Replaced 6x9's, don't sound like they should
 

First of all, I'm not some expert at this kind of thing. Only thing I know about installing car audio is cutting the wires and crimping a clip on. I have a stock (not bose) radio. I put a set of boston coax 6x9"s that I had in another car. These things should sound a lot better than they do. I played around with the fade and ballance. I set the sound to come only on the rear and almost no bass is coming out. When I set it to full rear and either full left or right they sound a little more like it should. All the bass is coming out of the front door speakers. I didn't pay attention to my install, I can't remember what wires I had on what. Would that affect the sound, if I had them backwards?

I have plans on replacing the door speakers too, I just now got the door panel off to see if the 5x7"s or the 6.5"s in my truck will fit. Do I need to install a crossover to fix this or what? Or is the source of my first question the problem? I appreciate any and all help.

Re: Replaced 6x9's, don't sound like they should
 

Absolutely!!! You've got one of them backwards but now you need to figure out which one. If you switch the wires around on the wrong one, sure the back will sound good but it won't blend well with the front.

What you are experiencing is a phase problem.

Click here to find the wire colors for the rear speakers with the base stereo. Actually, the original post was about the Bose stereo, but the base system uses the same wire colors in the rear.
As rotarygod said, you must pay attention to which wire is positive and which is negative, and that must match the connectors on the 6x9 speakers.

For the front speaker locations, the stock speaker size is 6x8. Your existing 5x7 speakers might fit - many of those do have the mounting holes for a 6x8 location as well, maybe yours do too. In that case, it's a drop-in replacement.

So, in otherwords, get a crossover once I get my wires going the right way? I think I'll look into some component speakers for the front.

You won't need a crossover for the rear speakers that you have... Of course, if you go with a component setup, you will need them.
Components in the front will make perfect sense. I have Focal components in the front doors and they sound certainly much better than the stock el cheapo speakers.
I posted this in another thread, but there are component speakers that will fit to the 6x8 location. Infinity Reference 6800cs is one of them. It looks like that's a 5x7 midbass driver but it has the holes for the 6x8 size as well. I'm sure there are others out there as well.
If you want to fit a 6.5 component set, you will have to trim the panel behind the door trim, and use a mounting adapter. It is not hard to do that though... let me put it this way: if I could do it, anyone can :D
Here is the link to my Focal front speaker install. It should give you some ideas.

Thanks for tips. That's what I meant on the crossover, just for the front. I was planning on putting in a set of my coax 6.5" in the front. I have never gone too far with audio installs. But, the audio in this car just doesn't do it for me. I may check on some component stuff. I have always been partial to Boston Acoustics stuff. But, I think they are too expensive when it comes to components.

Well, I ran out and checked the wires, only the driver side hookup is backwards since it had the weird colors. Will this screw the sound for both right and left speakers? When I was playing the the balance it didn't sound any different on either speaker.

Edit: I don't have time (gotta be at work by 5:00am :mad: ) to check my 5x7"s right now but, I'll be driving to work tomorrow minus one door panel. That thing is a pain in the ass to get off. Eyeing them up they looked about the same size, just from memory though, they are still plugged into my truck.

If you have the wires messed up on one side, it will screw up the sound in general - in other words, "for both sides", yes.

The above posters are correct-- you have the phase reversed on one of the speakers. You are canceling out the audio waveform in air.

Think of it this way..you slap smooth water with your hand..and see the wave travel? Well, what if you took that EXACT wave of water, and flipped it... then "added" it to the existing water wave? You would have 'smooth' water.

0 0 0 1 0 0 0 (imagine that wave)
1 1 1 0 1 1 1 (and imagine that one).

notice how its all ones when you add it up? Thus its "DC" or flat (canceled out).

If it were:
0 0 0 1 0 0 0
0 0 0 1 0 0 0
(both speakers in phase), you would have 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 (and now audio sound).

Now the problem is you need to find out the RIGHT orientation, because if you get the rears correct in phase, but the fronts are 180 degrees off, you'll still have crappy audio.

Fix the rears (fade to rear) and flip one... then center the balance.. listen. Then flip BOTH speaker wires on both rear speakers (180 degrees), and listen again. Whichever sounds better is going to the be right orientation.

I took a 9 volt battery and bumped the oem speaker if it bumps out it means the pos side of the battery is the pos speaker lead. If it sucks in reverse the batery and it will bump out.