Rear Speakers louder than front?

[need2speed75]

Just installed a new alpine hu, front door speakers and self power sub. Rear speakers are stock. For whatever reason, my rear speakers are louder than the front. I have adjust fader controls to like 8 to have the front overpower the rears. Is this normal with just installing aftermarket front speakers? Should I get rears as well?

 

[razon35]

do you have an amp running the speakers?
if not maybe the wires are turned around on the front speakers causing them not to get the full wattage
where do u have the sub connected to? since you say its a self powering sub

 

[need2speed75]

I'll double check to make sure I connected the harness correctly, but I'm pretty sure I matched up the wires. I don't have an amp power the speakers. The speaker wires are the oem with an adapter I got from crutchfield. Power sub is connected directly to the hu via rca cables.

 

[knochgoon24]

What are the resistance of the new speakers? IIRC, the factory are 2 Ohm while most aftermarket ones are 4 Ohm.

 

[nuclearr]

The new fronts are a higher wattage than the rears and will be quiter than the rears the ohms also make a differnece. Adjust the head unit to turn down the rears if that does not work consider replacing the rear with same wattage speakers as front.

 

[need2speed75]

Yep, you guys are right. The speakers are 40w rms and 4ohm. I'm using the fader to balance it out. I thought I read on here don't bother with the rear speakers in cars like ours. Can someone explain this?

 

[dot45]

Just did mine recently, do the rear too. Mine had no rubber surrounds left. Thought it sounded great, with the new ones WOW...

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[NOSLO2PT0]

Wattage rating has nothing to do with sound levels. All that does is indicate how much power the coils can handle. The sensitivity rating of a speaker is what determines how loud the speaker plays given a certain amt. of power. The higher the better. A 95db speaker will play louder than an 85db speaker, given the same power.

 

[jb2zero0six5]

Every 3 db is twice as loud as before, factory speaker require little wattage. I find many stock speakers to be very efficient, but just don't provide the clarity and power handling that aftermarkets do.

 

[Rich_Howell]

Wattage rating has nothing to do with sound levels. All that does is indicate how much power the coils can handle. The sensitivity rating of a speaker is what determines how loud the speaker plays given a certain amt. of power. The higher the better. A 95db speaker will play louder than an 85db speaker, given the same power.

BINGO! NOSLO2PT0 has it right.

If you take the fact that the entire goal of car audio (aside from full 5.1 surround systems) is to create the illusion that the band is playing on the hood of the car...you'll quickly realize why rear speakers suck and that they have no place in a serious car audio system. If they're used, it's only as rear fill (i.e. hardly playing at all).

A good front stage with well-selected crossover points between the sub and front speakers...as well as time alignment...will give you all kinds of listening enjoyment.

Also...get an amp for those fronts. The built-in crossover on the amp will greatly increase the power handling of the front speakers as well as the output attainable before distortion occurs.

 

[NOSLO2PT0]

Every 3 db is twice as loud as before, factory speaker require little wattage. I find many stock speakers to be very efficient, but just don't provide the clarity and power handling that aftermarkets do.

I believe the rule of thumb is you need to double wattage in order to increase sound levels by 3dB.

 

[Rich_Howell]

I believe the rule of thumb is you need to double wattage in order to increase sound levels by 3dB.

You are both correct. The third way to do it is to double the number of speakers.

 

[ofgofg]

I have noticed the same thing in my car. Rear speakers are 6x9, and they totally drown out the fronts. I am currently looking for a pair of less sensitive 2 ways or even 6x9 subs to stick back there, and improve the mid base without taking the vocals back behind. It might also be a good idea to run a small amp to the fronts, and possibly add speakers to the front lower dash locations. In any case, it should be pretty easy to do. The car comes with factory amp wiring under the passenger seat, and theres room for a good amp under there too.

 

[Gamble97]

I think a lot of it has to do with the placement of the speakers and in my opinion they are horribly placed in these cars and you just have to deal with the rears being louder since they are facing you and the fronts are not.

 

[OOO_ROB]

I have the same problems but my front tweeters stop working

 

[phoenix arsenal]

I think a lot of it has to do with the placement of the speakers and in my opinion they are horribly placed in these cars and you just have to deal with the rears being louder since they are facing you and the fronts are not.

Also a contributor to more sound from the rear. My 98 SS Camaro did the exact same thing, and if you look where the rear speakers are....BAM! almost the exact place considering a hard top 2g and a F-body have similar speaker positioning.

Its awesome to know there are so many proud DSMer's on here who understand audio...Im glad i came back.


Anyway, either get rear speakers that match ohms/sensitivity or disconnect em and get an amp for the fronts.

 

[genegoesfast]

Every 3 db is twice as loud as before, factory speaker require little wattage. I find many stock speakers to be very efficient, but just don't provide the clarity and power handling that aftermarkets do.

Incorrect. The doubling of volume occurs at 6db, while perceived doubling of volume by the human ear occurs at 10db. An additional 3db of volume does require a doubling of power, which is generally one "click" of volume on the car stereo. This is also considered to be the minimum volume difference the untrained human ear can easily perceive.