Gurus help me out here. I have upgraded everything soundwise in my non-bose X 05 sedan except for the stock HU, powerful V12 (MRV 540) alpine 4 channel pushing infinity kappa 6,5 perfect components up front and a pair of 6.5 kappa 3way's in the read doors (rewired all speaker wire). Along with that I have a matching 1800 watt V12 alpine monoblock amp (MRD 1001) pushing a single hard hitting 12inch kicker L7 (750RMS). 2 farad cap & nice 0 guage kicker kit and stinger RCA wires. The RCA's are hooked up to 3 2-channel Line Output converters for the RCA feed back to the amps.
My issue is that I still think system could sound much better than it does, I also get slight distortion at high volumes. How much of a difference would I notice if I were to get an aftermarket DD HU?? (with navi for non-navi X). Obviously meaning a nice EQ, and more ways to play with the sound. What do you suggest I do?? I stuck to the stock non-bose HU cuz I don't want my car broken into, I live in a bad area.

 

You may want to hook up the stock HU to some kind of processor like an Audio Control Line Driver and an EQ to tailor your sound a lil better....just a footnote....there is no substitute to good speaker placement......an EQ is just to compensate but if you just have bad speaker placement not even the best EQ can help you go from a good sounding system to a great sounding system. The Line Driver will help you increase Output Levels to get you close to what a really good aftermarket HU puts out. There are of course other companies that offer similar products. Im pretty sure there's a few people in this forum that can offer other solutions.

 

I am shopping for a Z2 or a D3 HU so I can upgrade and have navi as well. I already have the kit and finisher. I just wonder what kind of an improvement sound wise I would get. Someone told me the output level and sound quality on any stock HU is really low compared to aftermarket ones. Will there be a significant difference? I know these kappas could sound better than they do now.

 

did you tune the system correctly? Like with the gains, frequencies and crossovers? Did you sound deaden the doors or trunk? Most likely you install is the reason why your system doesnt sound the way you want it.

 

What type of LOC's are you using?

An aftermarket HU will give you more adjustability of the audio system such as bass control and maybe some equalizing.

What someone told you about the low output level on the stock HU was likely referring to the Bose HU, which outputs around 2 volts, which is much less than the speaker level output of your non-bose version. Most aftermarket HU's output at around 2 volts too, although some output up to 5 volts or so.

 

The installer is a friend of mine who has a shop, he's the most knowledgeable person I've ever met when it comes to car audio by far. He said that those LOC's only have half a volt going out to the amp, and that if I were to get a nice aftermarket DD HU it would probably have like a 5volt output and give me much better sound quality and bass. I'm just wondering how siginificant the difference would be, and if it is worth it.

 

the difference will be huge.. aftermarket headunit has PREouts, rather than a LOC using signal outs and converting and then filtering and refiltering..
changing to a quality HU will make a bigger difference than changing to aftermarket speakers will
if replacing the HU is not what your willing to do do some research on JL's cleansweep or a rockford 3sixty.2 those two systems are great for pulling the best sound out of a factory system

 

If you want the best sound possible with the factory HU check out the audio control DQL-8
By far the best integration piece out.
Ive been in the business for 11 years and have customers who want to keep the clean factory look and audio control has never let me down. Check out their website http://www.mobileaudiocontrol.com/de...17612&l1=17612

 

If you are getting distortion at high volumes I would check your gains. 9 times out of 10 gains are the cause of distortion. I doesnt matter if you have a stock HU or the 880prs, if your gains arent sent correctly then its going to distort. A LOC is fine and I gurantee that it is not causing your distortion. People wouldnt use them if they caused the distortion that you are talking about. Yes an aftermarket HU would give you better preouts but there is nothing wrong using an LOC. There is not enough of a difference for you to be unhappy with your system. With the setup you have now you are going to get great SPL but SQL is not going to be great, so if that is what you were expecting you might want switch up your setup. You should be a little bit more specific about what you arent happy with. Its hard to figure out what is wrong with out knowing what is bothering you besides the distortion.

 

Thanks guys for all the feedback, I went back to my boy's shop this evening to look at the gains, he tuned the 4channel and we found out a little bit too much bass was going to the to the kappa components and the cross over on the speakers wasn't splitting hi and lo good enough. Gain is at about 60% for the front kappa perfects and at 65% for the rear 3ways and man it sounds SSSOOOOO much better.
Ended the evening on a bad note though :0(, got carried away with that sound improvement I turned vol up to the mid 20s and it sounded so nice, turned bass **** on the monoblock and all the BOOM turned into BBBZZZ BBBZZZ lol, blew the hell outta that kicker 12L7!! Mad as hell now, MORE $$$$ to dish out!!! Thought I was ready to get that alarm!!!.. :0( DAMN!!!!!

 

wow, thats a pretty hard sub to blow too.. ive almost 1500watts to them without blowing.. is it the 07 model? atleast its not a JL! you'd be dishing out WAYY more $$$!! hah worse things can happen then blown subs, dont feel too bad

 

I know right, I've got a 1800 watt alpine V12 monoblock digital amp in there, but gain is not all the way up so I don't know what happened.

 

All drivers fail for one of two reasons. Thermal failure or mechanical failure. That L7 is a tank. It is a street beater sub meant to take abuse.

I didn't see where you indicated the gain setting on the monoblock. Is it @ 60% like the others?

What type of enclosure are you running? Sealed or ported?

Did you set gains with an o-scope, DMM, or just by ear?