about a year ago I took my old factory rear speakers and replaced them with some jl speakers. Well the jl's arent very loud at all. Plus the sound quality is crap. is there anything I can do to improve the sound?

 

JL Audio makes some of the better speakers out there, and if they don't sound good, either the install is bad, the speakers are defective or blown, or dare I say, you're tone deaf.

Also, if they don't sound loud, and if there's no issue with them as what I just mentioned above, it's because the speakers are *behind* you and your front stage is drowning them out (normal, BTW. ~80% of what you hear comes from the front.).

As for improving the sound, swap 'em out. Best bet is to go to your local car audio shop, audition all the speakers they have, and buy what you like and can afford.

 

The stock head unit does not send high frequencies to the rear speakers. Also, if the JL speakers are not 6x8, then they will likely require a baffle to be made. Speakers without baffles do not have restricted low frequency reproduction, as the out-of-phase sound radiated from the rear of the speaker cancels out with the front radiation.

So, if you are still using the stock head unit and don't have baffles, you are only sending low and mid frequencies to the rears, of which the low frequencies are being cancelled out. I'm guessing that would sound similarly to what you are describing....

 

i put 5x7 type R's from alpine but didnt use the brakets i just mounted them to the back of the grill

infinity 6x8 will work as well

mike