Quality sound

[SouthernNights]

I have a Jensen system that works fine. DVD works good, radio does not have static and picks up well and all the speakers (front, outside and living room)switch like they should.

What I dont like is the sound. I am not stereo electronic savy and really dont want to be. But I do want good, clear music. You know, the bass sounds heavy and the treble-well it does its thing.

I pulled the reciever and found 6 speaker outputs all wired seperatley. I pulled down one speaker off the ceiling and found that instead of just a single set of wires, it had another set feeding the rear speaker. How can you have channels if the speakers are wired together?

Any one have some easy fixes to improve the sound quality? I have done a search but what I have found for the most part is over my head.

I do know the speaker says 4 ohms on it.
I also looked on the Jensen site, but really dont know which speaker would be an upgrade. I dont want to just start changing parts without knowing if it will help or not.

Please keep it simple!!!

 

[jbeletti]

Larry,

It is possible that that second set of wires off the front speakers actually go to the bedroom speakers? I know they just jump the bedroom speakers off the front channel I just don't know where it is done. Test by turning on music and turning on the speaker switches in the bedroom until you hear music coming from them. Then unhook that extra set of wires from one of the front speakers and see if one of the speakers in the bedroom drops out.

Jim

 

[SouthernNights]

Jim,

I have seperated the wires. The two speakers in the bedroom work indiviually, as do the exterior speakers.

The two front speakers in the living room work together and the two rear ones work together.

There just doesnt seem to be much of a difference between in bass and treble between the living room speakers and both the bedroom speakers and the exterior speakers break up real bad with the volume over 10.

The sound quality out of all 6 is not very good.

The BCs do not have a sub woofer like the higher end coaches and not sure there is a hook up for them.

Would changing to higher end speakers help or is there more to it than that?

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Ours is a 2007 Bighorn and bedroom speakers were not part of the features at that time. But! I did have to re-wire our speakers and check the polarity also. It took some time but it was worth the effort. I'm also pretty sure you have a sub-woofer. If you have 6 sets of wires coming from the receiver you then have enough sets to include a woofer. It's probably mounted somewhere out of sight.
Try turning on the receiver and get all of the speakers producing sound, even the bedroom. Now remove all the speaker wires from the receiver and take them, one set at a time and connect it to a set of outputs on the receiver. Once you determine which wires are for which speakers, mark them all and re-install. You'll also need a meter if you want to determine how the bedroom speakers are wired. You'll also need the meter to determine polarity. The speakers with 2 sets of wires on them have one set of wires coming from the receiver and the other wires go to the switch that controls the bedroom speakers. For me, I'm glad we don't have the bedroom speakers. It just adds to the potential for wiring problems.

 

[slmayor]

This is a dumb question, but have you adjusted the sound on the stereo/dvd? We found that it works much like a home DVD does and have had to adjust front/rear, bass etc. for both tone and volumne.

 

[SouthernNights]

Ours is a 2007 Bighorn and bedroom speakers were not part of the features at that time. But! I did have to re-wire our speakers and check the polarity also. It took some time but it was worth the effort. I'm also pretty sure you have a sub-woofer. If you have 6 sets of wires coming from the receiver you then have enough sets to include a woofer. It's probably mounted somewhere out of sight.
Try turning on the receiver and get all of the speakers producing sound, even the bedroom. Now remove all the speaker wires from the receiver and take them, one set at a time and connect it to a set of outputs on the receiver. Once you determine which wires are for which speakers, mark them all and re-install. You'll also need a meter if you want to determine how the bedroom speakers are wired. You'll also need the meter to determine polarity. The speakers with 2 sets of wires on them have one set of wires coming from the receiver and the other wires go to the switch that controls the bedroom speakers. For me, I'm glad we don't have the bedroom speakers. It just adds to the potential for wiring problems.

Ray, I have all the speaker wires marked and accounted for which is why I am pretty sure there is no sub woofer. If there is, I sure cant find it-hear it-or figure out how it is wired.

Ray ( other Ray) thanks but have adjusted the bass and treble. I guess I just need better speakers--tired of Jethro Tull sounding the The Bangles.

