How to tell if clipping/distortion is down to headunit amp, or speak speakers/mounting

PhillyG76

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I have a Pioneer SPH-da250 headunit fitted in my Mk8 Civic along with some Kicker Components fitted in the front, I also had some sound deadening fitted in front doors. Generally the sound quality is a lot better. But every quite often, if you get sharp bass sounds, the speakers sound like a fart. Yet low deep but not punchy bass doesn’t distort much at all unless I have the volume more than half way. I’ve tried playing with the sound settings, but there’s so many options it’s hard to find ideal settings for a range of music. Most people say I need an external amp and I can see why that’s suggested. But the headunit is rated 4x50 watts and most of the time I have the volume quarter of the way. I am thinking the that I should of got the connects2 speaker adapter as it’s shaped like the OE speaker and somewhat surrounds the speaker. But also am thinking of just changing the speakers for some Hertz ones as they have good sensitivity specs meaning that I wouldn’t have to push the headunit too much for decent volume. What’s your thoughts?
 
The chances are the power supply to the amplifiers in the head unit is occasionally struggling and this causes the amps to clip as the voltage drops.

If not already tried, increase the wire size to the battery and consider an active sub to lighten the load on head unit.
 
The battery in the Civic is really small for a 1.8, I’ve got a Yuasa silver one, which had the highest capacity and cold crank case you can get for that size. I’ll have to check the voltage going into the headunit, but my gut feeling is this will be ok. But thanks, it’s definitely worth investigating.
 
It's not the battery, but the wiring between it and the head unit. This needs to be heavy duty to handle high currents, otherwise the voltage to the head unit will drop. Peak current could be around 20A, so ideally you want 2.5mm cable if possible.

The head unit will have a power supply in it to increase the voltage for the power amplifier stages. This is most likely where the problem lies, and why improving the feed from the battery can help.
 

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