Hmm, well you're not missing anything, per se. You mentioned what is most likely your problem. Your gains are down. There's no variable there, if the gains aren't set, the system wont increase the signal voltage enough, and it wont get "loud". I'm not sure how your speakers got damaged setting gains. The only damage I ever did to a speaker while setting gains ended up being the fault of the amp. It had internal issues and sent some DC to the speakers. Hopefully your amp isn't doing something similar.

What method were you using to set the gains, and are you sure there are no issues with the amp?

If you're scared of damaging more speakers, do you have a spare speaker of the same impedance as your JL components? You could hook this speaker up to each channel and set the gains on it, that way if anything got damaged, it would be the spare speaker.

I'd say look into some methods of safely setting gains. You can do it by ear or get a cheap DMM and look up setting gains with a DMM.

Are your subwoofers not loud either? What type of enclosure? Volume of enclosure?

 

Subs are loud, 2 JL powerwedges. I set the gains with test tones and a mmi. The thing that throws me off is the volume control knob for the cleansweep. I think when I set gains 1st time headunit was at 3/4 volume but cleansweep volume was minimum, which i think is why I damaged speakers.

Now I have that damn knob turned up all the way and unplugged, solely using HU for volume control. Thing is, i also have the ssi summing module which you also have to set input sens by turning HU to 3/4 and adjusting till u get green lights. Not sure if the CS volume knobs matters with this process. I think u are just adjusting the voltage on the input signal to the processor.

Anyways im gonna try to do the door seal mod on my f250 which isnt the quietest ride which im sure plays a factor on how loud i percieve my system to be.

 

Have you tried calling JL?

 

I've talked to them a couple of times but not really concerning this issue. I'm going to call them again today. Specifically I'm going to ask them about the SSI. There is a mode to select either 2-way or 3-way input. Either way u end up with a full range signal sent to cleansweep. Difference being in 2way u send front and rear stereo full range and 3 way u send a single pair of stereo full range which is used for both front and rear, which confuses me. Wouldn't the front and rear in 2way be the same anyways since they are both full range stereo?

Another note, Im not using factory sub outputs to ssi because in another thread it said not to use them cause factory system reduces bass when volume is up or does something funky like that.

 

Thee kanooter valve in your flux capacitor is out of blinker fluid....??¿

 

Jhperez81,

Disconnect the subs first ...

Then with only components playing, turn gain down on amp ...

Turn HU volume up until it sounds like it is higher pitched or distorts the sound [ sounds bad/nasty/****ty]...

Turn HU back down a touch, increase gain on amp ...

Re-power the subs and with HU playing as loud as you'll ever be listening to it .

adjust gains on amps to match your volume on HU ( as you are hearing the speakers playing ).

If you have M&S tires or aggressively treaded tires ( might drown out bass frequencies ), when you are driving.

Get sound deadners for inside and outside of truck cab

 

With the gains all the way down I can turn HU to max without any distortion, nit even really that loud.

I applied hushmat to front doors and rear cab wall. Just finished doing a door seal mod which really helped with wind and road noise. It does sound better but i wish i would have put some hushmat on floors. Its been like 100 freakin degrees here and after messing with this truck for going on 3 weeks now I'm pretty wore out!

 

Are you sure that the problem is as simple as subs out of phase with each other? I previously had the XD700/5 with a single 8W3V3 in a Tundra Crewmax and it was very loud. You should theoretically be at least 6dB louder than that.

Another thing you mentioned was not using the factory sub outs into the SSI. Could it be that your not summing any of the bass signal?

 

I talked to JL about the sub output. They said go ahead and try it. Only reason im not using it is because extreme audio mike from this forum said the factory sub outputs clipped at anything past 1/3 volume so he didnt use the ouput on his raptor install. Check out his thread here.

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum....com/forum/build-logs-project-install-gallery/135919-2012-ford-f150-raptor.html

 

So the subs are loud enough but the components are not and you have the gain all the way down on the components because you don't want to blow another speaker?

With 2 sets of tweeters and one set of mids blown I would worry about crossover points. Are you running passive or active and what are your settings if active?

Since your gains are all the way down, I'm assuming that's your output issue. I would be trying to get to the bottom of why you're blowing speakers.

 

I have pretty standard settings on my xd700:
LP 80Hz
BP 80 - 5kHz
HP 5kHz

I believe the error was mine. 1st time setting gains I had the CS master volume turned down and HU at between 1/2 and 3/4. When I turned up the master volume afterwards the input voltage on amp was way to high because I kept the HU at 1/2-3/4

So after that mistake i lost 2 tweets and mid. So while waiting for new tweets i readjusted gains and after a few days i was unhappy with volume level. So when new tweets came in I turned HU up higher to 3/4 when setting up ssi but forgot to turn gains back down, thus overvoltage again.

So when new tweets come in i will turn all gains down, set hu to 3/4, adjust potentimeters on ssi and calibrate cleansweep. Then i will set amp gains to 10vac on tweets equating to roughly 25w (JL guy said 75w is too much for tweets and to stick around 25w, 17.3vac on mids, and 24.5 on amp. I have already unplugged master volume knob on cs (turned all the way up and unplugged).

I still would like to hear some experts' opinions on the ssi on whether to use factory sub output or not. I wish extreme audio mike would chime in to give some details about why they dont utilize it with the factory sony systems in Fords. Right now i have the ssi for 3 way but am only feeding front mids and tweets to it. Should I switch it to 2way and see if it helps?

I'm pretty sure im getting full range to subs. If i play a 50Hz test tone the subs sound like they are getting full strength with no attentuation.

Just fyi on the xd700 u only plug in on set of rca and set amp to 3ch to run tri amplified system.

 

UPDATE:

Switched SSI to 2-way input and recalibrated everything. Sounds a lot better! After a week or so I may input the factory sub outputs to the SSI and flip the switch on the summing device to 3-way and see if i notice any improvements.

Anyone with the ford mytouch sony system fed the sub outputs to a ssi feel free to give some feedback!