Has anybody on here gone from JL audio xd amp to HD

If so how much of a difference in the two as far as sound quality? I’m not getting rid of my xd but I am thinking of switching the XD to the highs and mids in place of the JD amp and running the woofers to an HD 600.4 or 900.5

 

Andy Wehmeyer (audiofrog) has a nesa amp powering his sub and he says all amps are basically the same. So, my guess, it’s in the DSP for sound quality.
Skip to 10:54
https://youtu.be/BojYiv6ClV0

 

Yeah I actually just tuned my system with Andy’s rta umi 1 and I have a JL twk dsp but I’m struggling to get my 444-600 range even with everything else possibly bc I’m afraid to go any lower with the mids than 450 I’m only messing with the bw and LR slopes to tweak it any more. His UMI 1 is awesome btw and I’ve gotten it all flat besides that area since I’ve went active up front with mids. It sounds great I just want it to be louder at low volumes than it is and was thinking power is what I was lacking. My focal dealer told me my flax woofers could handle 100-125 rms easily and is trying to sell me on missconni and gladen amp or the focal 600.4 performance SQ Amp but I like my JL XD a lot and wanna get same amp sound tbh. I’m sure all manufacturers have a trademark sound..?Problem with the hd 900.5 100rms x4 and 500 to sub and I’ll have way too much power for my 8” JL sub so I’ll keep the sub on the xd channel. The hd 600.4 is too much power for my flax woofers at 150rms per channel so I’m kinda in between which to get lol

 

As long as you are getting a name brand amp, they all pretty much sound the same with transparent effects to the sound. Speakers and the EQ have more coloration of the sound than the amp.

Higher prices usually means higher SNR ratios, newer PCB layouts and designs with partially customized parts like the IC drivers to lessen the need for a separate oscillator and generic IC driver (which gives you the smaller footprint) and smaller footprints. Mid to high priced amps usually have a nicer metal enclosure made of cast and machined aluminum parts instead of the basic single extruded aluminum case with a steel bottom.

I was almost ready to throw away my Alpine PDX M6, but was able to repair it - in researching all the amps available for possible replacement right now, I am finding I prefer the 2010-2018 generation of amps because most 'gave' you all the power at both 4 ohm and 2 ohm loads. Now, they are giving everyone less power for the same prices as earlier and requiring you to run a 2 ohm load.

 

For subs I don’t doubt that being the case

 

I’m running 250 watts rms to focal kx2’s in passive mode. Power, more the better for headroom. I also have problems with the 400-600hz range. I think it’s the acoustic of the interior cuz we’re both using the same rta. You can offset the house curve to 3db’s higher (that’s what I did) and tune from there. It was a huge difference. The highs seem to come alive and more volume at lower levels. Andy says to just play around with the house curve moving it up or down to your preference but the method to tuning is the same. Hope this helps.

 

I’m definitely gonna give that a try.. thanks man... by house curve what exactly are you talking about so I’m sure I understand? Dealer also told me I could cross my tweeters as low as 3,800hz as long as I use 24-48db slope but man that scares me for a tweeter. I’ve made some progress using 18db butter worth slope as my crossover in that range but still not able to get it flat and I love that frequency bc it’s where acoustic guitar usually plays it’s cords. I’ve tried subtracting around it and still only helps a tiny bit. I think you’re exactly right about acoustics of the vehicle. Which amp are you using? That definitely gives me more confidence in running 150 to my woofers knowing that you’re putting 250 to yours. Those KX2s are crazy in mid bass that I heard! Loved them

 

Go to the audiofrog website and download the instructions on how to use it with REW. Basically, you download the house curve form the audiofrog website, import the house curve and you tune your frequencies to that. I’m running an Audiocontrol d6.1200 amp/dsp. The focal KX2’s are rated at 120 watts rms, 2ohm speakers. My amp puts out 200 watts rms @ 2 ohms not 250 rms, sorry.

 

I got you I thought that’s what you were talking about but wasn’t positive. He calls it “target curve” but yes sir bout to try that out

 

Also, be careful about boosting too much around the crossover slopes. Check your gains after you eq everything just to be safe.

 

Crossing your tweeters @3.8khz sounds right as long as your using butterworth 24db slope. If you have any doubts call focal America. My KX2 tweeters, I can cross them over @ 2.5khz

 

How many decibels did you have to cut from each speaker to get down to your curve target? I’m way above it at minimal cut of dbs for imaging. I’ve cut a lot more db just to get in the target range at +3db of what curve he sent. Again it sounds clean and clear when cranked up to 25 to my Kenwood limit before distortion but below 20 it’s not very loud at all

 

I ended up boosting more than cutting. When I set the target curve to what Andy suggested, halfway between your lowest frequency and your highest frequency, I was cutting a lot, up to -9dbs. But when I moved the target curve higher by 3db’s. I was cutting less and boosting more. But I didn’t boost no more than 6db’s on a frequency I was having trouble with.

 

If you can, post a screenshot of the rta screen on what you got so far and post a screen shout of your eq settings.

 

Channel 1 driver side tweet channel 3 driver side mid channel 5 driver side woofer

 

That’s a ton of cuts on your highs. Move the target curve to -140 dbfs cuz it looks like it’s at -120 dbfs? Basically move the target curve into your frequency response and reset the resolution to show 5db increments

 

I do have my tweeters pointing directly at me from dash though. Mids are placed in oem dash corner

 

You have 3 way active with the tweeters in the sail panels? Also, check your polarity just in case. Your tweeter might be out of phase.

 

Yes I’m 3 way active with tweeters in bullet pods pointing directly across to opposite seat head rest. I checked polarity before I began tuning. It’s all good. That’s good to know about boosting 6db. I for some reason thought I didn’t need to boost more than 3 dB (maybe I read that somewhere or I dreamed it up) as far as how I set my target eq was downloading the file he sent to me then uploaded it onto rew. I followed all the step by steps to set everything up and it actually directed me to set mine up at -120 rather than -140 for some reason on the dbsf