I have the following audio components:

CDT CL-E61CV: door
CDT HD-M6: sail
CDT CL-4X: rear
CDT SQA-4100 : amp
Stock monsoon HU
Everything is wired seperate from factory wiring with 12 ga speaker wire, cdt crossovers in the doors, and a line out converter from the head unit.

I got done with the install about a month ago and have been tweaking it ever since. The highs sound fantastic, along with most of the mid-range stuff. However, when anything with any hard or low bass comes through, the speakers f-ing rattle and sound like ****. Is there any way around this with my components or am I just going to have to buy a sub? Will putting a 10 inch sub in even help? Rap and things with a lot of bass are not my cup of tea... but I dont want the thing to sound like **** whenever something comes on.. thanks guys.

Nick

 

could be your amp settings

 

so that is a 4 channel amp right? how are the sail's getting their power?

 

Correct, the amp is a 4-channel amp. The sails and rears are both being powered by the rear output channels on the amp. Originally, I only had the sails and the doors in the car and I just did not like the sound. It sounded like the amp was over-driving those 4 speakers big-time. So, I split the rear channel to power both the sails and the small hatch components. This helped, and improved the over-all sound but I have been having the problems with bass since I first turned it on and nothing has helped it much....

 

well, your sails are for base and hatch speakers for mid to highs so unless you have some sort of equalizer between them you can't run them off the same signal. if i were you i'd remake it fronts and sails or make it fronts/rears and sails. make sure that there is a low pass filter on for the outputs of the sails. sounds like you are making them try to play high frequencies.

 

Like I stated above, I already had it set up with just the fronts and sails and the problem was even worse than it is now.

Should I have another component between my amp and my sail panal speakers? It was my undersanding that I just ran speaker wire from the amp to all the speakers and that they play the freqencies they were designed to play, I guess that is wrong?

 

no. i assume your amp has high/low filters in it. you have to use them. most 4 channels have one for the first 2 channels, and another filter for the second pair. you need to connect your sails alone to it and adjust a low pass filter or they will try to play any signal they get.

 

Did you use the crossovers for the doors? I assume you did that. If so they should be getting the correct frequencies from the amp set at full range. In this case the signal path to the front speakers should be: amp set at full range sound...no HP/LP filter...sent to the CDT crossovers...which should then split to the tweeter and midbass. The CDT crossover should split the sounds to the speakers and the EQ setting should be flat to start with.
The M-6's should be fine without crossovers at all. You can tune them at about 50hz-70hz on the frequency settings on the amp although they are designed to handle all the way down to 10hz.
Leave the rears out for now until you get those 2 things set properly.
What exactly is rattling? The speakers themselves should not be rattling and if they are then something is amiss in the installation. Speakers that make good bass will rattle the hell out of the weakest point around them if not dampened properly. Stock mounts will rattle all day long because they are made of plastic. Some kind of deadener should be used when pushing the kind of wattage your sending to those speakers. The mounts can be used but they must be very tight and some sound deadener should be used between the plastic mount and the door. The stock mounts have a very thin crappy foam barrier between the plastic mount and the fiberglass door. It does not offer good dampening and usually falls apart. A dampener of some sort should be used. I also would put some over the top around the mount as it is only secured in 3 places and their is one spot that always seems to flex.
I wish I was there to help you out as I know the combination above will hit hard and sound great. I have a similar combination in my car with a lessor amp and it does very well with just the sails and the doors. My car has the doors, sails, and rear hatch area deadened but not overkill like some cars I've seen (not that overkill isn't effective). I can't remember if you have done any deadener or not so we can go through al list and see what we can do to figure out whats going on and get your car sounding like I know it should!

 

Is it the speaker itself rattling or the actually plastic around it? If it the plastic, etc. Try a dynamat door kit, etc or any other brand would fix it.

Another reason could be, is the amp underpowered? Wiring can be a factor if your running the rear and sails of each side in series or parrallel? That's the reason I asked about being under powered?

 

a 10'' will be enough to fill the car with bottom end.. but, it won't boom away depending on your settings

 

Thanks for the feedback. It looks like I definatley need to go back and do some work with sound deadener and making sure all my brackets are on snug. Where is a good place to buy some good sound deadner/insulation?

The only thing that made me think it was something with the speakers (mostly the sail m6's) was that it seemed like the speaker cone itself was vibrating. Almost like it was recieving a signal it could not play or it was being over driven. Hard to explain I guess.

I am sure everything with the wiring is good... I went back and double checked everything. Plus, like I said, the highs and mids are fantastic, its only the lows that give it trouble.

I dont know **** about tuning that amp.... will be PMing IAN soon for advice I am sure..