Mid bass too boomy and muddy

[Jack from Indo]

Friend of mine has new Infinity speakers but do not know which model. Mid bass and lower is plenty loud with flat EQ all the way, but still sounds a bit muddy and too boomy. He's got a good install, lots of dynamat, and a real tight fit in the doors.

Any suggestions?

[dohcmark8]

Does he have a sub? If so... adjust the crossover on the speakers to only pass above say 80hz or so...

If not... if they are brand new speakers, then tell your friend to give 'em a few weeks to break in. The clarity should come alive after break-in.

[1996blackmax]

Playing with the x-over points may help over come the peak in his system, a little EQ action could also be helpful.

[MacLeod]

Generally you dont hear "midbass" and "Infinity" in the same sentance unless the words "is nonexistant" are between them.

My first guess is its playing the resonant frequency of the car. My Dodge Ram had a wicked problem at not only 63 Hz but also 250. Boomed like a sumbitch.

Do you have a decent EQ? I would start by cutting all the frequencies below 1000 Hz and then bumping them up one by one til it gets muddy again. If I had to guess, Id say 315-800 would be a good place to start.

[Jack from Indo]

He doesn't have a good EQ, unfortunately. Resonant frequency could be the issue, but it doesn't sound like it to me, as it sounds evenly muddy. Would putting some kind of fiberfill in the doors help? I've read about that somewhere..........

[ilikesound]

probably just the quality of the speakers themselves. take a gander of what they're made of if you can...you can't fix a badly built speaker...

[ilikesound]

if he has already has a dynamat install, you shouldn't need anything else, really.

[zingo]

He could pull one of the speakers and swap it with something else to try to determine if it is the speaker, the source, or something else entirely.

[Josh]

Any suggestions?

Yeah...buy Polk.

[dudeinaroom]

did he dynamat the inside of the doors, or just the panels that the speaker are attached to?

[Jack from Indo]

Yes, this friend of mine he dynamated inside the doors, both sides - it's a pretty good seal. That's not the problem. I've asked about putting something in the doors like fiberfill because I have heard of others doing this.

[MacLeod]

Thats not really going to make much difference. Plus it can absorb moisture and cause issues with rust possibly.

You could go buy some Dynaxorbs and slap one or 2 behind the speaker but I doubt this would work either. These work by breaking up the standing waves behind the speaker that can cause distortion, but I dont think this would be much of a factor in midbass.

I stand by my first guess at resonant frequency dude. And if Im right, its not something that can be fixed without a good EQ and a good test CD with 1/3 octave pink noise tracks and a SPL meter would help a lot too.

A car is going to have all kinds of anomolies and they can muddy up the sound quite a bit. The best tuners can pick them out by ear but normal folks like you and me need measuring deviced. A 31 band RTA would be really helpful but theyre also $1300. You could find a shop that carries Audiocontrol gear and ask them if you could come up to the shop and "rent" the use of the RTA for about an hour.

[dudeinaroom]

I was just thinking that the doors them selves might be resonating, and dynamat my help dampen them.

[MacLeod]

That is possible but he said the doors were pretty heavily dampened.

Its not always the doors themselves that are resonating but it is also affected by the shape of the interior of the car, the shape of the dashboard, the materials used inside and so on.

[Greg Peters]

One of these fine products might be an option:

http://secondskinaudio.com/viewproduct.php?id_product=330&category=71

[MacLeod]

But something like this fine product (http://mobileaudiocontrol.com/product.asp?Product_Id=19173&d_Id=5247&l1=5247&l2=) would work even better. ;)