This weekend I installed Infinity Reference series components in my brother'* 2000 SLE. I installed the same components in the front, and rear of the car. The rear speakers have a LOT of bass for a 6x9 and they nearly sound like subwoofers. THe front speakers however have next to no bass at all, they just distort pretty heavily. The components are 6.5." I made sure that they sealed properly and they did. It'* not a type of distortion like they're leaking air, but it'* more like they're not moving enough air. If you feel the door panel you can really feel the vibrations through it unlike what the stock speakers were doing, but there isn't much bass response. The front speakers are also making a crackling type noise like what it might sound like if a speaker wire were touching the speaker cone. I'm wondering if there just isn't enough air for the speakers to move and that'* why they distort so much? The magnet of the speaker literally touches the water sheidl in the door. Has anyone had any luck getting good bass from their front speakers? like I said I hvae the same ones installed in the rear and they outright POUND. His car doesn't have BOSE BTW, it'* just the standard sound system. I also have the same problem with my Aurora as well. (same brand of speakers as well, but the perfect line, instead of Reference.) Before the Bonneville, my brother had Infinity Reference series 6.5" components in his 97 Dodge Dakota. Those speakers pounded in that truck as well, so it'* definatley something about the setup on the Bonneville/Aurora that make the speakers sound really weak. Any ideas?

Make sure that the speakers are correctly wired. Positive to positive and negative to negative. Also, make sure you check the amps signal output to the front stage. Are they comps with a seperate crossover network? If so, then you want to send the full signal through to the front stage so that the seperate crossovers do their work.

Lastly, check the gain setting on the front stage as well and make sure that the amp is not clipping, which would fry a speaker in little time.

It sounds like he is using the stock headunit for these new speakers. I own a set of References myself, and I can tell you that these speakers love power. I had to feed mine 100 Watts each before they would actually bump well (though mids and highs didn't need nearly as much power).

EDIT: If you are using the factory head unit, GM stereos tend to have overkill sound eq as you turn the volume up...ergo, you turn up the volume, the stereo will automatically turn down the bass. And I noticed you are using component Refs, those take ALOT of power...and your factory head unit has nowhere near enough (the 6*9s if memory serves are only available in coax or triax and not component and therefore does not have the same power requirements)

Only problem with the theories here is that I have the same components in the front and the rear of the car. The ones in the rear have awesome bass, the ones in the front do not. In the Bonneville the speakers are running off the headunit, on my Aurora, I have my front components being powered by a 150 X2 Watt RMS amp. Both vehicles have very little bass in the front channels and my Aurora even has an aftermarket headunit. There'* something about the setup of the doors that keep the Infinities from having any bass, I just can't figure out what it is.

Please forgive me this is probably a stupid question...are the front 6.5"* supposed to have significant bass or are they meant for mids? I know every speaker has different purposes. I have Eclipse components all around, and even when amped they don't have really any bass response, not even from the 6x9s. But my subs take care of the bass while I use the speakers for mids and highs. For those who don't have subs though I understand why you'd want as much bass as possible from the speakers.

Good luck, I hope you can figure it out!

they're not meant to have enough bass to replace a subwoofer, but I have too large of a gap in frequencies between my component speakers and the subwoofer. From the experience I've had with these Infininties in the Bonneville and Aurora I'd think they don't have any bass response, but like I said I've heard these same speakers in a Dakota and those up front sounded almost just like the components I put in the rear of the Bonneville. They just don't sound as good as they could for whatever reason. Could it be an air restriction like I thought? Would removing the water sheild behind the speakers help? Mabye if I cut a hole in the water sheild then put a baffle there for some more air space, could that possibly help?


EDIT: What does a speaker sound like when it'* starving for air? If I cut out the bottom of the indentation in the water deflector where the speaker goes, and a bit of the sides, would that help with the air starvation problem? Would moisture then be a problem though?
This is what the rora door looks like with no door panel, the Bonneville is similar, only lower in the door. The back of the speaker touches the water sheild on both cars..

Every speaker including mid range, move air. They must be able to compress and push air. If they can't this would make them sound like crap because your not getting full travel (pulling & pushing) on the speaker.
It is the same as putting a sub in a box that is way to small for it. It would not be able to compress the air because it would be to condensed.
This is probably what is happening with your door speakers in your Aurora & Bonneville, the doors are probably to air tight around the speaker.
Creating some openings in the backing behind the speaker should make it sound better, I would be surprised if it didn't.
Yes water and moisture will damage the speaker and cause it to rust.
Make your breathing holes for the speaker, in a way that it won't let a ton of water in directly on the speaker.

Post back to let me and everyone know if it sounds any better after doing this, I'm interested to know how it turns out.

Good luck,
Dutch

Make sure there'* no cutoff or anything turned on, many HU have effects to keep front speakers from having too much bass that might hurt them.

The available air might be your issue. Maybe you could open them up some.