Lets talk tuning...

It seems that talking about tuning is a punishable offence.... or there are not many people that are familiar with it. I have tried to talk to a few people about it and didnt get a response, or the response was very generic. I know that tuning is a personal preference and usually is not done over night.

I grew up in the 80s where a lot stereos came with built in EQs so im used to playing with an EQs but not so much with setting time delays, cross overs, and slopes.

I am currently running a precision power 88r DSP on a factory head unit. I have Hybrid-Audio u69 6x9s up front w/ unity series tweeters. Powered by an Arc Audio XDi 600.4. The mids (band pass) are running from 50hz on a 30db slope - 5500hz on a 36db slope, tweeters (HP) are running 4500hz on a 36db slope. Subs (LP) are running 90hz on a 24db slope.

Here is my system tuning so far. I have about 3-4 hours into this tune. I think that a mic is needed to get a more precise time delay...

UPDATE:30JAN16 I have turned the gain on the tweeters WAY down and they sound way better! Also played with the tunning a bit more and have the system sounding much better! Below is still an older video...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7WnAzt0aMw
link to build page... https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/sundown-dual-sd3-audio-build-q-a.431347/

So here goes...

What speakers are you running and where do you have your crossovers set?

Is your 4kHz sound range lower than everything else??

How many watts are you running to your tweeters?

Did you use a mic to help you tune?

If you have questions, post them. If you have answers, post them. Thanks.

 

I'm still struggling getting the LOC settings to work right with the amps, lol. I have a ways to go.

 

Which LOC are you using?

 

AudioControl LC2i. Currently I have the LC2i "AccuBass" setting at 0%, "Main" at 50% and "Bass" at 50%. My ID MQ150.2 (amp to the speakers/tweeters) Gain is set at 30% and Bass EQ at 0%. My Alpine MRV-M500 (amp to sub) has Gain set at 50% and Bass EQ at 0%. My crossovers are set at the 0dB for the tweeters. Head Unit is all set at zero or default eq settings.

 

You have a lot of overlap with your crossover settings Zac. You want to cross your drivers before they meet - not after. If it were me, not knowing any more about your setup than I do, I'd set my sub's LPF at 80 Hz & maybe a steeper slope. I'd have the midrange playing from maybe 100 Hz to maybe 4.5 kHz. The tweeter I'd have maybe around 5.5 kHz. Both with shallower slopes. Maybe tweak it in from there. That's based on your factory crossovers.

Yeah, a mic will help you do this & using something like REW will help visualize what's going on and make quantifiable adjustments. You absolutely need a mic if you're going to try & get the most out of your equipment.

 

Some light reading

definitely not a taboo topic

 

Tuning is very frowned upon around here. I started a thread on it some time ago and got a surprising response of people helping me out. They got me a bit more dialed in, but I know my settings are still not right.

 

That's just a bizarre idea.

 

Really tuning, or even talking about what should sound good turns into a shit storm. I love tuning stereos. But I learned to just stick to myself on what I use to tune, and how I tune it.

 

When I say that, I mean that most won't talk about it because they either don't know or don't want to help. You have better luck getting a huge amount of responses if you post up light bars, big tires, or a lift in these forums.

 

At the end of the day, if your ears and what's between 'em are happy that's what counts

 

Ah, I see. Should be a fun talk either way.

 

I have read that having 2 drivers playing at the same frequency can create a "hump" in your EQ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqgIUl-YN1I

But in talking to someone at hybrid audio, who has his car in sound competitions, said that having 2 drivers at the same frequency will not have an effect on sound. I will call them back and talk to them more in depth about this and see what they say...

 

True. But I can't tell you how many times people have come to me and said "I love the way my subs sound" and when I hook them up to the O-Scope it's insanely clipping. Lots of people just don't know what a good stereo sounds like. Their sub is going to fry but they still think it sound good.

To top that off 90% of the people I meet think gain is a volume knob.

 

Think about it for a second. If you have one driver playing one frequency it will be a certain loudness. Now what do you think will be the effect if you bring in a second driver playing that same frequency at around the same amplitude? Will it be louder? The same? Less?

 

Shiiet. I'm still having trouble just simply figuring out which frequencies adjust the voice and the bass on my EQ. Hahaha.

 

Well yeah, everyone has a frame of reference. For most that bar seems pretty low.

 

What speakers and amp do you have?

Those are just the most popular upgrades.

Im trying to get a fill for what speakers people are running, what amps, are they using component crossovers or a DSP? From there more questions will arise!

I thought that about the gain for a while, until i started reading... When i was 16 in the 90s i didnt know jack about sound quality and setting gains. I went through alot of subs.. and fried a couple amps in the process. I also didnt know about the ohm load you are wiring to the amps at that time, makes a HUGE difference! And i had never heard of component speakers. Car audio has come a long way since then.

I think that you do not need 2 drivers at the same frequency, I mean that is why they make different speakers to hit different frequencies right?? But from talking to someone that goes to competition sound events, and competes, you would think he knows what he is talking about.

 

I decided at the age of 15 I was going to get into SPL comp. Boy that was one hell of an expensive learning experience.


"Ok, lets get ready to burp the subs"
buuuuurp - smoke.

"You need new subs".....


Also just the amount of damage it did to my car was nuts. But I had 2 Cerwin Vega Stroker 18's in a CRX and it pretty much tore that car apart. I could of paid off my house by now if I never got into stereo competition.

 

You would think.

Still though, I don't understand why you would want to overlap crossover frequencies like that. In general, the narrower a bandwidth a driver is asked to play, the better the reproduction will be (less distortion, cone issues, etc). Follow that link I posted & do some reading. Lots of good information there.