[J1Gold16]

My system consists of the following:

Vehicle: 2013 Honda CR-V
H/U: Factory
Line Driver: Audio Control LC6i
Amplifier: Alpine PDX V9 (100w x 4 + 500w x 1)
Speakers: JBL MS 62C for the front and rear
Subwoofer: JL Audio 10W6v2 in a sealed enclosure

The sound from the components is very bright and somewhat harsh. I can adjust the tweeter on the crossover but when I move it to -3, the speakers seem lifeless. The JL Audio 10W6v2 sounds like a low-end JL with a 100 watt amp on it. I built the box to JL Audio sealed enclosure specs. Internal volume nets to 0.625 ft^3 after woofer displacement and bracing. I even used two layers of MDF on all sides and added some fiberglass resin on the inside to make sure it's completely sealed. I took my car in to a local stereo shop and he agreed that there was something wrong with the setup. He said the system sounded good but sounded very entry level and nowhere near what it should sound like.

So, I am here to ask for some advice as to what it could be. Could the factory head unit really be causing that much of an issue? I thought the LC6i would clear up the weak signal. Should I consider using the JL HD900/5 instead. Is the sealed box really hindering the performance of the sub to this extent? The stereo shop wants to charge me $60 an hour to diagnose what's wrong. I'm hesitant to pay it.

My previous car, Scion xD, had a JL Audio 500/5 with 250 watts going to power 2 10W3v2's in a small sealed enclosure. They were materially louder, especially on the low notes. I was running it off the upgraded factory deck that had preamp outputs.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[J1Gold16]

 

[goshred025]

My guess is the box is to small for the sub. I just build a 1ft^3 sealed box after displacement with poly fill and it seems to sounds good. It more punchy and lacks bottom end when I compare it to the JL H.O. box it was originally in. Also I lost a lot of spl from switching from ported to sealed. This is running off a Jl 900/5 hd amp.

 

[MLS]

Can you plug in an mp3 player or somthing similar directly into the amp with an rca adapter? Use the volume control on the player to see if there is a noticable difference.

 

[J1Gold16]

"My guess is the box is to small for the sub. I just build a 1ft^3 sealed box after displacement with poly fill and it seems to sounds good. It more punchy and lacks bottom end when I compare it to the JL H.O. box it was originally in. Also I lost a lot of spl from switching from ported to sealed. This is running off a Jl 900/5 hd amp."

JL Audio's website specifies that the woofer be placed in a 0.625 ft^3 sealed enclosure so that's what I built it to. I don't think the woofer parameters allow for a 1.0 ft^3 enclosure. I know it seems small but they are designing them that way now. May I ask why you switched to a sealed enclosure? Also, are you happy with HD900/5 and did you compare it with the Alpine PDX V9?

"Can you plug in an mp3 player or somthing similar directly into the amp with an rca adapter? Use the volume control on the player to see if there is a noticable difference."

Never thought of doing that. Would there be enough signal strength to do that? It wouldn't hurt to try it out. Thanks!

 

[jking29]

Agreed.^ The factory head unit might roll off the low end.

 

[TrickyRicky]

Has to be the enclosure because an running a pair if 12w6v2 in a turbo bass ported probox with only 300 watts TOTAL and they are very freaking loud. Louder than my previous install which had a pair of mtx 5500 10" in a ported enclosure with 600 watts which got pretty loud but no where near the jl's. But that would not be a fair comparison.


But the factory hu could be the culprit.

 

[sqnut]

Could be a couple of things. The sub and mids are out of phase and / or the 600-800 and then 2-8khz range is too loud. Typically happens in cars. You mention that the sound is very bright.

try reversing the polarity of the MB or the sub and see if that helps. If your stock hu has an eq try cutting some at the frequencies I mentioned.

 

[MLS]

You may already know this, but shut power off to the amp even when unplugging rca's.

 

[J1Gold16]

"Agreed.^ The factory head unit might roll off the low end."

Is this a known problem in Honda's? I could see why they would do this. Would the LCI 6i not compensate for some of that or would I need to get a line output converter with bass restoration? The guy at the stereo shop said he's installed systems in Honda's using the factory deck and LC6i and they sound great. So confusing. I've installed many stereos for myself and for friends and this one, by far, is the biggest disappointment. So confused. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[J1Gold16]

"Has to be the enclosure because an running a pair if 12w6v2 in a turbo bass ported probox with only 300 watts TOTAL and they are very freaking loud. Louder than my previous install which had a pair of mtx 5500 10" in a ported enclosure with 600 watts which got pretty loud but no where near the jl's. But that would not be a fair comparison.


But the factory hu could be the culprit."

It's quite possible it's the box but to cut output to the extent that it can barely keep up with the mids and highs is quite shocking. I've heard the W6 in a ported box and it was surprisingly loud. I don't know if you would notice the bass from this thing if it were in a trunk. I just remembered that I have a 12" ported sub in my basement. I'm going to put that in and see if it's any louder. I totally forgot about that thing. I still have my JL 500/5 that I could hook up to see if it's the amp.

 

[Chaos]

That sub should have plenty of kick in a box that size with 500w, the issue is most likely something else really simple.


Where are you picking up the inputs for the LC6i? My guess is that the polarity is backwards somewhere in the chain.

 

[goshred025]

"JL Audio's website specifies that the woofer be placed in a 0.625 ft^3 sealed enclosure so that's what I built it to. I don't think the woofer parameters allow for a 1.0 ft^3 enclosure. I know it seems small but they are designing them that way now. May I ask why you switched to a sealed enclosure? Also, are you happy with HD900/5 and did you compare it with the Alpine PDX V9?"