 

[JohnDar]

If you had a subwoofer and cranked up the bass and volume, you'd feel it in your feet. In our 3670, it's stuck on the floor in the back of the cabinet under the entertainment center desk. We don't have the fireplace in ours, but that is where it would have gone. With the way these rigs get put together, it might be behind your fireplace, if you have one. Our "higher end" 3670 living room has five speakers, three in front, two in back, as well as the two in the bedroom.

 

[SouthernNights]

John,
Just found the schematic for my model on line. It matches (color code) the way my radio is wired. There is no provision for a subwoofer. Just a left and a right in the living room, two for the bdrm and 2 for the outside.

I took my JVC speakers out of my house and plugged them in. Sound was not as tinny but still could get a decent bass out of it.

So now I really am confused. Does the receiver not have enough power to drive the speakers (it is advertised as 108 watts or 6X18) or the speakers not right for the receiver or both>>>>

 

[Chuck Richard]

If it really is only 18 watts per speaker then the power output is indeed wimpy. I would look into a replacement with more power and then see if the speaker need changing also. Did you happen to see what the current ones are rated at?

 

[SouthernNights]

The speakers are rated at 20 watts.

Max Power: 20 Watts
-Woofer size: 3"
-Voice Coil Size: 14.3mm
-Frequency Response: 90Hz-20KHz
-Impedance: 4 ohms
-Magnet Size: 1.96" x .98" x .31"
-Magnet Weight: 2.1 oz.
-Color: White
-Dimensions: 3.64"H x 5.21" W x 5.61" D
-Sold Individually

This is off of Jensens website.

 

[wyleyrabbit]

Here's a tip for easily identifying speaker wiring: take a regular AA battery and touch each wire of the pair (on the receiver side of the wire) to opposite sides of the battery. When you do, the speakers will click. Hope this helps.

Chris

 

[itsbeertime]

Sounds like something isn't right. We have a BC and my kids get it cranked up and it sounds fairly decent. I walked in one day and thought I was in a movie theater. What radio do you have? Ours is a Jensen AWM970, or 970AWM, or something like that. And I'm pretty sure the BC's don't come with a subwoofer. Ours didn't.

 

[jmgratz]

Some 100 watt are like 20w x 5 = 100 watt and not 100 watt per speaker. Big difference. All in the semantics.

 

[SouthernNights]

I have a Awm960 which you will not find except in the service manual. The service manual says it is 3 zone 75 watt.
The sticker on the radio says 6 X 18.

I am starting to think it is too wimpy.

 

[Theresau]

You usually have to adjust more than the bass/treble. You also need to adjust the "volume" for each external speaker. You also need to adjust for the sound coming in - Digital Dolby, DTS, Dolby Pro-Logic can be options depending on the receiver (this would be for the TV and DVD player) - sometimes this needs to be done manually.

I found that my Pilgrim travel trailer DVD/receiver required a great deal of adjusting in order to get a quality sound - once I did this, it was great! (Hoping such will be the case with the Big Horn on order.)

Is the TV hooked up to the DVD player via an HDMI cable?

 

[SouthernNights]

Yes it is but I am only concerned about the receiver and cd player. I dont watch TV/movies that much .

 

[SouthernNights]

I would like to thank everyone for their input. It really helps to bounce things off other people. The collective expreience on this forum is phenomenal.

With that said, what I finally figured out (I'm a little slow sometimes) is I was missing a good bass. I guess that may be because as Chuck said the system is wimpy. But was not prepared to spend a ton of money either.

We went to K-Mart and found a MP3 stereo sub woofer for $20.00 made by Coby. Might be the same as Heartland uses in other coaches.

I did not have a seperate feed for the subwoofer but I never used the speakers in the bedroom and eventually they will be hooked up to a TV if we ever get one for there. Disconnected both speakers behind the radio. I found the left channel (bass) and hooked it up to the subwoofer. WOW what a difference. Turning the bass off on the Jensen and just using the sub for the bass the sound is incredible.

I can now turn the subwoofer on and off seperatley from the radio by using the speaker B button. And depending on the type of music, everything can be adjusted seperatley. We like Big Band music (not old enough to remember it in person though ) and the sounds are great.

Thanks again for everyone's advice. End result was an inexpensive fix. And as JonDar said, you can feel it in your feet with the woofer cranked up