infinity reference installed - what a dissapointment

floatingkiwi

floatingkiwi

Member
Hi All

6520CX in the front and soon to be 5022cfx in the rear, once I figure out how. Well, got the fronts done today running off the JVC head unit.

WHAT A DISSPOINTMENT!!

Clarity is OK, only very slightly improved over the stock speakers. NO BASS at all to speak of. Yes they are working, yes the phase is correct....

Got the tweeters at 0db, not +3. Do these things need to run in or something? At this stage I'll be pulling them out and going back to good old dependable pioneers....
 
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floatingkiwi said:
Hi All

6520CX in the front and soon to be 5022cfx in the rear, once I figure out how. Well, got the fronts done today running off the JVC head unit.

WHAT A DISSPOINTMENT!!

Clarity is OK, only very slightly improved over the stock speakers. NO BASS at all to speak of. Yes they are working, yes the phase is correct....

Got the tweeters at 0db, not +3. Do these things need to run in or something? At this stage I'll be pulling them out and going back to good old dependable pioneers....
Click to expand...

I can't speak for these speakers specifically, but components in general shouldn't produce much bass if any. They're not designed to produce a lot of bass. There should be more clarity, however, clarity is also dependent on music file quality, amplifier, and even the head unit.
 
I also made this mistake when I had a regular cab tacoma. Got some RF components thinking "Surely they'll be better than the stock components!". Negative, no bass, immediately had to buy sub and amp.

You could easily get away with an 8" sub if you don't want to take up much space. Even a Pioneer downward firing sub. Really any dedicated subwoofer and peewee amp will make up for what your speakers cannot do.
 
Yup,

I totally agree with the OP, I fitted some years ago to a Supra, 6.5" components at the front, and probably 4" at the back.

It wasn't so much the lack of bass that got me, it was the horrible sound. "Clarity and detail" were very good, but they sounded horrible, the sound was very bright and fatiguing to listen to.

I prefer a warmer tone, I fitted Morels in my truck and although they are cheaper, are a lot more pleasant to listen to. I also have a 10" sub to thicken the lower end... but please don't confuse harsh sounding with lack of bass!

Most MP3s sound bad enough anyway, without harsh speakers compounding the problem!
 
Ok so the obvious question is what Amp model are you using and what head unit?

While I agree the reference series has pretty weak bass it is obviously the speaker setup type you would pair with a small sub.

I have the Kappa series but I've owned the reference before and they sounded great.

Did you simply replace the stock speakers with Infinity reference and keep your factory deck? Did you only connect them to the head unit (factory or after-market) with no amp?

If you have an amp what type is it?
* Number of channels
* Brand
* Model
* Wattage peak
* Wattage RMS

EDIT: I see you posted this... everything explained.


Well, got the fronts done today running off the JVC head unit.
Click to expand...

So of course it doesn't sound very great. You are running running mid quality speakers that were designed to be run with an amp off a low quality head unit with no amp and no sub.

Have you heard of the Alpine Power Pack for head units? Buy that and add it in-line. It should do wonders for your setup and its affordable.
 
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I had the Reference in my Corolla & they were very good. You need to run them off a separate amp not the head unit. I was using the JL Audio 6 channel amp E6450. Also a 10" JL W0 Sub.
 
Mine will be here tomorrow along with Polk DB651 for the rear. I'll be putting in a Hifonics Zeus 1000W 4 channel to power them. I already have a Pioneer 10" sub in the back powered by a separate mono block. I'm betting they sound just fine. Lol
 
You HAVE to amp aftermarket speakers if you want them to sound good coming off a normal headunit. The Alpine Power Pack is a good option like Brian mentioned, Kenwood also makes a small amp that fits in the location of the stock amp too. That's what I'm running and my speakers sound fantastic I think for what my setup is. I've got JL components up front and stock speakers in the rear. It doesn't beat like a real subwoofer, but it's got enough bass that I'm happy and a normal non car audio person might think I am running a subwoofer. Amps make all the difference in aftermarket speakers.
 
hour said:
I also made this mistake when I had a regular cab tacoma. Got some RF components thinking "Surely they'll be better than the stock components!". Negative, no bass, immediately had to buy sub and amp.

You could easily get away with an 8" sub if you don't want to take up much space. Even a Pioneer downward firing sub. Really any dedicated subwoofer and peewee amp will make up for what your speakers cannot do.
Click to expand...

