Corner Speakers Overwhelming

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Firefighter14

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So I upgraded all my speakers in my truck to Kicker CS Series speakers. All the speakers are 4 ohm speakers. I also have a Kenwood DDX9904S. My corner speakers sound like they are overwhelming the rest of the speakers and you can’t turn up the volume it sounds horrible.


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Because they are 4 ohm, factory should have been 8 ohm.
One thing you can do, and add more power and DSP for way better imaging, probably what I will do, is use a Kicker KEY180.4 4 channel amplifier. Has built in self tuning DSP.
$199 and does 45x4 to the front doors and dash, will really padden the dash down, and bring the imaging perfectly.
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_206KE...MIxYacmdn_3wIVXbXACh01cAiHEAAYASAAEgKgIfD_BwE
 

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How did you wire the speakers to the Kenwood head unit? If you just used the factory wiring then the doors and dash speakers are actually wired together. With a pair of 4 ohm speakers the Kenwood may be seeing a 2 Ohm load. I don’t think it is designed to support that.
 

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So I upgraded all my speakers in my truck to Kicker CS Series speakers. All the speakers are 4 ohm speakers. I also have a Kenwood DDX9904S. My corner speakers sound like they are overwhelming the rest of the speakers and you can’t turn up the volume it sounds horrible.


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Is this the 6 speaker, non Alpine system (no factory subwoofer)?

You could put 4 ohm, 10 watt resistors in one of the leads that goes to the dash speakers. I did a write up about the procedure, here:
https://www.ramforum.com/threads/ho...ftermarket-dash-speakers.125742/#post-1810037
 

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Is this the 6 speaker, non Alpine system (no factory subwoofer)?

You could put 4 ohm, 10 watt resistors in one of the leads that goes to the dash speakers. I did a write up about the procedure, here:
https://www.ramforum.com/threads/ho...ftermarket-dash-speakers.125742/#post-1810037

I did this and it works.


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Firefighter14

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Is this the 6 speaker, non Alpine system (no factory subwoofer)?

You could put 4 ohm, 10 watt resistors in one of the leads that goes to the dash speakers. I did a write up about the procedure, here:
https://www.ramforum.com/threads/ho...ftermarket-dash-speakers.125742/#post-1810037

Yes it is a 6 speaker system with no alpine so the door and corner speakers are wired in parallel from what I understand. So adding in a 4 ohm 10 watt resistor should fix my problem?


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Yes it is a 6 speaker system with no alpine so the door and corner speakers are wired in parallel from what I understand. So adding in a 4 ohm 10 watt resistor should fix my problem?

That’s the usual fix with a stock head unit. With the Kenwood you’re taking 4 outputs (stereo front and rear) and splitting the front pair between four speakers. With the factory wiring and the resistor you’ll be showing the deck 4 ohms in Series/Parallel (I could be wrong on the order). But, you won’t have any way to control the levels between the doors and dash.

If you install a six channel amp and run new wires to each speaker you’ll be able to balance the levels of all six speakers independently.
 
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Firefighter14

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That’s the usual fix with a stock head unit. With the Kenwood you’re taking 4 outputs (stereo front and rear) and splitting the front pair between four speakers. With the factory wiring and the resistor you’ll be showing the deck 4 ohms in Series/Parallel (I could be wrong on the order). But, you won’t have any way to control the levels between the doors and dash.

If you install a six channel amp and run new wires to each speaker you’ll be able to balance the levels of all six speakers independently.

I think I’m going to give this resistor mod a shot and see if it changes anything since it’s fairly cheap to do and if not then I’ll look into 6 channel amps


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Just be careful to measure the load on the speaker wire after installing it. If it drops too low you could damage that really nice Kenwood deck.
 
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Firefighter14

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Just be careful to measure the load on the speaker wire after installing it. If it drops too low you could damage that really nice Kenwood deck.

