# Improving 6x9 sound.



## aIIan (Sep 29, 2011)

I bought some JL Audio 6x9s and some basic wedge boxes to put in the bed of my truck while tailgating, camping, riding, etc.

Problem is, they sound like complete sh!t. The higher end isn't terrible but there's absolutely zero bass. I'm thinking tiny boxes they're in are choking them up.

Do you think putting them in a bigger box, maybe ported will help them out a bit? How bout giving them a clean 75w to work with?

Thanks.


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## UNFORGIVEN (Sep 25, 2010)

If i'm not mistaken 90%+ of 6x9's are meant to play IB. 
First thing I would suggest is check your x-over settings and do a little tuning or go ported?


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## Eric Stevens (Dec 29, 2007)

Power won't make them sound better only louder.

You need a much larger box and ported would help too.

Eric


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## Sarthos (Oct 29, 2010)

IB means no box means no restriction... That's probably the way you should run them, as little restriction as possible, nearly entirely open.


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## TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL (Jan 31, 2011)

Agreed, polyfil will do no good, tried that once before finding this site. I have never seen a 6x9 box off the shelf big enough for the average 6x9 to have any response in the bass regions.


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## IBcivic (Jan 6, 2009)

Treat a 6 x 9 as if it was an 8 inch woofer... it is not gonna sound good mounted to a kleenex sized box.


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## adrenalinejunkie (Oct 17, 2010)

Are you currently powering them with head unit power?


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## Sean Morrison (May 27, 2007)

Those wedge shaped 6x9 enclosures were the worst idea since piezo horns mounted on a sub box.


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## aIIan (Sep 29, 2011)

Ok, so where can I find a bed sized ported box for some 6x9s?



adrenalinejunkie said:


> Are you currently powering them with head unit power?


Yeah, they're being fed by a Pioneer 4300DVD.


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## adrenalinejunkie (Oct 17, 2010)

aIIan said:


> Ok, so where can I find a bed sized ported box for some 6x9s?
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah, they're being fed by a Pioneer 4300DVD.



They should perform more clear and louder if you amp them since you'll have more power to them. Just make sure that they're in a decent enclosure or whatever the manufacture recommends.


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## aIIan (Sep 29, 2011)

The manual doesn't really say much about enclosures, in fact nothing at all.

Click here to download the owner's manual (PDF)

Think if I just cut the back out of the wedge boxes I have now it might sound a little better? It's pretty evident that 6x9s weren't designed for tiny sealed boxes.


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## Sean Morrison (May 27, 2007)

Cutting the back out will most likely just allow wave cancellation and probably even less bass. If you found a way to install them in the door I'm sure they would sound better in there. A lot of Chrysler vehicles actually put 6x9's in the doors from the factory.


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## aIIan (Sep 29, 2011)

Sean Morrison said:


> Cutting the back out will most likely just allow wave cancellation and probably even less bass. If you found a way to install them in the door I'm sure they would sound better in there. A lot of Chrysler vehicles actually put 6x9's in the doors from the factory.


I bought them for tailgating. I just throw them in the bed and rock on. 

I guess I'll just have to get used to the fact that they suck and get over it, there's only 6 home games a year anyway :worried:


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## Eric Stevens (Dec 29, 2007)

aIIan said:


> I bought them for tailgating. I just throw them in the bed and rock on.
> 
> I guess I'll just have to get used to the fact that they suck and get over it, there's only 6 home games a year anyway :worried:


Buy a cheap pre-fab Dual 10" box and make some quickie adapters for the 6*9's you will be much happier and cost you maybe $35.

eric


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## 240phil (Oct 11, 2010)

you have a few problems you have to overcome to get a decent sound out of them. 

according to the manual you posted. They need a minimum of 15 watts each. They recommend all the way up to 125 continuous watts. 
So right now, you are starving the speakers for power. While it is true that more watts won't make it sound "better" by definition, it is also true that many times, feeding the speaker more power, making it able to produce more sound at lower head unit volumes, makes the speaker perform much better. (remember, the higher you turn up the volume on the head unit, the more distortion you get) 
Personally, I would find a decent amp that will put out right around 80 watts continuous and peak at 200 watts. That way, you can crank it all the way up and not have to worry about over powering. 

Another problem is, these speakers were designed to use the entire door as their speaker box. So chances are, the boxes you have them in are way too small. And it just makes it worse if they are sealed boxes. 
But, you want them to be portable, so there has to be some trade off. 
Personally, I would try to give them at least 0.5 cubic feet in their box (don't forget to compensate for the speaker's own displacement) The box should also be ported. The port doesn't need to be anything awesome, it just needs to be there to let the air move. You could probably get away with a 2 inch pipe that was long enough to go through the box and have only an inch or two til it hit the other side. you need the tube because if it was just a hole, it would act more like a "leak" and actually lower sound quality. The tube creates a sort of "spring" effect keeping some level of air pressure inside the box, even though you can feel the air "blowing" out. (really simplistic explanation, point is, you need it) 

From there, you have to accept the fact that you aren't going to get "Bass" out of them. At least, not the way you would in your car with the subs pounding. They just can't compress enough air sitting out in the open like that. 
So, to get the most of out them, you need to get into the equalizer on your head unit. Change whatever settings you need to so that the speakers don't play anything below 100 Hz. Yes, they are capable of lower than that, however, in the open air, they won't be able to reproduce it accurately, you won't be able to hear it anyway, and it will just come off as distortion. Setting it at 100Hz will still let you get the bass notes, it will just cut off all of the really low stuff. 

Once you get that far, just adjust the settings/equalizer to get what you consider a better sound out of them. Avoid using things like "bass boost" or "loud" those options just add a ton of distortion to the signal. 
If you find it isn't "bassy" enough, then increase the low to mid range. On my headunit, This is the 315Hz range. So on my headunit, I would have the high pass filter set at 100Hz (yes, to the sub, we want the headunit to think there is a sub that it is sending all of those lower frequencies to) From there, I would have my equalizer set up something like 100Hz +0 315Hz +4 everything else, +2 

Another tip would be to eliminate/combine the Right and Left signal, so each speaker got 100% of the signal. Easiest way would be to have a 2 channel amp, and bridge the right and left channel and run both speakers off of that bridged connection. Just pay attention to the specs on the amp, you don't want to bridge an amp that does 75 watts per channel. You also want to pay attention to how you wire your speakers to the amp. Wired in Series or in Parallel changes your impedance (Ohm rating) Typically, the lower the ohms, the more watts the amp puts out. Things to pay attention to. 


None of this should really cost you much at all. You don't need a fancy box or anything for them, so you can either make one, or like someone else suggested, buy a different, cheap box and adapt it to work. The most expensive thing you need is an amp, but since it doesn't need to be anything fancy either, you ought to be able to pick one up for pretty cheap.


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## sqshoestring (Jun 19, 2007)

They need more air. You could make/find larger boxes, cut holes in those and put a new box between them to add space, you might even be able to use a baffle in the back of the truck it does not need a perfect seal. For example a panel that went on top of the box and another down to the bottom with the speakers in it, if you put it at front of box it should sound pretty good...even if it folded up when not in use just use weatherstrip so it does not vibrate/etc.


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## aIIan (Sep 29, 2011)

Awesome information 240phil.

Thank you :beerchug:


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