I was wondering if any of the fellow tC owners have notice that the speakers gets distorted after like 40 or so....
I have my bass and trebble set on 3 and 4 and i have the volume turn up at like 40 or so..and i notice a little distortion on the speakers. Is this due to the fact that the speakers arent gettin enough power to them? would an extra amp help or something?
what you guys think?

 

I am very much into High end audio so I can give some ideas behind the distortion.
1) Deck power is gonna not have the clarity of an external amp
2) Pioneer speakers sucks
3) Speakers probably could use more power, cleaner external amp power
4) Turn the bass down---I have mine at like -3 and it still distorts so +3 to +4 is way to much.


I am pretty disappointed with the system overall. Just go easier on the bass. The components they have now are not good for bass. If you ever desire to put in some better speakers down the road look into Boston Acoustics, CDT, MB Quart, Focal, Diamond.

 

Put it this way- on my xB- with SSP on "feel", I have the bass at 0, and treble @ 1. You have you bass up too high!! It should only be at 3 and 4 when you have SSP on "neutral". The way mine is set up- some songs have a little less bass than I like, and some have a little more- but its def. not distorted- People that complain about scion radio sucking are probably like you- TURN DOWN THE BASS!!

 

thanks for the advice
i was thinking of just adding a 200watt 4 channel amp for the speakers
but im still deciding on what to do with the system too

 

If you want to bump (and it sounds like you do) just add a sub. Then you can stop trying to make the smallish other speakers make the bass. Everything will sound better.

 

Well there can only be 3 things happening to your sound.

1. Your under driving your speakers (not enough watts is just as bad as to many)

2. Your over driving your speakers (too many watts)

3. Your sending the FULL RANGE of sound to your speakers...for example your sending 20hz to 20khz to your stock speakers.

I would bet that what is happening is a combination of 2 and 3. For one I would seriously doubt that the stock deck has a built in crossover. So you are sending the full sound range to speakers that should probably only receive the higher end of the sound spectrum starting at around 3000 - 5000 hertz. Those tiny little speakers are not meant for producing bass. The SSP is simply preset EQ levels...so the full sound is still going out to the speakers...you basically just have the bass turned down like on an EQ.

Also as you turn up the deck volume you send more power to the speakers...the stock speakers probably cost Scion about $2.00 each to install. Their power handling is probably around 10 watts MAX...maybe 20 MAX if your lucky.

Your stock deck is putting out 40 watts per channel (MAX) watts. So your RMS is probably 1/2 this...so 20 watts contiuous power which is way to much for the 10 watt speakers.

If you want better sound then more than likely your cheapest investment would be to go out an purchase 4 High Quality speakers that have a MAX rating of about 50-60.

If you then go further and by a AMP and SUB...you will then need to definately install PASSIVE inline filters on your 4 other channels. That way you can crank the sub bass right from the deck AND AMP BOOST and still keep your little speakers sounding fresh and clean without all the distortion.

My 4 cents.