Question about my speakers.

[Alex EX]

I have 2 kenwood 150 watt in the front, 2 kenwood 350 watt in the back and a pioneer premier headunit. I wanted to know if this is ok because I think these speakers arent working very well, the bass sounds kinda crappy and rattly. Do I need an amp or anything?

[Masamune]

It's a tough call with the limited details you've given us. How long have you owned the speakers? Have they ever made this noise before? Did you install the speakers yourself? What is the rated RMS power?

Underpowering speakers, alot of audio techs will tell you, is a very bad thing. Many also claim blown speakers from underpowering. I just can't believe it myself. I mean how? But I digress... If your speakers are new and make this irritating buzz like an angry fly, then you either have a scratch on the woofer or have cracked the woofer completely.

If that's not it, check your connections. Be sure you put positive to positive and so on. Also make sure that your connections are very solid. If you fused two wires, then solder them together. If that's not an option, make good friends with electrical tape and do a DAMN GOOD JOB taping the wires together. Make sure to twist them and intertwine them for a little added strength and better connection.

Check your HU connections as well. Those eliminated, try messing with the settings on your HU to see if something isn't programmed right.

An amp is nifty for pushing your component speakers to a really good SQ level. Or at the very least for increasing the amount of noise you can make with em. It's a good idea to have an amp, but not necessary at all. I ran an Infinity/Audiobahn set-up in my old car with an old pioneer HU rated at 40w max per channel. After messing with the equalizer for awhile, music actually sounded pretty good. And most importantly, it never blew up.

Give it a few hours and I'm sure there will be TONS of people here to dispute about half the stuff I've said.

[Alex EX]

how do i make sure i got the polarities right on them? they arent blown or anything, i got them last year and i never turn it up really loud. only problem that pisses me off is when i turn up the bass it sounds crappy inside because it starts making rattling noises when the bass hits hard.

[sonikaccord]

No, you cant blow speakers from underpowering them. That's like saying " I blew my speakers when i turned the volume down."
To check the polarities, I disconnected one speaker in the rear and got hella more bass. So i flipped the wires around on the speaker i disconnected and got cleaner bass. I don't know about the front speakers, tho it should work the same.

[ExplodingCake]

brown/white is right negative, while gray/white is left negative. for fun an easy way to remember: most hondas the front speaker wires will have a black stripe for negative an a green stipe on the positive wire while the rears will have a white stripe for negative a yellow for positive

speaking of polarity, i found this ^^^ and quoted it from another thread.. you might have some of your speakers wires mixed up..

[Alex EX]

which one is negative on the kenwood wires? theres a gray with a blue stripe and a gray with a red stripe on the rear speakers.

[Masamune]

red is universal as far as polarity goes. Red = Positive. Some speaker wires are retarded and don't do this though. One wire has a strip of black, and the other is blank. Well Black is universal negative. Just take a peek at your battery connections and the covers!