Mach 460, aftermarket head unit, bass/lows not working correctly with aux cable

Hey guys, hope all is well. So here's the situation. I have an 01 gt with the mach 460 sound system and a sony xplod aftermarket head unit that the previous owner installed incorrectly, it sounded bad, so I redid the installation using proper instructions and it sounds fantastic from the highest note to the lowest note on FM. But when I plug in my ipod through the aux cable, the bass and lows sound like garbage. When I turn it up, there's so much static. Is there any way to make it sound good apart from installing an all new system or using cds? Any help would be so greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot, and have a great weekend.

Edit-- I get the same result with multiple aux cables, so it's not the cable. I also get the same result with cds. But on FM it still sounds fantastic. I just don't know what's going on here.

Edit ---- Ok, I think I found the problem. The bass/lows are bumping in the front window speakers (the ones in the front corner of the window) when running cd/aux but not when running fm. I'm assuming this is because fm doesn't go through the head unit like the cd and aux does?

Correct, sounds good with headphones. The way it connects is the aux cable goes into the top of my phone (where I would put headphones) and also plugs into the front of my head unit. I've tried with different aux cables and even when I play a cd it has the same result.

wmburns said:

If asked to guess, it's an impedance mis-match. IE the signal is not compatible voltage wise. The headphone output is designed to drive 8 Ohm headphones.

An aux input is what is commonly called a "pre-amp" input. It's a high impedance load with P-P voltage limits.

Most advanced head units have methods to balance the input volume from various sources. Try turning down the head phones output and turning up the base volume level in the head unit set up (or the other way to get the correct balance). This is to keep from over driving or under driving the pre-amp input.

Click to expand...

Ah, this does make sense. But, as I edited, I'm having the same problem with CDs. And only on bass/low notes as with the aux cable. I turn the car on, fm, rockin. Change to aux cable/ipod, bass/lows sound static and ****ty. Change to CD, same. I just don't understand it.

patman0911 said:

I must've misread your first post. If your having trouble with CDs too but the radio is OK then it sounds like something is wrong with the headunit itself. It's not a separate CD changer is it - the CD player is part of the headunit, right?

Click to expand...

Correct. Yeah, if it is the headunit that would suck, I don't want to buy another one. Anything else it could be?