New speaker question

cindy100

Hi! I had Polk speakers installed in my car today and to be honest, they don’t sound much better than the factory set which, in my opinion, was horrible. When I got the speakers for my home, I was told they needed to break in. Does the same apply to the car and if so, any idea on how long before I notice a change? As always, I do appreciate your help as I know even less about this than I do the pieces I have in my home which isn’t a lot! Thanks so much in advance.

Cindy

2002tahoe

yes cindy, you do need to break in your car speakers also. it depends on which type of speakers you bought for how long it will take to break them in. In most cases you will notice a difference in a couple of weeks and they should be broken in in a month.

zac

Greg Peters

I've had the Polk db series and the SR series (but not the Momos) and both needed some time to break in. I almost took my dbs out after a few days, thinking "what have I done", but after a month or so I ended up being very impressed with them (for the price).

The surrounds loosen up over time and allow the speakers to improve in the midbass department.

Go gentle with them for now- they will get a lot better after a few weeks. If you are powering them with only the head unit, consider adding an amplifier. Proper external amplification will make a huge difference as well.

cindy100

Hi zac & Greg! Thanks for the replies. I did have an amp installed at the same time; the speakers are MMC6500 & MMC650; I kind of wish I had gotten the SR's and may still change my mind depending on whether it will make that much of a difference and if I can justify spending the extra money. Like I said, I don't know very much about this and am going by suggestions here and at the store.

Cindy

Greg Peters

I'd let the Momos have some break-in time before making any kind of assumption on their performance potential. They should run circles around the factory speakers in the high frequencies/upper midbass. The factory speakers are usually a compromise in that they do everything "ok", but don't sound great across the frequency spectrum.

Most aftermarket speakers (Momos included) are intended to be used with a subwoofer for best sound quality possible. While the Momos should give you some nice midbass and do play down to 43 hz, they are not really designed to play strongly below 60 hz or so. Factory speakers may hint at the lower frequencies, but won't give you any strong output at higher volume. For reproducing the bottom octaves as best as can be, you should think about adding a subwoofer.

Play the Momos as much as you can, and they should improve noticeably in a few weeks. It's OK to push the volume up and play some music with solid bottom end to it.

Do you have a factory head unit or an aftermarket one? Many factory head units have equalization built-in (designed to keep car owners from blowing up the factory speakers). This cuts the bass response down as volume goes up. Aftermarket head units are the cheapest way to get around this, but something like an RF 360.1 or JL's Clean Sweep can get around the OEM head unit equalization curve if you intend to keep it "factory" in the dash.

I'm going to assume that whoever did the amp install set the crossover frequencies and gain correctly. If a few weeks of break-in doesn't improve the sound, it may be worth revisiting the gain and crossover settings to make sure they are set right.

MacLeod

I definitely agree. The MMC6500 is the best speaker for $300 you can find!

And it is true that they will need some time to break in after which the midbass should come to life more but also youre probably going to have to do a little tweaking on them yourself especially with tweeter levels. Virtually no speaker sounds great right out of the box.

kenstewart

Agree w/the break in comments with respect to my Momo's (5250s) sounded better after some use, but still sounded pretty damn good on first install. I've since switched to Image Dynamics comps to match my subs, but keeping the Momos for my son's mustang. The IDs are supposed to be higher end than the Momos and do sound fantastic, but I can honestly say that for a little less money the Momos sounded great and very hard to beat.

Be sure the amp gains are set properly like some of the folks have already said. Good luck, once configured right I'm sure you'll enjoy them.

Ern Dog

Cindy,
It might help if you are more specific about what you mean when you say they sound horrible. Too bright?, no bass?, easily distort? no mids?

cindy100

Ern Dog,

Hi! I ended up having to go back to the installers today; when I left at 10:30 Wednesday night, there were a few problems that needed to be fixed which sort of had nothing to do with the stereo. When I picked it up this evening, it sounded worse than it did last night. Right now I am just fed up but since I spent the money I did, they are just going to have to fix it.

After getting help on this forum for the past several months, I do understand what it means when someone uses the term bright which is one of the problems I have with the way it sounds. I know about letting them break in; I don’t understand what they did today to make it sound like it does right now which is not good at all. I didn’t turn it up as loud as I would have liked and it did sound a little distorted and not as much bass as there was before they even messed with it. Again, it was not like this Wednesday evening. I know I’m probably not too much help here with my descriptions; I just feel it should sound much better than it does. Certainly better than the factory pieces that were in there.

Anyway… I will call them again tomorrow and go from there. I think I will print the replies from here and take it to them because there is a lot of it I don’t understand. Thanks to everyone for your help and I’ll let you know what happens. All I know right now is that I want this done but done right.

Cindy

henee2

this sounds like they confused/connected the cables wrong to the cross over?! Then every speaker sounds ****

Greg Peters

Cindy-


If your new Momos are indeed too bright for your liking, good news...they are adjustable (at the crossover) to three different settings.

While I don't know which setting your installer set them up at, the choices are 0 db (max tweeter output), -3 db (medium output), and -6 db (lowest output). It may be worthwhile to have them lower the output from the present setting to one you like better.

If you know where they mounted the crossovers in your car, you can adjust the slider switches yourself (see attached, or owner's manual) for both the MMC6500s and MMC650s, and see how it changes the tweeter output- for better or for worse.

If the crossovers are mounted in an inconvenient area you may prefer to have the installer take care of this while you listen, but pay attention to where they are and how to adjust them because...most likely, what is going on is the tweeters are too bright and not balanced with the midbass (at this point). This balance will change during break in, requiring some adjustment of the crossovers and tone controls after break-in as well.