Ok. I’m not that great with car audio. I’m more mechanical side of things. So a little more back ground on my truck it’s a 2011 Ram 1500 with the 6 speaker system. When I wired in the Kenwood stereo the wiring was like identical when wiring the harness. Doesn’t the factory radio have 4 outputs also with the 2 front outputs running 4 speakers. How would doing this on a truck with a factory stereo not hurt it but with my Kenwood it would? I really appreciate the help I don’t want to destroy the Kenwood as it is brand new


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If I remember correctly, the factory speakers are different loads that equal out. Plus they add a bass blocking chip to keep the dash speakers from frying themselves.
 

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Doesn’t the factory radio have 4 outputs also with the 2 front outputs running 4 speakers. How would doing this on a truck with a factory stereo not hurt it but with my Kenwood it would?
The factory dash speakers have a 2.2uf capacitor built on wired in series. It's an 8 ohm driver, that combination forms a 9000hz high pass 6dB crossover(or as stated earlier, a bass blocker). That makes the dash driver essentially a tweeter and the head unit has an approximate 4 ohm load.

With the door and dash speakers being full range, your Kenwood(or even the factory head unit) sees a 2 ohm load. It's also why your dash seem excessively louder than the doors.
 
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Firefighter14

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The factory dash speakers have a 2.2uf capacitor built on wired in series. It's an 8 ohm driver, that combination forms a 9000hz high pass 6dB crossover(or as stated earlier, a bass blocker). That makes the dash driver essentially a tweeter and the head unit has an approximate 4 ohm load.

With the door and dash speakers being full range, your Kenwood(or even the factory head unit) sees a 2 ohm load. It's also why your dash seem excessively louder than the doors.

Ok. So would this resistor mod that is posted in this thread help with my problem? Would it hurt my Kenwood?


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Yes it is a 6 speaker system with no alpine so the door and corner speakers are wired in parallel from what I understand. So adding in a 4 ohm 10 watt resistor should fix my problem?


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I believe adding the 4 ohm, 10 watt resistor would fix your problem, yes.
 

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So would this resistor mod that is posted in this thread help with my problem? Would it hurt my Kenwood?
Adding the 4 ohm resistor in series with the dash speakers not only attenuates the volume of the dash speakers but also increases the load your head unit has to drive. Essentially you will have a 4 & 8 ohm loads in parallel which is a 2.66 ohm load to the head unit. See what you head unit is capable of driving, but most likely it will not be a problem.
 

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Adding the 4 ohm resistor in series with the dash speakers not only attenuates the volume of the dash speakers but also increases the load your head unit has to drive. Essentially you will have a 4 & 8 ohm loads in parallel which is a 2.66 ohm load to the head unit. See what you head unit is capable of driving, but most likely it will not be a problem.

Based on the specs from Kenwood, minimum load is 4 ohms.
https://www.kenwood.com/usa/car/excelon/ddx9904s/spec.html
 

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This amp seems perfect to get your system kicking ass. Are you planning to add a sub?
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-g5nYDcGfImm/p_158GS6DSP/Sony-XM-GS6DSP.html

Run RCAs from head unit to amp. Run new speaker wires from amp to each speaker. This amp has an app that you use to control the EQ and level of each speaker individually.

4x45w to dash and rear doors. 2x90w to the front doors.
 
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Firefighter14

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Adding the 4 ohm resistor in series with the dash speakers not only attenuates the volume of the dash speakers but also increases the load your head unit has to drive. Essentially you will have a 4 & 8 ohm loads in parallel which is a 2.66 ohm load to the head unit. See what you head unit is capable of driving, but most likely it will not be a problem.

What if I were to use a larger Resistor say a 12 ohm resistor. Would that make the head unit see 4 ohms. Would it hurt the head unit? It says my head unit is capable of driving 4-8 ohms



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What if I were to use a larger Resistor say a 12 ohm resistor. Would that make the head unit see 4 ohms. Would it hurt the head unit? It says my head unit is capable of driving 4-8 ohms

Because one of your speaker is already 4 ohm, you couldn't add enough resistance to the dash speakers. You could add resistance to both the dash and door speakers but then your rears will be louder than the fronts.
You have a couple of options:
Use a multi-channel amp so you can dial the gain of the dash speakers down.
Use a set of component speakers between the doors and dash with a crossover network.
 
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