why the hell do my brand new splits sound tinny and strangled?

[Tamperer#1]

just installed a cheap kenwood cd unit (50watts x4) and a pair of el cheapo US Audio 6 inch splits. (supposably 200watts) on testing it theres hardly any volume from the woofers (not even enuff to make the cones move when the head unit was turned up half way), the tweeters seem to work fine, theres no adjustment on the crossovers so im completley stumped, i know the quality isnt brilliant but im telling you something ist right with these speakers. i used the rather poor looking speaker wire supplied with them. might try some heavier wiring tomorrow but other than that its got me stumped, can anyone shed some light on this topic or am i going to have to rip it all out, go back to autobarn and demand satisfaction??

[Zuicider]

u answered the question yourself, u went el cheapo, your gonna get elcheapo noise

[StoneX]

Are the woofers making ANY noise?

[Tamperer#1]

like i said, i know the quality isnt brilliant, but yeah, theres DEFINATLY a problem, the sound im getting from the woofers is about as loud as the speaker in a mobile phone. cheap and nasty no doubt but they should still be able to produce some volume

[StoneX]

Do the splits have proper crossovers (little boxes with screw terminals) or just inline ones?

[holdenboy]

Just hook up the woofers firstly, see if they are actually making some decent sound...it can be confusing with tweeters and other speakers inside the car running too.

Also check to make sure the woofers + and - wires are connected the right way at the crossover and at the head-unit (although not likely as you said they were hardly moving, if this was the case they'd be moving heaps and not creating much sound).

[danja]

Sounds a bit like the woofers might be hooked up to the tweeter output at the crossover?

I hope the tweeters are hooked up to the woofer output, or they won't last long

[Tamperer#1]

thanks for the responses, yes they are a proper crossover, yes the tweeters / woofers are connected to the the correct outputs. soon as the car comes back i'll bypass the crossovers and hook the wires straight to the woofer, also will try this with heavier guage wire to eliminate the crossovers as the problem (it would be unlikley they are both faulty) im layin bets its that shitty thin as hell speaker wire they supplied. the other thing i might try is to see if the idiots marked the tweeter outputs and woofer outputs the wrong way around (luckily they come with a 2nd set of tweeters so if it has done some damage all is not lost) its a long shot but there chinese speakers so nothing would come as a shock to me. its nice to get responses that arent just of a smart arse "told you so" nature.
much appreciated guys.

[StoneX]

The speaker wire will not cause that problem.

[Tamperer#1]

Righto, Replaced the wires anyway (no harm in crossing that one off) bypassed the crossovers and whaddayaknow, full sound out of the woofers, wired the tweeters into the woofer channels and vice versa, and hey presto, woofers woofing and tweeters tweeting. it would seem the chinese slave labourer child employee who made the crossovers stamped the channels the wrong way around. i hope his village is burned to the ground for this cos i lay awak for hours last night pondering what the hell was going on. thanks for your suggestions guys, cos thats what im here for, suggestions, NOT OPPINIONS. once again, thanks champs

[garfa]

regardless, if you are not running an amp, you will get less kick than the old speakers...