I had Pioneer 6x9's that would get distorted when too much bass was hitting or if you turned the volume up. They were good speakers, but i found out one had a cracked cone. I bought some Pyramid 6x9's and wired them up with bass blockers. They seem really quiet now. Its like the bass blocker minimizes the bass and most of the sound. Will they sound better if i remove them?

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92 Camaro RS
305 TBI
T-Tops
DynoMax Cat-Back Exhaust
Gutted Cat
Hypertech Street Runner Chip
K&N open element
Custom Interior
Window Tint
Prestige Alarm
Foglights

JVC El-Kameleon Head Unit(w/ remote)
Pyramid 6 x 9's
(bass blockers)
Jensen 5 1/4's
2- 10" Kenwood Tornado Subs
Pyramid 600 Watt Amp
Best ET: 15.976 @ 86.01 mph
reaction time: 0.479
60 ft: 2.269

 

The blockers help with staging. If your running a sub, 6x9's and 4x6 or whatever in the front, the blockers work great to block the bass where its not needed. If your just running speakers in the factory locations without a sub then you might want to pull the blockers off and see how it sounds. It's really dependant on how you want your car to sound, I personally have blockers on the 4x6's and the 6x9's because I have a sub that puts out plenty of umph.
SSC

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85 Camaro Z28, Cowl induction hood, Black-355/TB400,3:42 posi, Tons of goodies but if you ask, "Its stock"
82 Firebird, White, red in six months-355/TB350,3:42 Powertrax posi. Not an insane amount of goodies but it runs like a motha!
76 Chevy C10, Firemist blue, 355/Muncie HD 3speed,3:73 TorqLine posi. Show me another 12sec@4800ft SBC street truck??
91 GMC 1500 Sierra 4x4, Red, Was 4.3 now the proud recipient of the Firebirds LG4. 305/5 speed.
56 Buick Special, OG Blue&White, V8/auto. Maybee one day I'll get it going.

 

Also, I've been told that the blockers work better when you install them as close to the speaker as possible.

 

They don't work any better 'closer' to the speaker. It doesn't matter where you put them. A capacitor (which is what a "bass blocker" is) doesn't care where it is in the current. You can put them anywhere inline with your speakers. It's just that usually the speaker pod is the most convenient place.

BowtieFever,

"Bass blockers" work fine. If you look at any coaxil or triaxil (etc.) speaker, you will see them on the back of the tweeters, midrange or whatever else is on the speaker.

What are the values on the ones that you used? Sometimes you can buy them 'too high'. They will cut off frequencies higher than you wanted if you don't use the correct ones. That will give the 'illusion' that the speakers are more quiet.

AJ

 

i used them just because the crossover on my amp didn't go as high as i did. They work fine for me ... but soon dj sexay's kickpanels will be in and the 4x6's are going bye bye, so i wont be using them anymore.
btw, i never really seen any decent pyramid speakers, so they not going to be as high quality as the pioneers .. so thats why they might be quiet.

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1991 Firebird (GT40)
-LO3 305 TBI
-5 speed
-Open Element Air Filter
-Edelbrock Tower Strut Brace
-Kenwood Excelon Headunit w/ 10 Disc Changer
-Alpine MRP-F256 Amp
-Polk EX 4x6's, DX 6x9's, and EX Tweeters
-Kicker ZR240 amp (bridged)
-Dual JL W0 12" Subs

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My page with pics and stuff, and car stereo help.
http://members.aol.com/deadtrend1/index.html

 

BTW bowtie, your the closest person to my town besides my neighboor on this board.

 

Bass blockers have a lot of drawbacks, but they can be helpful in some situations.

By the way, all a "bass blocker" is, is a cheap capacitor with some speaker wire hooked to it. You could read the capacitor value off the bass blocker in the store (usually 133uF or 199uF), and then by them cheaply at Radio Shack.

Anyway, a single capacitor only serves as a 6dB/octave crossover, which doesn't do a whole lot to protect the speaker.

Also, it's always best to install a crossover BEFORE the amplifier, but that's of course impossible when you're using head unit power. The head unit's amp still has to work hard to make bass; the blocker just keeps it from getting to the speaker, that's all. A pre-amp (known as "active") crossover would keep the amp from having to make the bass in the first place.

And remember that a capacitor puts the speaker 90* out of phase, if I'm correct, which may either improve or worsen the sound, relevant to the other, unblocked speakers.

But beyond all that, I'd say that bass blockers might be a worthwhile addition to the small 4x6 front speakers, or maybe to all four speakers if you have a subwoofer. Just don't expect miracles.

 

I was gonna get the "harrison" F- mods. They just plug inline on your RCA inputs and they signal never gets to your amp.

Crtuchfield sells them here

http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S...69900064&o=&a=

Im sure you can get them cheaper tho.



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i used the F-Mods on my soundstream amp. Theya re a great alternative, bass blockers are usually if your running speakers directly from a head unit with no built in crossover.

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1991 Firebird (GT40)
-LO3 305 TBI
-5 speed
-Open Element Air Filter
-Edelbrock Tower Strut Brace
-Kenwood Excelon Headunit w/ 10 Disc Changer
-Alpine MRP-F256 Amp
-Polk EX 4x6's, DX 6x9's, and EX Tweeters
-Kicker ZR240 amp (bridged)
-Dual JL W0 12" Subs

-------------------------------
My page with pics and stuff, and car stereo help.
http://members.aol.com/deadtrend1/index.html