Driver side speakers have less volume than passenger side

Hoping for some guidance on troubleshooting.

I put in an Alpine power pack, 6x9 JBL components up front and 6.5" in the rear. I noticed the other day that it sounded like the passenger side speakers were much louder/performing better than the drivers. When I was doing some sound deadening in the doors this weekend (so I had the door panels open anyway) I played with the balance and fade, and the passenger side is noticeably louder and sounds better than Driver side. I looked at the wiring and I have them both wired up exactly the same: harness adaptor to crossover in, then from crossover to tweeter and woofer.

The 6x9 is not out of phase, i double checked, and switched them anyways just to be certain. If it is a wire connection somewhere, is there a good way to narrow down where to check connections? I used metra harnesses on each side of the amp so that I didn't have to cut the factory harness, and extended the wiring to mount it under the AT shifter console, so there are a lot of places to check if it is wiring, and would like to narrow them down before I yank all my hidden wiring out.

Is there a chance it is the amp? It only has rear and front gain control, so it isn't the gain setting or both fronts would be the same right?

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

 

Maybe one of the crossovers is bad?

 

maybe. I guess I can switch them and see. Or it may be easier to just take the input off the crossover and straight to the woofer I guess, see if that changes anything. I'll try that tonight if i have time.

 

Play a test tone at the same level & check the voltages at the crossover input. If they're the same, check the outputs. That should reveal the culprit.

 

will do that tonight, if i can dig up my multimeter. Ended up going to the braves game last night so didn't check the crossovers

 

don't forget about directionality of sound. drivers door speakers often appear quieter because the sound doesn't go directly to your ear like passenger side does.

 

Yeah I thought of that first, but I listened from both sides, shifting the balance over each time, and listened with the doors open standing outside each door. It definitely wasn't getting as much power.

Good news is, even though I haven't had time to get the doors apart and investigate, this morning on the way to work my leg was resting against the drivers side and I felt the bass vibrating the door card (which it wasn't doing before). Messed with the balance to check, and it sounds like they are both the same now. I'll take it!

Now I can finish sound deadening.

 

Ever find reasoning? I got same thing going on. Passenger side is significantly quieter then if I up the volume it’s like it kicks on and is normal. Same thing with amp. Small amp. Wired straight in. Front and rear gain only.

 

Honestly I can't remember if I ever found anything wrong or if it just fixed itself. I'll dig through some other posts and see, but the issue definitely went away, sounds fine now.

 

So I just noticed this today after installing some JL Audio 6x9s in the doors. It’s like the passenger’s side sounds how the speakers should sound but the driver’s side isn’t keeping up. I had to adjust the balance over to the driver’s side a notch, but then the overall sounds is ‘lacking’…

 

Not to revive a dead thread but I'm wondering if anyone else has the same issue and maybe a fix?

I was also low volume driver speaker and higher passenger as well - I just upgraded my fronts to the kicker cs and it's the exact same issue. It never bothered me until I saw such a difference in the new speakers. Would just be nice to get the same volume from the drivers door!

Definitely just seems like a head unit problem?
2018 non-jbl

 

Do you have the factory HU? Have you tried with bluetooth say from your phone to see if its the same

 

Factory HU and I actually only use Bluetooth. For sake of eliminating a variable I'll go check if it still is like this with stereo!

Update: checked on the above. Same issue Bluetooth/radio. Tried a left right test just via YouTube and it definitely sounds a bit lower on the driver side..

 

When I had this issue it was simply a bad connection on the ground of one speaker. The part of the door wiring that slid onto the speaker itself was slightly loose, so I just snipped the wire in the door and put on a new connection. Fixed for me

 

Much appreciated dude, I will take a look!