i tried differant speakers and get nothing, only high pitched sound comes through, nothing fancy installed just a sony deck and aftermarket speakers. could bad wires cause this? i looked through all the settings on the stereo and everything looked fine. i balance it to the front, no bass, i balance it to the back, i get bass. WTF?

 

What kind of car? You could have the one of the fronts' polarity backward, this causes a huge loss in bass.

 

92 civic, i will check the wires tomorrow, is the big or small one on the speaker positive?

 

The larger terminal is the positive. If you have one side hooked up with the correct polarity and the other side hooked up opposite, you will get no bass. Also, be sure there wasn't a component crossover in there at one time that is still connected...

 

ill check em out tomorrow if i have time. i know i had it playing with the left side unhooked and it still had the problem, so does that mean that it has to the be right side thats backwards? and ive been all around under the dash i would have seen a crossover right?

 

Comparing bass out of front speakers, which are usually in less than stellar baffles (doors) to rear speakers is a loser bet...the rears, usually in bigger, better sealed areas (like a trunk) will almost always win. And they are usually bigger.

Pull the door panel off...see all those holes? Anytime sound can get from the back of the speaker to the front, bass will suffer from the cancellation (rear wave is out of phase with the front). Same problem you get when one speaker is out of phase. Get some dynamat or something similar, seal all the holes, and the bass will improve.

Also, factory crap speakers often sound 'bassier' to a point, because they are made of cheaper, lighter material, that makes them more efficient.

Toby

 

theyre not stock speakers theyre pioneer, and its not that the bass sucks its that there is NONE! like the woofer part the speaker doesnt even move, all the sound is comming outta the tweeter. thought it could be bad speakers so i changed them and have the same problem. im gonna be testing the polarity and resistance of the wires later today if i have time.

 

Ok, if they're not moving at all then something upstream is taking the bass out of the line. Look for a crossover in the speaker line someplace, or even just a bass blocker.

 

it would be noticable right? like a box or somthing? not somthing so tiny i would never see it?

 

a tiny capacitor would do it. You said your tweeters are making sound but your midrange isnt - are you sure you didnt hook the lead cables to the tweeter lead on the speaker?