I have a 2003 toyota camry, that I installed a jl audio 500.1 amp and a jl audio w6. I bought the system from a friend and i know all the equipment works. I used a line-in converter, and everything works. The problem is the system sounds like crap! It doesn't get loud or produce deep bass, it sounds muddy and full of distortion, and only plays bass on certain notes. On rap,techno,or any music that has a lot of bass, it will not play. How can I fix this problem?
There could be many things that could be causing this problem. For example, it could be possible that you bought a cheap/bugged Line-In Converter, incorrect settings on the amplifier, or even possibly the enclosure itself may not be tuned (if ported) to the type of music you listen to.
Is there any specific reason why you want to keep the factory Deck in your Camry? With upgrading to an aftermarket deck, you may notice in increase in Sound Quality, as well as access to a better Equalizer to tune your system.
Also, before going out and spending money on buying new things, try tuning the JL Audio Amplifier you have. It could be possible that a setting may be turned all the way down/up and is making it sound like garbage.
Atownmack, try some tweaking (the sub has an enclosure..right?), first make sure that the HU's bass tone control is defeated and the amp settings are at their default state, then increase the input gain of the amplifier, it seems like the HU clips before your amp gets enough signal to get loud, then set the LPF on the amp properly, say 60Hz/24dB. Having said this you will never get decent sound from stock HUs and line converters, much less deep bass.