Ls7colorado

iTrader: (3)

So I recently purchased a 100% bone stock 2002 WS6 which has the monsoon sound system, and of course the rear sail panel speakers were completely blown.
So after reading all the sticky's here I decided to order a set of the bazooka subs from kee audio... sent the money and while it said they had some in stock... they didnt...
So i was looking at a set of SKAR Audio 6.5 4 ohm speakers which have 2 voice coils and they had great reviews and were in my speaker budget so i ordered them.
just installed them and hooked them up red to positive and black to negative.. made a small spacer to make them fit and turned the radio on....

While they are certainly better than the blown speakers, anything passed about half volume is pretty lame. the other speakers get louder and just start drowning out the bass.
Did I do something wrong?
Are these completely wrong for my application?

https://www.skaraudio.com/products/e...xoCk1cQAvD_BwE

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

I assume you mean reds and blacks to the respective four terminals on the speakers? If you only connect one pair then you are losing half the power from the amp to those speakers.

The stock head unit can also be a problem. It's not very powerful and it produces lots of distortion as the volume is turned up. Anything over half volume is generally more distortion than music.

I have heard the Skars in a car with Monsoon system but aftermarket head unit and they sound pretty good... not as good as the Bazooka subs but significantly better than stock.

Rich-L79

Did you get the right ohm speakers for the system and wire them correctly to get the ohms you need? Did you follow the wiring outlined on Skar's website?

Wiring is very specific to get the ohms you need and want and you have to buy the correct dual ohm subs you need to get there in the first place. They aren't just wired like a regular speaker.

First, find out the ohms you need/want for the system you have. Then start here: https://www.skaraudio.com/subwoofer-wiring-diagrams

If you have the wrong ohm speakers to get you there, you'll have to replace them with the correct ones.

If you bought the dual 4ohm versions you needed you probably neglected to install the bridge wires at each sub.

Ls7colorado

iTrader: (3)

I bought the 4 ohm DVC speaks and wired them exactly like stock was, they sound good at very very low volume and then about half volume I can barley hear any bass, then anything passed that is complete trash.

Maybe I need a new headunit lol

Rich-L79

They aren't stock speakers! Wire them as Skar shows they should be wired to meet the ohms your system is expecting.

A new head unit won't help the subs work better if you don't wire them correctly!

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

No, he has them wired correctly. The Skars are dual voice coil 4-ohm just like the factory subs. The Monsoon amp has two channels dedicated to each sail panel sub, so any replacement DVC speaker should be wired just like a factory speaker to get the best sound... that is, four speaker terminals to four factory wires. The wiring diagrams on their site assume that you're connecting to single channel output of an aftermarket amp, not distinct channels for each voice coil like the factory Monsoon amp.

Now, it is possible that one or both have been wired out of phase (negative and positive reversed). That won't cause any problem with the speakers, but out of phase speakers tend to cancel each other out, especially at higher volume. That could account for the symptoms. It couldn't hurt to double check that you have all channels matching in polarity.

USAFguy177

You HAVE to consider putting on amplifier on these. The monsoon amp is gutless and these subs are much heavier than the stock paper woofer

Finkledbody

I tried the Skar subs and didn’t like them. They weren’t all that loud and they didn’t sound right. It got worse as the volume increased.

I replaced them with a set of Cerwin Vega Max subs. They sound much better and pound even with the monsoon amp. They are big though and require some modification to fit so im not necessarily recommending them unless u have the tools and know how.

I think the Skar subs are over rated. $60 bucks a speaker is pretty cheap though so ya get what u pay for I suppose.

jmilz28

iTrader: (13)

Expectations are too high for stock configuration and factory power. You can get an improvement but there's simply not enough power to get real bass above low/moderate volume. A small amp to run those back subs is needed but they need to be decent subs AND improve the setup by sealing up the sail and deaden the whole area. That will get you nice sound at moderate volume, windows up. If you want to crank it, you're still going to hit a distortion ceiling with that arrangement. For all that trouble, you may as well do a proper enclosure for subs.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

Part of that is because the sail panel "subs" are actually mid-bass speakers. You won't get deep bass from them because of their design. I have never had any distortion from the Monsoon amp except with the factory head unit which is a distortion making machine.

