New much better speakers not much better, help

[thealexdexter]

I have a truck camper with styrofoam ceiling insulation. Cutouts are 5” hole 2” deep. It came with very cheap 5” speakers and a low end Kenwood Head . I swapped speakers to 6.25” 3way pioneers that were very well reviewed. I’d say low end response is a little better but it wasn’t really worth $100.

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-XZ2L4coTwkS/p_130TA1676R/Pioneer-TS-A1676R.html

Before I give up... should I cut holes deeper or install some sort of babble that won’t absorb the sound waves like styrofoam? Maybe I need to pull the deck and check speaker polarity? Better deck? Bite the bullet and put in a 6-8” sub?


Anyone attemp this upgrade and find a decent solution other than buy a subwoofer? My old car stereo sounds much fuller on much less gear. I don’t think I’m expecting too much. I just want a bit of bass and fuller sound not 1975 pickup sound.

Any thoughts? Thanks. I’m really hoping it’s something like need more airspace.

[Old_Man]

wa8yxm wrote:
Another thing. this gets a touch above my pay grade but I have a friend who lives, breaths, eats, Sleeps. on this stuff. Alas I've enot spoken to him in a bit.

Everybody, myself included, in this thread has been talking about SPEAKERS. Speakers live in an "Eenclosure" and this enclosure is part of the speaker system.. It has resonance. and the speaker that goes into it is designed to match the box. or the other way around.. IF you put a really nice speaker in the WRONG enclosure.. It won't sound nice.

I did a high-school research about speakers and resonant frequencies; learned how to make a port (one step at a time, you can't put the sawdust back) Find the resonant peak frequency and did my best to match the port to the resonant frequency of the speaker. A port gives you a lot of bass for no extra power.

Trying to think of a way to set speakers in an RV. I want to use the entire rig as a passive, ported enclosure. Won't need a sub for bass with nice ported enclosures for the 6.5"speakers (I'll try the GTO 629 coaxials in enclosures) I think a rock, blues, jazz classical fan (me) will do gish fine with my system. Might just have to fly the speakers.

[Old_Man]

****, lot of posts I made months ago, makes this post superfluous. Sorry, all.

[Old_Man]

Lwiddis wrote:
Blue tooth speakers are much easier.

Until they break.

[wa8yxm]

Another thing. this gets a touch above my pay grade but I have a friend who lives, breaths, eats, Sleeps. on this stuff. Alas I've enot spoken to him in a bit.

Everybody, myself included, in this thread has been talking about SPEAKERS. but Speakers do not exist in a vacuum. at least not normally (in a vacuum they would not work after all), they live in an "Enclosure" and this enclosure is part of the Speaker System.. It has resonance. and the speaker that goes into it is designed to match the box. or the other way around.. IF you put a really nice speaker in the WRONG enclosure.. It won't sound nice.

I can not help you with fixing that because basically as I said it's a touch above my pay grade. (So you know how much above.. I have an Associates degree in general (Applied) science) BOB has a Doctorate in audio engineering)

[Old_Man]

thealexdexter wrote:
Good catch on sub settings. I check it out. To be clear, I have a box for the speakers. The roof in the rv is full styrofoam insulation. It has a pocket cut into it for the speaker which is just big enough to fit it. I’m thinking that airspace is too small, but I have no idea what it should be. I think these smaller speakers are supposed to be in free air like a car door.

Camper in storage so it’s a pain to run back and forth making this process take a long time.

I have been thinking about using the ceiling holes and buying speakers for such an installation, specifically JBL in-ceiling models. I have to read about how they work and they are spendy compared to car-installation speakers, but it will enable me to use one amp for all the speakers., OR, buy a couple of amps like the one in my truck (JBL GX-A602, $50 from Sonic Electronics) which will do the trick for $100. I won't be using a sub because the music I listen to (mostly rock and roll with some blues and country thrown in, think Delbert McClinton) doesn't seem to need more bass from the 6.5 (door) speakers and the JBL 4x6s in the dash supplement the highs. The amp totally made the difference in a very cheap Kenwood head. I can burn any hoppy rap-car with these. 😄

The rig will have a much nicer Kenwood head, one that does iPhone through USB. The one I have in the truck will stay there as my '98 S10 (2.2L, 5-speed manual (syncro-mesh, NV-1500 trans) which will make an excellent toad.

I'll have to hear them in the same kind of environment, but I'm intrigued.

[Old_Man]

Range Maggot Bob wrote:

htwheelz67 wrote:
you can also add speaker spacers to give more room for deeper speakers.

Very simple fix for deep speakers. That's what I'm going to do when I get my JBLs.

JBLs ARE the best.

[Range_Maggot_Bo]

htwheelz67 wrote:
you can also add speaker spacers to give more room for deeper speakers.

Very simple fix for deep speakers. That's what I'm going to do when I get my JBLs.

[Tizi]

The sub I linked in my previous post works very well at low volumes. In addition, the stereo unit I posted has HDMI out. I would post pictures, but photobucket doesn't work for me anymore.

[STBRetired]

If you want hi-def, you will need a Blu-Ray player, not DVD. There are converters that will take composite video in and give you HDMI out, but the DVD is still just a 480 line format. Does that head unit have rear aux inputs? Would make for a cleaner install for running the TV through the stereo.

[Range_Maggot_Bo]

Lwiddis wrote:
Blue tooth speakers are much easier.

Don't bluetooth speakers require power?

To the OP- maybe not enough power to run the speakers efficiently?

[thealexdexter]

Ideal would be swapping head unit in rv for one that could play dvd. That unit would have hdmi out going to tv. That doesn’t seem to exist from what I can find.

Next option would be separate tv and DVD player. Dvd goes to tv via hdmi. Dvd also goes to deck in rv for audio only via headphone jack. Seems very messy to do this.

[Lexx]

thealexdexter wrote:
I think I’m going to upgrade deck with a dvd and add a sub. Goal is to get tv to play through new deck and sound to come out of new speakers and sub. Seems the only output option for video is old red white yellow. No one seems to make hdmi OUT. I was hoping to play dvd through deck into tv. How is everyone achieving this?

I could use AC dvd to tv but that’s lame to use extra gear. Could use a tv with built in dvd but that really limits options for buying cheap used tv.

Are you saying you're going to swap out the radio/dvd player in the RV or are you going to buy a separate receiver/BluRay player?

Red/white/yellow is component which is an old standard. HDMI is the latest standard and really there are mulitiple HDMI cables are there. If you really want a hi-def capable system you would need HDMI 2.0, with 2.1 coming on soon. It should be able to pass deep color, which would make a difference in how the tvlooks (assuming you have a tv capable to reproducing the latest hi-def standards).

You're probably better off with some sort of HDMI switcher (available cheap from Monoprice.com) and a BluRay player to the tv. A small high quality receiver would be a nice upgrade as well. The receiver would likely have hdmi switching built in.

[thealexdexter]

I think I’m going to upgrade deck with a dvd and add a sub. Goal is to get tv to play through new deck and sound to come out of new speakers and sub. Seems the only output option for video is old red white yellow. No one seems to make hdmi OUT. I was hoping to play dvd through deck into tv. How is everyone achieving this?

I could use AC dvd to tv but that’s lame to use extra gear. Could use a tv with built in dvd but that really limits options for buying cheap used tv.

[thealexdexter]

I like the price on that sub vs the one I was thinking of. Does it have bass at low volume? I’m not looking to crank it.