/1million w system means squat if the source is s**t. You can play a record player on a B&W sound system and it will sound s**t then an CD player on a cheap HiFi system. Also, if it isn't tuned right, it will sound pretty crap.

Sometimes the head unit could be the problem of poor quality, but I have found people just don't tune it right and put everything on max (amplifier gain) and think it should sound good.

Tune it right and see how you go. Also use an original music CD (not burned) and see if it makes a difference.

Also sound quality can be lost due to poor installment of speakers or incorrect enclosures.

phong =P~

Explain what you mean by "sounds crap"...

alot of interferience and very trebley but yer get a good head unit and you should be sweet the gear your running isnt too bad so it should hammer

my first system was kenwood, i found that it sounded crap when i herd someone elses car, once i got a better head unit. (paid around $800) the system sounded so much better went so much louder and the only thing that i had changed was the head unit, went from kenwood to pioneer.

from my experience and from what my mates have said and what everyone before me is posting..
it all comes down to the headunit and how it relays the sound..
its the source of your sound. so a cheap headunit will put out a s**t sound.
good headunit..good sound.
try borrowing a desent headunit and try the difference

im guessing your subs are overpowering your speakers like f**k aswell?
start with a good head unit, then get a seperate amp for your speakers (amping just the rear speakers is usually easier)

For some reason people in this thread are making misinformed judgments saying that the Head Unit is crap?

Here's a quick fact: Head unit distortion is usually measured in the hundredths of 1% THD. Which when you think about it, is very little. Sure there are gains to be had with DAC's, slew, damping etc but at the end of the day with the equipment that you have, there is very little gain by upgrading. Amplifiers are in the same boat, in fact Richard Clark has a $10k challenge, whereby if you can pick the difference between any 2 amps comercially available, he will give you $10k. Using his rules of course. Google it. Thousands have tried, noone is yet to do it.

This leaves us with speakers, and install. Speakers typically measure in single digit percentages of distortion up to around 10%THD. So when you install these speakers that measure badly, in a leaky tin door with gaps around the sides etc, then you can imagine how much better these speakers are going to sound! Well not at all really.

Taking this logic it seems that there are a lot of misinformed people out there that spend $1k on some sexy PDX's and then drop a couple of hundred on some Type S fully sik Alpine splits and expect it to sound awesome. Its not. Speakers and install are where the big gains are gonna be made and where you should spend your money if you are looking for good SQ. I would bet money that givena $2k system that $800 on front speakers and the rest on amp/sub/headunit/install is gonna sound better than one with PDX amplification and $150 Jaycar splits.

And as mentioned, power has zero to do with SQ. Also, never talk power without sensitivity. They go hand in hand. A speaker with 100W behind it at only 87Db sensitivity is going to be quieter than a speaker with 75W and 90db sensitivity.

Used to do this stuff for a job and I agree with all that...

First thing I'd do is check that you don't have a speaker out of phase... that can ruin a good system pretty quick.. fade to the front and turn off the sub... move balance from left to right and vice versa.. the system should have more base and depth in the middle than it does on either side... if it has more base to one side than in the middle, one of your speakers is out of phase and you need to swap + and - around to fix...

Then do the same to the rear speakers....

then try positioning your sub box in different places... and try facing it backwards.

Since all you say is 'it sounds crap' it's really hard to help.
You are running your speakers off the headunit directly, so they won't be able to produce much mid bass compared to the treble and sub-bass your system can produce. Not enough power.

This sort of issue will be more obvious as the volume is turned up. Other issues will be apparent all the time.

You will need to elaborate on what's wrong.

If it sounds crap it could be anything, including;

Wiring - shorting - speakers out of phase - signal cables run along side other wiring looms - damaged signal cables

Speakers - melted voice coils - not mounted correctly

Audio source - <128kb MP3's - radio signal strength - ipod/mp3 player equalizer settings

Settings - bass too high to speakers - mid/treble too high/low - high pass filter not set on speakers - low pass filter not set on sub - gains not set - damaged leads


That list is just some of the possible problems.
If you tell us what exactly its doing, it will help.

What exactly makes it sound s**t? crackling sounds? low quality? too much bass? not enough?



I can get just about any system to sound half decent, as long as its been installed right and the speakers aren't blown and the music is high quality... it doesn't really matter what brand gear you have from my experience... while some brands I prefer over others for the settings I have to adjust, they are all good enough quality for the average user.