Barely Any Sound ?

Elarski · Post by **Elarski** » Mon May 23, 2005 2:34 am

Hi All! This is my first post...so go easy on the Newbie.

Recently purchased a '99 Chev Tahoe 2Dr./4WD, and I noticed that I was barely gettting any sound out of the rear speakers, which are mounted on the headliner.

I replaced the speakers, but no change, so I figured the factory deck unit was faulty, and replaced it with an aftermarket unit, still no change. The speakers I replaced were aftermarket, and the hole in which they were located was obviously enlarged to accomodate them. Both the new and old speakers touch, or nearly touch the roof of the truck. Could this somehow interfere with the speakers' function? Should I use something to insulate the speaker magnets from the roof of the truck? I'll head down to a local car audio place today to see if it's an easy fix, but I figured I'd try here first. Any enlightenment will be greatly appreciated.

Post by **GlassWolf** » Mon May 23, 2005 5:12 am

ideally you don't want the magnets touching metal, but pulling the speakers away from the roof while playing should tell you if that's causing the direct problem.
a speaker wire could be pinched, or a speaker terminal could be grounding out to the body of the car, too.
ideally I'd move the speakers to the doors or to kick pods (fiberglass, like from Qforms) for a better location and better speaker size.
the roof is really a bad place for speakers for good sound quality
far too close to your head.

JeremyC · Post by **JeremyC** » Mon May 23, 2005 10:08 am

Elarski, I don't know if your a big fan of rear fill, but if your not, you might think about removing those speakers. I had a 1999 tahoe before I moved to Korea, and the front sound stage sounded pretty good with the rear speakers almost completly turned off. I am sure it would have sounded even better with a nice component set, instead of the factory speakers. If your not sure about the whole rear fill thing, there is a really good explination in the FAQ section.

I have to agree with Kiki, I think you have some wires pinched or shorting out. You can check the wires with a OHM meter if you have one, or run a new wire back, and remove the factory wire from the system.

lotas · Post by **lotas** » Mon May 23, 2005 8:44 pm

like they said, make sure that the your terminals dont touch when the speaker is mounted. Try wrapping them in electrical tape and see if the problem goes away. or just unmount them and play them and see if they sound different.

Elarski · Post by **Elarski** » Tue May 24, 2005 1:44 am

Thanks for the replies everyone, I appreciate it. I didn't have time to work on the problem today, but I did talk to someone at the local car audio shop, and he said the same Jeremy said... Tahoes rear speaker locations just aren't condusive to good sound. The speakers point straight down towards the carpet. He also told me that the factory speakers have tweeters that are angled forward to compensate for their poor positioning. I also stopped by the local Chevy dealer for something, and asked how much the factory speakers were... $70 each!

I'm going to check into some alternate locations for the speakers, maybe somewhere on the side panels behind the seats. If not, I guess I'll just get used to listening to the front only. I still need to read up on the Rear Fill post.

Thanks again everyone, I'll keep you posted.

lotas · Post by **lotas** » Tue May 24, 2005 1:51 pm

Elarski wrote:Thanks for the replies everyone, I appreciate it. I didn't have time to work on the problem today, but I did talk to someone at the local car audio shop, and he said the same Jeremy said... Tahoes rear speaker locations just aren't condusive to good sound. The speakers point straight down towards the carpet. He also told me that the factory speakers have tweeters that are angled forward to compensate for their poor positioning. I also stopped by the local Chevy dealer for something, and asked how much the factory speakers were... $70 each!

I'm going to check into some alternate locations for the speakers, maybe somewhere on the side panels behind the seats. If not, I guess I'll just get used to listening to the front only. I still need to read up on the Rear Fill post.

Thanks again everyone, I'll keep you posted.

yeah my parents have a 99tahoe and One of the back speakers is blown, I dont even hear those speakers most the time.IT is really odd how they are just in the ceiling pointed straight down. I think you will like just having a front stage once you get used to it, I like it better now, its just so much more real, personalized, and concert-like. Sounds a lot better IMO, but I still get comments from the people in my back seat, asking why I dont have rear speakers. Not much I can say really. Cant say anything about rear-fill because they wont understand. Cant say it is to "port" my rear deck to allow air from my trunk to get into my cabin. So I just say that it hurts your soundstage.