Hey everyone.. I had the d3 installed a while ago, and I was still using my factory speakers. I noticed at near max volume, that it would cause the speakers to sound very distorted and tinny.

I decided to upgrade the door speakers to Clarion components.. they sounded the best in the store for the music I listen to. At normal volume levels they sound incredible, but again at near max volume, I get distortion. I've heard these speakers both using just the deck (clarion), and using an amp.. and they both sounded way better at high volume.

I have my EQ set to flat, loudness off.. I've set the HPA both on and off.. but makes no noticable difference. It should be off anyhow since I have a crossover with the speakers.

I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed anything like this. Btw I had an older pioneer deck, the deh-7400... and it sounded way better at max volume than the d3 does..

anything is going to distort at max volume.

I take it your running these right off the headunit? Amp the speakers and you should be able to get the music louder and clearer but like mentioned above anything will sound like crap if its at max volume.

damn near ALL decks distort at some volume, especially towards the high end of the knob. Alpine in my experience has typically had a higher threshold before distortion. Even some oem head units, like acura, have built in technology that will help eliminate that distortion. it makes much more sense to hook up an amp and adjust the gains on that to obtain the volume you want. This is because, say you put in an amp, adjust the gains very low, and crank the deck up.. itll distort, then the amp is only going to amp the distortion its getting. Alternatively, you lower the volume on the deck and raise the gain on the amp and the amp (if a good amp) will amp the good quality sound.

thanks guys I will have to try that out... just find it odd that my old pioneer deck didnt have this issue with cranking.. ah well =\