Did I F up?
 

I just installed these speakers in my front doors -

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...020441545&rd=1

The instructions show an amplifier going into the crossover, but I just hooked them up without one and they sound like crap. There are no RCA jacks on these and I believe they are rated at 4 ohms. PLEASE HELP

do you mean you didn't hook up the crossover, or you didn't use an amp?

whats the recommened power for these components? the amplifier inputs to the crossover just means where the power is coming from. its fine to just run them off the deck, which is 4 ohm, but to get your best sound you will want an external amplifier. Also, are you running a lot of bass to them? They will be completely underpowered with cd player watts, plus these speakers are made for bass. Mid bass and highs are what you want coming out of your componenets

Sorry, no amp. Hooked the speaker wires from the stock head unit into the crossover, then crossover to speakers, as indicated in the directions.

Speakers rated at 240 watts max, 120 continuous, 25-35 hz. Sometimes they sound good when some good bass is playing, but other times it just sounds scratchy and no volume.

def not runnin enough power. more power=better quality cuz your rms is so high and ur deck doesnt deliver you def need an external amp for those

Any suggestions for an amp? Not looking for anythin fancy. i have 3 way pioneer 6x9s in the back......40 watts nominal / 220 max. No sub (yet).

I'd suggest trying out a Memphis amp. Fairly cheap and good specs on them. Had one for a while and it did a good job, wasn't disspointed at all with sound quality.

if u want a really good sound quality amp try the rockford fosgate power series if u have the money.

I am still a little curious about being underpowered. Sometimes they are loud and sometimes not. Most of the time the sound is scratchy. Every once in a while some good bass comes out, but very rarely. Obviously the amp will boost the power, but will that make the sound clearer?

Adding an amp would make them sound better and play louder, but they should play at a reasonable volume and sound clean directly from the head unit. The symptoms you describe would inicate an intermittant wiring problem, either a pinched wire, or strands of wire touching on the terminal strip at the crossover. If you add an amp with wiring problems to the speakers you can damage it.

Ok, I'll go into a little more detail on how I wired these. On the drivers side I used the stock red wire as positive and the other wire as negative - does this make a difference? On the passenger side I tried both wires as positive and couldn't really hear a difference. Which is supposed to be positive? Next I wired positive from crossover to the red terminal on the mid speaker and negative to black. Finally, if I remember right, I used the wire with the black stripe as negative for the tweeter and without stripe for positive. If this is incorrect Please tell me.

On the crossover, I placed the bare ends of the wires into the holes and then tightened the screws. I am thinking about undoing this and putting the wires directly under the screw heads on the top of the crossover plate. Would this make better contact? I don't think there could be any crimped wires etc. as the speakers worked fine with the stock speakers. I should probably just dump the whole lot and start over!

Ok, thats long enough. Thanks.

The more power that you send to the speaker will allow it to hit the ranges that the audio track is requesting to it better and more precise. You are hearing scratchy sounds because it is unable to move the cones as fast and as far as it needs to. In plain speak.

Are they duel voice coiled if you hooked up the jumper wires wrong they would only play a certain amount of sound . if they are look in the instructions for how the jumpers should be hooked up.