[demonicgt02]

I'll keep this to the point as best I can while providing as many details as humanly possible.... Let me first start off by saying I dont know anything about car audio, so if more information is required, please let me know and I'll do my best to find out and post it up ASAP.

My car is an 02' GT. The audio in it is totally stock. Ive never touched anything or added anything.
I am not sure if it is a mach 460 system, though I do not think it is. The front speakers say MACH AUDIO, but do not indicate they're part of the 460 system anywhere.


That being said, the stock head unit was a 6 CD In dash changer (stock)... Well, recently somethin' got jammed up inside the head unit, one of the CDs I assumed got stuck or maybe the changer broke or failed to work properly... Dunno.
So I went out and purchased a new headunit from circruit city, one with single CD, MP3-CD playing capability. The guy sold me all the wiring harnesses / adaptor wires for the headunit and a new frame to fit it into place. Pretty simple right?

Well I hooked this new head unit up, it plays fine, radio works, CDs work, but when I crank it up loud, the bass sounds awful. I've gone over in my head trying to think of what adjectives to best describe the bass sound... I think the best word is garbled. It sounds poppy sort of I suppose.

This crappy bass sound sounds as if it is coming out of the front top speakers. Those small triangler speakers adjecent to the either sides of the rear view mirrors on the vehicle.

Now I yanked the JVC headunit out of my other vehicle and plugged it into the mustang... all cables and what-not fit fine, and still the crappy bass sound was present. So I'm assuming it is not the particular headunit i bought. When I plugged the stock head unit back in and used the radio, the garbled sound from the bass wasnt there.


So really, what I'm asking is,

What the hells' goin on?
Is this the headunit's fault? Speakers? Something else car audio related that I'm not aware of?

but most importantly, what do I need to do to fix this... I'm figuring worst comes to worse I can just go reorder a stock headunit... But hell, I already spent 150$ on this MP3 one, so I'd like it to work.. you know? Any way that's possible? Do i need something else like an amp or something? lol i have no idea.

Thanks for reading, and thanks ahead of time for any insight you can provide on this little conundrum.

[shinerstang]

It sounds like you do have the Mach460 sound system. The stock speakers for your model year did not have the top speakers. What you are doing is sending the low tones through 2 amplifiers thus distorting the sound really bad not to mention that you are throwing low tones into your tweeters, which is very bad. Look in your trunk and you should see two amps located on the sounding board on both sides of the speakers. You can get an adapter through Crutchfield, or maybe ask Circuit City if they carry the Mach460 adapter. In the Mach460, you have 3 total amps, one directly behind the dash under the head unit, and 2 in the trunk. The adapter should take care of it. Tom

[demonicgt02]

Originally Posted by shinerstang

It sounds like you do have the Mach460 sound system. The stock speakers for your model year did not have the top speakers. What you are doing is sending the low tones through 2 amplifiers thus distorting the sound really bad not to mention that you are throwing low tones into your tweeters, which is very bad. Look in your trunk and you should see two amps located on the sounding board on both sides of the speakers. You can get an adapter through Crutchfield, or maybe ask Circuit City if they carry the Mach460 adapter. In the Mach460, you have 3 total amps, one directly behind the dash under the head unit, and 2 in the trunk. The adapter should take care of it. Tom

Thanks a **** ton buddy. I'm going to copy and paste this, lol.

[shinerstang]

Good luck.....Let me know if you need anyhing else. Tom

[Storkdork]

Tell you what, if you can't get it to work then I will sell you mine.... it's in perfect condition and hardly ever listened to. If interested, email me at griii828@yahoo.com I'll take $150 for it. Thats a bargain compared to a dealership.... Where in Pa. are you...?

[NHBSteve]

I imagine you've ironed out the kinks in your system by now, but for others who might be having similar problems and reading this thread, I think I know exactly what you described (because I just fixed the same problem). I installed a couple filters bought from best buy for those small speakers by the side mirrors (to filter out the low/bass frequencies) which solved the horrible bass sound problem.
To install the filters, remove the door pannels to expose the wires powering those speakers and identify the positive wires (I had to pull the head unit back out and refer to the head unit's wiring diagram to see which of the two color-coded wires I'd connected to the positive). Once you know which wire is the positive lead-in, cut it and connect the filter between the ends. Tape the filter in place to keep it secure and replace the door panel. Problem solved.

[lcurle]

the filter are just MHZ blockers ... radio shack I think caries them as well, just need to attach it to some wire.

[lcurle]

ohh and does anyone know if the stock HU has a crossover built in? if it did and the new one didnt then that could attribute to some of the problems.