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I have the stock paper cone components installed in my car, and two 12" RF P1s powered by a 500 Watt Memphis Car Audio amp - when I turn my system up, everything but the bass distorts, and the singing (or rapping, as it may be) gets garbled and the mids and highs all sound out of wack. Are my subs vibrating the speaker cones and causing this distortion? If I can feel it vibrating my butt cheeks through my seats I just assume it's probably vibrating my component speaker cones and causing this distortion. Now my real question is, that if this is in fact my problem (correct me if I'm wrong), will upgrading my components to a higher quality brand stop this, or will they just distort too? If I got new speakers I'd probably get a mid-range quality, like some infinity kappas. Would these distort as easily or could they handle the bass from my subs?

 
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what are you running? Oem deck? One way to eliminate the subwoofer from causing the problem is to disconnect the amp and try to reproduce the distortion. My bet is that your turning it up too much, and the deck is distorting the signal trying to produce that much amplitude

 
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alpine cde9845 deck

I turned the bass and subwoofer controls all the way down and turned the volume all the way up on the deck and the speakers distorted only verrrry slightly - but I expected this since they are just the stock speakers. However when the bass is up they distort pretty horribly, I do believe that as I turn up the volume with the bass up as well the deck might be pushing too much power to my speakers to drive their cones. But, the deck only supposedly puts out 14W x 4, so I don't know.

 
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The stock speakers are quite simply put, crap. They are low power - as long as you're running all stock, they sound "ok" but their shoddy quality is revealed when you put power behind them. I'd recommend getting some quality aftermarket comps for your fronts and replacing your rear 6 x 9's as well.

The CDA9845 has two sets of preamp outs - this potentially causes you a problem with trying to run a sub with amped fronts and rears, as you lack a third set of preamp outs...you could split one of the outs to compensate - or you'll have to work out another solution.

Your system will only be as good as your weakest component......

 
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dont turn it up that high to the point of distortion. Once you upgrade your oem speakers you'll be able to turn the music louder without distortion

 
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I can't tell any difference without my rear speakers on anyway so I'm not worried about them, I'll shoot for getting some kappas or a comparable brand. Thanks guys!

 
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kappas are awsome... i love mine

 
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When you are setting up the EQ levels on your system, you should turn the bass level down and the sub level up on the head unit. The bass level only controls the bass to your speakers. The sub control on the head unit controls the amount of power going to the sub. If you turn your bass level up all the way then you are putting too much bass to your interior speakers causing them to distort sooner. Basicly, if your bass level is turned up then turn it down.

 
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I turned the bass level down and the sub level up, but got a lot less volume from my subs than I did when I turned the bass up. So for now I just set my gains higher and fudged it, and that has helped some, but not enough for me not to still want some new components.