Tuning question.

Hey guys hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful Sunday. I have been working on upgrading my audio and am trying to get the amp frequencies dialed in and am curious about what settings you guys are using. I have changed the settings a few times but feel I'm missing the sweet spot somehow. Right now my base boost is at 0 the gain is about half I feel pretty good other than my hpf and lpf. At first i had the crossover point set pretty high about 175 hertz then tuned it down to about 90 and felt I lost sound quality so went back up to around 120 and it sounds better. I'm not looking for any answers just wondering what some of you more experienced guys have your systems tuned to. Thanks a bunch for any comments or replies.

 

Personally I like my mids and highs about 80-100 watts since I don’t like lower frequencies going to my door. I have a sub for 80 and below. On my stock head unit I have +2 Treble -1 Mid and -2 for bass.

 

Where you set your filters is largely determined by the speakers you are using.

Like Fattypack, most subs are low pass at 80Hz. Move your high pass accordingly, but verify the spectrum response of the door speakers first.

My personal preference is to set the sub low pass as low as I can get away with. I ran at 60Hz for a really long time because my system wasn’t capable of time alignment and it bothers me to hear sounds move back and forward through the cab, which you will definitely have with the transition set to over 80Hz.

I made a few equipment changes a little while ago, added time alignment and now I think my sub low pass is set to 80 because it’s all set to meet up at the same time so there’s no audible exchange of sounds between the door speakers and subwoofers.

 

I have seen tuning done two ways..

1. Take the FS of your high end speakers and multiply times two. (FS=65 x 2 = 130hz) and set you crossover point there with a 12db slope. Depending on your sub size, 80hz is kind of the starting point.

2. Take the FS of your high end speaker and set your crossover point just above that (FS= 65, set crossover around 90hz) and set the slope to something like 24db. Set your sub about 20 frequencies below that (example at 60hz) with a 12db or 24db slope.

Set your gains properly. Don't just "guess" where the gain sounds good. Alot of amps have a clip detector built in so you can set it.

Turn on your Subsonic filter if you are running a ported box. Set the filter to 1.5 octave below tuning port. Example box tuned to 36hz, set filter to 27hz.

 

You nailed it with the guesswork that's exactly what vie been doing. I have been going on sound alone without a real understanding of what I'm actually adjusting and how it affects the overall system. A friend recommended this site says there's lots of intelligent members here if you can wade through the bs. Thanks a bunch for the replies this gives me a few more things to look up. Sounds like I have things set to high ill dial it back a bit and go from there.

 

FYI Morel puts the high pass for those those at 350Hz.

I’d start at 315Hz or 400Hz because it’s easier to time align if you use a point where a normal 1/3 octave RTA is showing good data.

If you can’t do the time alignment then I like to just use what the manufacturer chose, assuming they have figured out the optimal place for their speakers to transition.

 

Fs x 2 is a good guideline for choosing tweeters, but doesn't apply to cone drivers - especially subs. Fs goes out the window when you put it in an enclosure as Fs is a measure of free-air resonance.

I like to set subs as low as I can get away with, but my midwoofers won't play that low and loudly in a large aperiodic space, so I'm playing my sub up to 120 Hz with a 24 db/oct slope to prevent damage to the midwoofers. Midwoofer/tweeter handoff is at 2.5 kHz - again with a 24 db/oct slope. (a little misleading as I don't use the same frequency for the handoff - I leave a gap to reduce overlap peaks.)

But there is no one-size-fits-all answer. It all depends on your equipment, install, and the cabin.