should i invest in new speakers?

ilikesound

i've had the polk momo set in my other car for around a year, with ok results. i really want more midbass at higher DB honestly..these speakers are exellent at low to mid volumes, but after that, they seem to distort or when i back the bass down a bit, seem to all but dissapear. i know, i know, and YES i did set my gains correctly, but something just isn't right and i can't figure out what it is.. i don't think these speakers can handle what i'm throwin at them, but then again, i do listen at rediculous volumes. anyone have any advice?

also, i'm looking to upgrade my 8'' momo sub to a ten incher. any ideas for under 200-250 bucks? i need output, driven by a 400w amp at 2ohms, therearound. i was thinking mtx, but i do need some clarity thrown in for good measure. the momo is plenty loud, but is reaching the end of it's natural life, i'm afraid. just looking for an excuse to upgrade after it started making some spider-related noise. i can't track the problem down though, but i know it's mechanical in nature, and not my box.

thanks guys

MarcLazarek78

Yeah, mid bass was a problem for me when I had 12's and 6x9's. Could be the 6x9 amp was low value. But I do think Polk has the best sounding. You just might need to crossover the mid bass freq to the mid bass driver and turn the amp gain up or use some sort of booster. You can also put mid drivers in a sealed box and give them more power.

I'd start with one of these tho.
http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/products/speakers/6x9/

20hz

I have always wanted a accurate midbass punch in the car, I had 2 ev 15's in a ported box w/ports going towards the seats and 2 8" mtx for upper bass, that worked but it was huge, I now use a alumipro bandpass that covers the frequency good but I still would like a mid filler (80-120 hz) but I found too many problems in all my cars I did,
mostely room , you need a certain amout of cabin volume to go low plus trying to put speakers where they fit versus where they look good is a challange that I appreciate to see done properly.

eloplayspolo

what kinda car do u have

ilikesound

it's an accord V6, 2000. it's the 6.5'' set that's giving me the issues. the focal set wasn't much better, so i ended up putting them in another car. so back to square one, and i still love the sound of the momo's but the midbass just is lacking too much at times. they don't seem to blend too well with the tweets. what's the solution? i have about 400 extra bucks to blow, and i'm just looking for some nice-**** speakers. these will be powered by a polk c400.4, bi-amped.

p.s.
i don't use rear speakers.

Greg Peters

I'd be more inclined to optimize the install you have further instead of swapping out the speakers. Are they mounted in your doors? Kicks? Have you taken the steps to deaden/seal up the mounting surface? Are you using the supplied passive crossovers, or one in a head unit/amp? What HPF setting are you using?

There should be a number of things you can try without resorting to changing up the speakers, but it really depends on how you installed everything and set things up in the first place.

ilikesound

i have put second skin on the outside, AND inside of each door, followed by the second skin overkill on top of each layer of that. i have also applied it to every concievable surface in the car. it is DEAD silent. i did get more bass this way though it still doesnt seem to be enough. they are mounted in the factory locations, and have a dynaxorb behind each inividual speaker. the trunk has been further reinforced with spectrum sludge, secondskin, then overkill pro. no surface iiin the car vibrates, and if a bus passes by me, i don't even hear it. my xover is set at around 80hz, and the sub kicks in at 90. as i stated,, they are bi-amped, using thossese settings, myy keyboard is going insaaane, sorry for the poor typing.

exalted512

Have you tried lowering the crossover points? What radio do you have?
-Cody

ascalon

Or have you considered that after market speakers are usually not geared toward producing lots of bass, and the point is to get a separate subwoofer? What kind of Polks are they, specifically? Are they the mmc6500's? If so, they produce some of the best bass you can find in after market speakers of that price range. Make sure you give them full power, or they'll never reach their potential. For max volume, keep the crossover at about 80 (maybe 65 depending on the type of music). At that level they provide plenty of good punch.

Do yourself a favor, let those speakers handle the highs and mids like they're supposed to, and get a sub for the lows. Trust me, you'll be happy.

MacLeod

Im not familiar with the 00 Accord, but my 07 Accord has a tiny little hole for the stock 6.5's. So much so that I couldnt fit my SR6500's in there without a 1" spacer. But when I did this the opening was so small that although the end of the magnet fit, it basically closed up the back of the speaker so it was essentially working in a .001 ft3 enclosure!

If the mounting hole in the door is pretty small and you had to use a spacer, you can cut out the hole more and give the Momo more room to breath. The reason I thought of this is that Focals have excellent midbass, some of the best in the biz but if they wouldnt work in your car then it doesnt seem like a problem with the speaker but rather the install.

You could always upgrade to the SR's. Midbass-a-plenty! Im running the SR5250's and have never been docked on a scoresheet for lack of midbass.

ilikesound

Yea, the mmc6500's. believe me, there isn't anything wrong with my install. ascalon, don't be smart, i KNOW speakers' place. i wouldn't be complaining if i didn't have a reason to. i should just take some pics of the door for you guys to look at...

anyways, i felt that the focals could go in the 'stang, and the accord would have the "****" system, lol. i don't know where they are xover at, because the polk 400.4 doesn't have notches saying the hz, only "50/500" on one end, and "3k" or whatever on the other. so it's somewhere around 80 i would think. I just feel they top out too early. perhaps ill have a play with the gain one more time and see if that fixes anything, but somehow i've done that several times....
my momo DVC 8'' is also on it's last legs, and it's being RMA'd to polk as we speak. lucky i live in VA so i'm close. any ideas on a nice sub, 10 inches sealed, that i could pick up for under 300 bucks? I'm just not fond of the 8'', not enough output for my tastes.

