So I had my Polk Audio DBs 6x9s and 1 inch tweeters installed yesterday.

The speakers are rated at 4 ohms a piece I believe and we wired it using the factory connectors. We checked the polarity and made sure they matched up. It sounds good... but a few issues have arrived.

A: You get a white noise like sound every now and then through the driver tweeter and the passenger 6x9.

B: The HU will kick off if you get too loud, like I can only go to 20 on the volume scale as opposed to the max being 50.

Note that with the Infinity speakers, I could go up to 50 and just distort the speakers.

When I say "kick off" I mean that the sound will cut off and you have to actually shut the truck off and restart it to get sound back. And this happens everytime.

Tomorrow my audio installer is going to throw in a 450W 2 channel amp. 1 channel to the left side and 1 channel to the right side.

And also: The volume isn't balanced to well. The passenger side is louder then the drivers side and to get it remotely even I have to change the balance 3 points to the left.

Can anyone help so I can help point the audio shop in the right direction?

 

With the sound cutting off, that's more than likely you putting the amp into safe mode. When you shut the truck off, you cut the main power to the H/U off, which resets the internal "breaker" of sorts. In a nut shell, you are overpowering the H/U's amplifier, and in response, it shuts itself down to prevent damage.

Are you hearing the white noise throughout all speakers, or is it just the one tweeter? If it's just the one, I would think that either a connector isn't exactly right, or you might have crimped/rubbed/or tore a hole in a wire for it.

As for the low level distortion, (Which could also be this white noise you are hearing if this happens all through the cab) That's more than likely going to go away when you install the amp. I would assume that your Polk speakers, good choice by the way, have an RMS wattage rating that your H/U can't fulfill.

 

withthe speakers i had, i was having the same problem. relized i had to move the power wire (for my subs and amp) and ground wire away from each other, cutting off the noise.

As for it kicking down. its becuase it does not have a full connection and when it readys for a heavy hit, it doesnt have the power to pump. i fixed this by buying all new speakers, and connecting them directly to the headunit, and totally by-pass the stock wiring. I have 4 speakers going with a 1000W amp and a 550 RMS Kicker L5, and it is LOUD!!

 

Laramie: Considering that you are one of the welcomed gurus around here when it comes to audio I'll take what you've said and compact it.

Throw an amp in there and it'll fix your issues. The white noise could be that the HU isn't big enough to power the speakers. The Polks rate at 100 watts RMS and the JVC HU will only push 25x4 RMS. And yes I do know that Polk DBs are an excellent speaker, the Kicker KS series were on my list too. Barry knows his stuff

The white noise was just in the driver tweet and passenger 6x9 but it seems to have cleared up. I think it may have been some badly burned CDs or something because on professionally mastered CDs (the ones I bought from a store :O) I never heard it. But the speakers pop a little when I turn the truck on. I dunno what that is...

And I'll give you one more accomendation Laramie, the amp I'm going with is a Power Acoustik LFA2-420 with each channel powering one side of the truck. I.E Left side on channel 1 and Right side of channel 2.

That's going to be done tomorrow and I'll post some results for you. By the way, do you have any idea where I could throw a few amps side by side in our cab? Eventually I plan to add a two 10 inch Kicker Comps in a box under the rear seat and I need a location to mount the amps so they look pretty. On my truck, the rear seat folds up towards the back of the cab so that's out of the question I think. Thanks ^.^

Oh and I found my Ambient Temp bracket, the sensor was missing and the bracket holding it was broken D: ordered a new one, it'll be here tomorrow.

With an L5 I would assume so, my only question is how did you manage to fit an L5 in our cab?

 

Seems like you already had some ideas on the issue at hand, man.

I would seriously question the thought that it's just a poor quality CD burn. Most if not all of my MP3 disks are torched at 128Kb/s. I don't get that poor sound noise. Sure, I get that annoying pop or buzz from a poorly managed song, but it's not limited to just one channel. Since you aren't hearing this throughout the entire system, I lean to the fact that you might either be having a channel on the amp fade out on you, or like I said, you have a bare wire somewhere.
Also, I know you said you checked this, but since you are going to have the panels pulled again to install the amp, why not check the polarity? Remember, if the speaker pushes out then that's a correct ++_-- hook up. If the speaker appears to push in, then that means you have wired up incorrectly: +-_-+ . If you do have that speaker backwards, that can be causing your noise.

As for AMP locations, just use your imagination a little bit. My Sub amp is right behind the center console in the floor between the two boxes. Remember though, my truck is a regular cab. for you, about any place out of site would work.

Oh, my door/wall speakers' amp is actually mounted on the dash panel under the steering wheel. Mine has a foam back on it, and I shopped it out and added straps. Just to keep it out of sight.

 

I figured that the polarity was correct on the passenger side but incorrect on the drivers side. But Barry thought that it would be pretty hard to screw it up twice, once for the tweet and once for mid. We'll get the polarity correct tomorrow when we splice into it all for the amp.

And I have had a hell of a time trying to figure out where exactly to put the amp. I thought about under the passenger seat really. I like Miami's stand construction and I was wondering if Barry could create something like that to keep it off of the floor. But we're both kind of the show-type guys and we want it to look pretty by placing both side-by-side.

We'll come up with something I'll take photos for future peoples. I just can't wait to hear the mid-bass. Right now I'm driving around with all tweet and no bass because the HU will overheat when trying to push the 6x9s. I replaced the Infinity to system to fix that!!

 

LOL I'll be waiting to see pics. I usually just go by the "out of sight, out of mind" type thing.

I understand your frustrations man. I've been there. When I first got into audio, it started with," Geez, I want some more bass". So, I go to best buy and purchased two fosgate P2 10" subs and a 1000 watt Power Acoustik amp. My Stepdad gave me the Awaia deck that he had laying around. That lasted for awhile until I decided that the subs were too loud for the factory "Audio Latina" speakers. Once again I go to Best Buy and pick up two 6x9 Infinity Reference speakers. I ran them off of the head unit for about a year before the term,"New Amp" came into mind. Long story short, I've just changed one component at a time until I'm where I'm at now.

Oh, now you can join the Audio club in the Clubs sections.

 

i took out the black shelf thing, and its a shallow box, and it fit right behind the drivers seat no problems

 

I think I will join the Audio club. And I understand you like the Power Acoustiks. When I had my S15 Jimmy I hand-wired a Crossfire 12 with a bridged 250W Kenwood amp and it hit hard... well I sold the Jimmy and now I need to ditch my Crossfire. I just can't wait to get the front stage done and move on to the rear stage and then the sub stage. Hehehe.

 

I do like them. That I will admit. I think they are one of the most underrated brands out there at the moment. I guess many people think that they are an entry level amp, but it's just not the case. Yes, I blew a channel on my last one, but that was from my own doing and not the amp's. The only reason I didn't go back to them was the fact that I paid $150 for it, and when I went to cash in on the warranty, my pocket book just wouldn't let me upgrade to anything more than what the warranty allowed me. That's where the Kenwood 1000W came into play.