1.0 ft^3 roughly gives me .7 qtc for the sealed enclosure according to the specs of the 10w6v2. Changing to a sealed enclosure was due to the limited space in a tacoma access cab. the HD900/5 is my 2nd amp I've ever owned so I cant compare it to much other amps. But when space is limited this is a great amp.

 

[jking29]

"Agreed.^ The factory head unit might roll off the low end."

Is this a known problem in Honda's? I could see why they would do this. Would the LCI 6i not compensate for some of that or would I need to get a line output converter with bass restoration? The guy at the stereo shop said he's installed systems in Honda's using the factory deck and LC6i and they sound great. So confusing. I've installed many stereos for myself and for friends and this one, by far, is the biggest disappointment. So confused. Thanks for the suggestions!

Have you tried plugging a different source into the amp? It would be a lot simpler to do before you haul a sub and enclosure out of the basement to check. Just work your way up the chain.

 

[J1Gold16]

That sub should have plenty of kick in a box that size with 500w, the issue is most likely something else really simple.


Where are you picking up the inputs for the LC6i? My guess is that the polarity is backwards somewhere in the chain.

I tapped into the wire for the speakers coming right off the factory deck. I'm almost 100% sure that polarity is fine throughout the system but I'm not going to throw that out as a possibility. I agree with you about the sub. That thing is a beast and should be performing like one.

1.0 ft^3 roughly gives me .7 qtc for the sealed enclosure according to the specs of the 10w6v2. Changing to a sealed enclosure was due to the limited space in a tacoma access cab. the HD900/5 is my 2nd amp I've ever owned so I cant compare it to much other amps. But when space is limited this is a great amp.

Does your 10w6v2 pound your chest hard with the beat of a drum? My 10W6 has very little kick. I'm not expecting it to be so loud that you can't breathe anymore. Though I'm expecting it to sound louder than a 10" kicker shallow mount sub.

 

[J1Gold16]

Have you tried plugging a different source into the amp? It would be a lot simpler to do before you haul a sub and enclosure out of the basement to check.

In a previous post someone suggested I use my MP3 player to plug directly into the amp. I will try that and see if that helps.

 

[1996blackmax]

You should definitely try reversing the phase on the subwoofer to see if it blends in better with the rest of your system.

I agree with going to a bigger box. My 10W6's came in the JL Prowedge box. I've had a pair of these before, as well as a 12W6, and a 13W6. All were nice sounding subs. The problem this time around was that they were lacking in sound and output when compared to the last time I had a set. The only difference was the box. While the JL box was a nice box and left more room in my trunk, it was too small. I now have them in a bigger box, with polyfill, and they sound much better. They extend much lower than before.

A few years back JL gave a range of enclosure sizes for their W6 line. The 10W6v2 was from .625 up to 1 cubic foot I believe. The minimum enclosure size allows for higher power handling. I remember their original power rating was 400 watts RMS.

Did you use any polyfill in your enclosure?

 

[J1Gold16]

You should definitely try reversing the phase on the subwoofer to see if it blends in better with the rest of your system.

I agree with going to a bigger box. My 10W6's came in the JL Prowedge box. I've had a pair of these before, as well as a 12W6, and a 13W6. All were nice sounding subs. The problem this time around was that they were lacking in sound and output when compared to the last time I had a set. The only difference was the box. While the JL box was a nice box and left more room in my trunk, it was too small. I now have them in a bigger box, with polyfill, and they sound much better. They extend much lower than before.

A few years back JL gave a range of enclosure sizes for their W6 line. The 10W6v2 was from .625 up to 1 cubic foot I believe. The minimum enclosure size allows for higher power handling. I remember their original power rating was 400 watts RMS.

Did you use any polyfill in your enclosure?

I did not use any polyfill. I will go buy some of that today. I do remember JL had a range of sizes for their woofers. I wish they would still do that. Assuming everything is setup correctly, they are really doing themselves a disservice by posting that as the recommended enclosure size. I was just afraid of going too big. I read some reviews of people having too big of an enclosure and the sub would bottom out. If needing to build a new enclosure, I think that I may just go ported. It really upsets me that the stereo shop wants to charge me $60 to diagnose why this sub sounds like crap. If they come back to tell me my enclosure is too small, I'm not paying it. There are basic things that one should know about the products you sell. I did have this thing hooked up to a friends 750 watt kicker amp to see if it worked (before I had my amp installed) and it sounded very tame. It was sitting on the seat of his truck and distortion would set in before it got loud. His 10" Kicker shallow mount CVR sub, which was behind the seat, blew the W6 out of the water in terms of output. Of course, the W6 had better sound quality, which is my primary goal, but when your bass feels thin and lacks authority, that won't do.

Today I am able to start my own diagnosis. Here's what I'm planning on doing.

- Reverse the polarity of the sub.
- Hook up another source to the amp via RCA's to see if the LC6i or the head unit is the issue.
- Install a different subwoofer to see if it sounds like I remembered. If it sounds terrible, then it's either my amp, line converter, or factory head unit causing the issues.
- Install my JL 500/5

Anyone here have anything to add to the diagnosis?

 

[evangojason]

Since you ran it in your friends truck with same results I'd say you already figured it out. Did you buy the sub from the shop you took your car to? Try to borrow a box with the same sub in and do some comparison. I have a JL13W3 in a box build to JL's specs and it sounded how you described. Polyfill helped a lot but wish I would have gone bigger or ported.

 

[rexroadj]

Based on his description of how his component set sounded in addition.....I would doubt its the sub. I would start at the source and work your way back.....Or you could just knock off the simple to get to stuff first I suppose...my guess is its source area related or amp.....kinda unlikely that its all 5 channel issues and still "functioning" though....right? Sounds like exceptionally weak output voltage to me?