Polk db6500 Install

[bh357]

Well, last night I was able to get one of my new speakers installed (front driver side). The sound quality is superior to the factory speaker. The only negative is that the Polk seems to have a bit less bass than the factory speaker, but this is well made up for by the improvement in sound quality. I'll wait and see how they sound when I have the other front installed (tonight). Being able to compare the sound of the Polk to the factory speaker really made me realize how much the factory system is lacking in highs.Oh, and my wife gave me the OK to order an amp.

[bud_one]

Are you using the factory radio or do you have an aftermarket unit..?

[bh357]

I am using the factory radio right now. A new head unit is low on the priority list. I will be adding an amp, which I will run off of a speaker level converter.

[bud_one]

Do you have the moon and tunes or the base system....?

[bh357]

Base system.

[kcinmi]

Make sure you have you positive and negative wires to the speaker correct. If you hook them up backwards, they will work, but your bass will suck.

[bh357]

Thanks, I'll check the polarity tomorrow. I hooked them up using the harnesses supplied by Crutchfield, with the white wire connected to the positive input on the crossover, and the black wire connected to the negative. This was per the instructions included with the harness. I did get the other front speaker installed. The overall sound quality is quite impressive. One other thing I noticed is that the imaging seems a little off; skewed slightly to the left.

[Jahntassa]

If you have the harnesses, you'll be good to go.Also, don't be surprised at the imaging. Depending on where you put your tweeters, it'll move. Also, the factory radio isn't really setup to account for the tweeter location. I suspect the M&T amp would be.Your bass response will probably be fairly low until you get that amp. On average, component systems need a lot more power to get the sound they're really capable of. Your factory unit is probably putting out 15w at the most. The components want to see more like 40w.

[bh357]

Thanks everyone. I have 3 doors done, just taking a break to warm up a bit.The front tweeters are in the shark fin, like the M&T tweeters. The rear tweeters are being mounted just forward of the door handle.I did order an amp yesterday. It is a Soundstream VGA 320.4. It is rated at 80W RMS by 4 channels.

[bh357]

Just an update... I did finish the install on Friday morning. Overall I am very impressed with the sound quality. My wife even commented on the improvement, and she is not into car audio at all. The bass does seem to be acceptable, i.e. no phasing problems. I still have a bit of a left imaging bias, but if I turn the fader slightly forward, it improves.