Subwoofer SQ with LC7i and factory Entune HU.

Just got my system wrapped up but noticed some slop/muddy bass in the subwoofer.

Does anyone have experience with this?

I'm assuming that the source of the muddy bass is the factory Entune (non jbl) head unit.

My setup includes:

Factory headunit (Entune - non jbl) 2017 Tacoma
Audio Control LC7i (accubass off)
JL hd900/5 amp (lpf @ 80 hz - 24db, hpf front @ 80hz - 12 db, hpf rear @ 90 hz - 12 db slope)
gains set accordingly to 400 watts, 120 watts, 90 watts - all @ 4 ohms
JL c5-650 components - front
JL c2-650 coax - rears
JL 10tw3 in sealed .45 cu ft enclosure + 10 oz of polyfill.

My previous setup was very similar to the list above. The only difference being a Kenwood x997 head unit and no LC7i. The sub was different as well, which was a polk SR104 sealed enclosure.

I did test the Polk sub in the tacoma, but the bass still seemed very lost. It hits plenty hard, but I wouldn't call it great sound quality.

This leads me to believe that the source of my issue is the signal coming from the factory headunit.

Anyone want to chime in on this?

Much appreciated

 

I've heard the same about the bass. @Silverspool added another item in to his setup to get better bass. I'm not sure what he added but I'm sure he'll come give you some info.

 

I added an epicenter. Its a bitch to tune esp with the accubass, but it does bring back some bass.

All in all, if i had to do it again id skip the lc7i and put in a dsp.

 

This is my first go at retaining the factory hu. As of right now, considering going with the Kenwood 9903s + Maestro and calling it a day.
The bass just sounds awful....it (subwoofer bass) just doesn't know what to do.

 

Why do you have accubass off? Thats the whole reason for an active LOC, just wondering.

.45 also seems pretty low for air. Mine is .65 and its suffering a bit

 

I was under the impression that Accubass was....for the lack of a better term..."fake bass"

Forgive my ignorance as this is my first experience with an active loc. I attempted to set the bass by turning up my gain (amp) @ 50hz for the subwoofer. Either way, I did play with the accubass feature, but the bass was still pretty poor. Everything else sounds decent when the subwoofer is disconnected.

As for the .45 cu ft enclosure...bad project management is to blame lol. I added 10-11 oz of polyfill as a bandaid fix for the slightly undersized enclosure. JL does spec out .5 cu ft, but I hear the Tw3 subs prefer slightly larger enclosures.

 

It could be a lot of issues. Is the bad bass coming from the doors or the sub? Try reducing your stock EQ to zero all the way around and bring the levels up slowly. Also, install a bass knob if you can. Those 320mhz tracks are going to sound a lot less punchy than radio or Spotify tunes that are optimized to push low end bass response. Reduce the dB on the sub down a hair to reduce the punch and play with it. I would imagine those JL speakers probably have a bit of hit to them too which is probably throwing it off. My rig has a stock HU and it sounds plenty clean. Good luck buddy!

 

Might try a larger to encloser if you can.

The accubass is for bass fall off using oem HU. The bass tends the fall off the higher the volume.

Turn the accubass to 0. Start turning the volume up slowly, if/when you hear the mids and highs keep getting louder but bass does not, turn the accubass up till bass increases with volume. Then you can control the level.

Thats a sweet sub and i wish i could have gotten one, bummer to hear that the set up isnt delivering.

 

The bass from the subwoofer just seems to have bad timing. It sounds alright on certain songs but overall, it does a poor job of blending in with the rest of the music. I did disconnect the sub to isolate the issue. The rest of the system sounds pretty good when the sub is not connected.

The stock eq was zeroed out to begin with when setting the gains on the amp. I set the gains using a MM with a test tone of 50 hz for the sub and 1000 hz for the front and rear speakers.

All music being used to test the system are on CD's, so they shouldn't be compressed of altered too much.

 

How many ohms are you running the sub at, iirc the tw3 is a dvc 4ohm. When i ran my kicker at 1 ohm (dvc 2ohm im parallel) the bass was off time. I wired in series instead @4ohm and its much better.

 

If the LC7i is in a good location add a bass knob. Try reducing the bass channel on the line controller and actually bring the bass on the amp to a higher dB range (i.e. if it should be at 24dB take it to 27 or so to reduce the range at which the sub activates). JLs hit very hard and are best on ported boxes IMHO. What is the optimal air cavity size? What is the optimal dB range? Could you port the box and remove the fill. I have a Kenwood Excelon KFC-1000 sub and once I dialed it in right it sounds clutch!

Seriously though, turn everything down on your head unit and pick the genre of music you rock the most. Play it for a while and just keep dialing the settings. Once the speakers break in it will sound even better. It sounds like you have a very nice setup going...hope you get to enjoy it soon!

 

I'm running 2 ohms - 4 ohm dvc parallel.

The difference between series and parallel should be minimal. Typically parallel is preferred in home theater, which should apply in car audio as well. Never hurts to try though.

 

The difference is huge. In your case, 2 ohms or 8. Thats a big diff to your amp. That being said, not sure if a car amp will push through 8ohms well. 2ohms is what id run if i had that sub.