Greg Peters

ilikesound wrote: »

i have put second skin on the outside, AND inside of each door, followed by the second skin overkill on top of each layer of that. i have also applied it to every concievable surface in the car. it is DEAD silent. i did get more bass this way though it still doesnt seem to be enough. they are mounted in the factory locations, and have a dynaxorb behind each inividual speaker. the trunk has been further reinforced with spectrum sludge, secondskin, then overkill pro. no surface iiin the car vibrates, and if a bus passes by me, i don't even hear it. my xover is set at around 80hz, and the sub kicks in at 90. as i stated,, they are bi-amped, using thossese settings, myy keyboard is going insaaane, sorry for the poor typing.

Thanks for clarifying- info wasn't included in the initial post, so it seems you've covered your bases in regards to install.

Have you experimented with the phase of the midbass drivers? At 4 ohms, depending on your amp's "birth sheet" you might see 75-100 watts RMS to each midbass with a 400.4...the Momos are rated for 125 watts continuous, so you'd want to be conservative with gains sending them more power. I suppose you could also try bridging the 400.4 and using the passives to see if additional power helps the midbass.

ilikesound

in a previous post, i wrote that some act of god killed my xovers, so i kind of have to run bi-amp at the moment, or try to get ahold of some xover's somehow...which i don't really see happening. but in any event, i'll raise the xover today, lower the gains, and mess with, it turning the sub off, and see if that can improve things. but it's brutal cold outside, and wet, so a cramped garage will have to suffice. i will update with pics:D

Greg Peters

ilikesound wrote: »

in a previous post, i wrote that some act of god killed my xovers, so i kind of have to run bi-amp at the moment, or try to get ahold of some xover's somehow...which i don't really see happening. but in any event, i'll raise the xover today, lower the gains, and mess with, it turning the sub off, and see if that can improve things. but it's brutal cold outside, and wet, so a cramped garage will have to suffice. i will update with pics:D

Try to shoot Customer Service an email/phone call and I'll bet they can set you up with some new passives .


In a few previous issues of Car Audio and electronics magazine, there were some helpful, in-depth articles on system tuning. For setting your HPF point for your components, you'll want to turn off your sub (as you've mentioned) and manipulate the HPF setting to get the loudest, most undistorted midbass response possible- that may be in the neighbourhood of 80hz, it may well be lower (since you seem to have done extensive deadening in your doors) such as 50hz, but if you intend to listen at high volumes as mentioned, you'll probably be better off with a higher setting than 50hz so you don't see overexcursion at higher volumes. You'll want to use the crossover settings on either your amp or your head unit, as using both has the potential to cause some funny anomalies in system response if you're not careful.

Experimentation will tell you what you need. If you haven't tried swapping the phase of your midbass, it'll will be pretty easy and tell you right away if you get better midbass in-phase or out of phase- try swapping midbass polarity at your amp for a quick answer...try one midbass then the other so you can do an A/B comparison for left and right. As Mac mentioned, both the Focals and the Momos are drivers with the reputation for pretty good midbass response. I'd bet it's something simple, an easy fix.

MacLeod

ilikesound wrote: »

Yea, the mmc6500's. believe me, there isn't anything wrong with my install. ascalon, don't be smart, i KNOW speakers' place. i wouldn't be complaining if i didn't have a reason to. i should just take some pics of the door for you guys to look at...

Sorry. Didnt realize youre a master installer. I guess you just got 2 bum sets of speakers.

20hz

I wrote earlier, (2 15's in a ported box w/2 8's for upper bass) that was in a 71 bug covetable it was a whole back seat box, I think it was 15x48" .
The cabin volume problem I have now is in a king cab nissan pickup, I use a alumipro bp-12 ,I look forward to a SUV or a Suberban, The doors have been deadend . What would be ideal is a nice cabinet in the doors for some 6.5 or 8's using a tri-amplified system.
I currently use MB quart 5.25 and tweeters up front, and a kicker dx350 to run the alumipro bp-12.

Greg Peters

20hz wrote: »

I wrote earlier, (2 15's in a ported box w/2 8's for upper bass) that was in a 71 bug covetable it was a whole back seat box, I think it was 15x48" .
The cabin volume problem I have now is in a king cab nissan pickup, I use a alumipro bp-12 ,I look forward to a SUV or a Suberban, The doors have been deadend . What would be ideal is a nice cabinet in the doors for some 6.5 or 8's using a tri-amplified system.
I currently use MB quart 5.25 and tweeters up front, and a kicker dx350 to run the alumipro bp-12.

Holy threadjacks, Batman :eek:.


Maybe start a new one of your own???