The easiest way to improve the bass with a Monsoon system (other than the small improvement from replacing the factory "subs") is to add a true subwoofer such as a stealth box with a separate amp running off a LOC from the factory speaker wiring. That way you retain the factory mid-bass along with the unique audio filtering channels while adding significant bass from the sub.

Ls7colorado

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I'm to cheap to spend major cash on sound right now so I'll just deal with low volume for a while until I decide to change out everything. Which will probably never happen beause I only drive the car once a week.

scottie dont

iTrader: (63)

skar is pretty low end. we won't even install it at our shop. save up and get something better

Kfxguy

iTrader: (1)

Man when you do stuff like this, you have to pay attention to details. First off, your factory "amp" does not put out much power. That sub is a very inefficient, power hungry sub. Very poor choice for a replacement. When I do stuff like this, I pay attention to the sensitivity. For example, your skar subs have a 82.8db (1 watt 1 meter) sensitivity. Very very poor. (quote) A loudspeaker datasheet provides us with information for the characteristic sound pressure level (1 W/1 m): 82.8 dB. This means that at 1 watt of power, the loudspeaker generates a sound pressure level of 82.8 dB at a distance of 1 meter. Lets compare a more efficient 6.5"...https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.co...1/2-wool-cone/

those have a sensitivity of 91.5db. Realizing that 3-4db more is perceived as twice the volume, those would be quite a bit louder with the same power. Basically in a nutshell, you made a very poor choice in speaker without having an aftermarket amp. Honestly your best bang for the buck would be an 8" or 10" bazooka tube.

I already tried the whole 6.5" sub ordeal and you'll be left disappointed. I tried several different subs on an amp and was never happy with it. I ended up putting two 8's in my back dash and now i'm happy. If i had another f body, I already have an amplified 8" bazooka and a slave bazooka I'd put in the hatch. Just one little sub down in that well, bangs pretty good.

Ls7colorado

iTrader: (3)

It's not really that big of a deal, I was just hoping it would sound better lol...
It might gwt 200 miles a month on it so the radio is the last place I'm gonna be dumping money into it, got a Lifter tick that's driving me nuts so good excuse for a cam swap

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

Yes, but you have to get the details right.

The Monsoon amp is not a powerhouse but it does produce about 250W of clean amplification into eight channels, four of which are dedicated to the two sail panel mid-bass "subs". You can certainly buy more powerful aftermarket amps, but the Monsoon amp is pretty good for what it does.

Most inexpensive subs tend to be somewhat inefficient although there are a few exceptions. Generally, inexpensive subs have a balance of specs that allows them to keep the price low at the sacrifice of some specification or another. More sensitivity means less cone extension, magnet size, power handling, frequency range, or voice coils (size and quantity). Using the subs you linked would mean giving up half the power on each side since the system is designed for dual voice coil subs and those are single voice coil. Also, the Skars have 6.5mm extension whereas the Silver Flutes have only 5mm. There are other differences as well.

Not even close! The decibel scale is logarithmic - doubling the power produces about 3dB increase in volume which is equivalent to one click of the volume **** in most systems. It takes ten times the power to produce about 10db which is perceived as double the volume. So the difference in efficiency between the two models of subs is noticeable but no where near significant... especially since the Skar subs get twice the power from using both channels on each side (3dB gain) making them effectively the same loudness.

Sorry, no. The premise of the OP was that he was replacing blown stock sail panel speakers, not trying to build a bass heavy system. Granted, there are almost unlimited options when going with an aftermarket audio system, but replacing components of the factory system means much more limited options. The Skar subs are generally well regarded when used as replacements despite their limitations. The Bazooka subs seem to be the gold standard for replacement sail panel mid-bass as they are DVC 4-ohm with 100dB sensitivity, 20 oz magnets, and a 100W RMS (200W peak) power rating. Again, that's not outstanding specs but for a 6.5" mid-bass replacement in Monsoon systems they seem to satisfy everyone who gets them.