I have components as well but then I added this....running off a jl audio 75 watt bridged..it's very loud. i never run it as loud as it will go cause it's too loud,..geez

EBX 200.5 - Hertz Energy car audio subwoofer box
 
Interesting timing on this post. I just this weekend replaced the blown out stock speakers in my corolla with some middle of the road aftermarkets. I expected good things but was surprised by the lack of bass. I spent an evening verifying polarity and phase were correct but no improvement.

Good to know that my results are not unexpected.
 
I've had good results with pioneers in the past running off head units, hence my post about this a while ago. Where everyone said to get these things!!

I don't want to install a sub but I guess will have to look at an amp unfortunately.

I'm almost wanting to put the original speakers back in but of course have cut everything to get these horrible things in.

Bad day....
 

Speakers need to be power matched. You elected to skip that step which is why you are getting such poor results.

Those Infinity Reference speakers would be a perfect match for 50W RMS per speaker (not 100, 150, 250 or 500 lol) but your JVC is probably barely putting out 10W true RMS.
 
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Exactly. If your going to speaker match with an amp though I like to have some overhead. Hence why my amp will do 125W RMS x 4 @4 ohms. I'll run it at 50W since the Polks can only handle 60W RMS. Or about 14.1v at the amp channel connection. That will leave my gain way down and not even come close to stressing the amp.
 
I agree with the above sentiments about an amp.

I also agree with the OP's description of the older Infinity speakers, along with their Kappa (high-end) line. Way too much treble for my tastes. However, their Infinity Reference 6500cx are fantastic. I have them now and they are amazing when paired with a decent amp. Sounds good with the clear highs you would expect from an Infinity but with pretty good mid-bass. Very, very happy with them.

https://www.infinityspeakers.com/component-sys/REFERENCE+6500CX.html

Infinity Reference 6500cx = good, well rounded speaker. Infinity anything else = lots of treble. Lots.
 
gamefreakgc said:
I agree with the above sentiments about an amp.

I also agree with the OP's description of the older Infinity speakers, along with their Kappa (high-end) line. Way too much treble for my tastes. However, their Infinity Reference 6500cx are fantastic. I have them now and they are amazing when paired with a decent amp. Sounds good with the clear highs you would expect from an Infinity but with pretty good mid-bass. Very, very happy with them.

https://www.infinityspeakers.com/component-sys/REFERENCE+6500CX.html

Infinity Reference 6500cx = good, well rounded speaker. Infinity anything else = lots of treble. Lots.
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The 6500CX just showed up at my house. Thank you Amazon. That's good to here about them being able to produce some bass. The amp I have coming has high and low pass filters for each set of speakers. So I'll probably high pass the 6500CX's and leave the Polks in the rear as full. My sub is already low passes at 100hz.

This is the thing about music. It's a very personal thing. Not just what you listen to but also how you like it to sound. Some like the bass rattling the mirrors, way to much gain, sound. Some prefer a more well balanced sound stage and some really like tinny music. I'm going for the well balanced sound stage. I can always add more bass through the deck when Slayer comes on. lol
 
If you want the closest thing possible to decent listenable bass at moderate volumes with no sub then 1) be sure to run an amp and power matched door speakers and 2) install sound deadening mat aka Dynamat on each front door. Don't bother with the whole truck, just do the front doors. You will notice a huge increase in the quality of bass.
 
BrianSD_42 said:
If you want the closest thing possible to decent listenable bass at moderate volumes with no sub then 1) be sure to run an amp and power matched door speakers and 2) install sound deadening mat aka Dynamat on each front door. Don't bother with the whole truck, just do the front doors. You will notice a huge increase in the quality of bass.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's part of why my speakers sound good. It's like a custom enclosure for the speakers.
 
Get a head unit with DSP, hopefully a parametric EQ. Don't go crazy trying to get deep bass, that's what subs are for, and start with a filter at 1k -2.5k on the midrange with a Q of 2.0, and start sucking out those honky midrange frequencies, and the treble will sound better as will the low mids/high bass. It's crazy how cheap head units are now that have these capabilities. I have a Kenwood in my runner and I actually hate it because the display is too weak to read in daylight, but I've been able to make the stock speakers sound acceptable, (along with a sub).
 
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