Tuning subwoofer with aftermarket head unit help!

Alright I am at a loss. After reading up and looking at different ways of tuning my sub I am at a loss. I don't know anything that comes to audio so would like some help! I know it is to personal preference but I need some help getting to that point

My headunit is fh-x700bt pioneer and my sub

$150 Rockville RW10CA 10" 800 Watt Slim Low Profile Active Powered Car Subwoofer Sub, Black

Rockville RW10CA 10" 800 Watt powered sub. Here is what the back of my sub looks like. There is a knob for low pass filter, bass boost, and gain. Also a button for phase shift which I don't think comes into play

My headunit has way too many settings and numbers that I don't know do what so here is the run down.
HPF setting (high pass filter) - off, 50, 63, 80, 100, 125, 160, or 200 hz with an accompanying slope level of -6 or -12
Bass boost - 0 to +6
Sub.W CTRL (subwoofer adjustment) - 50, 63, 80, 100, 125, 160, 200 hz with output level -24 to 6 and slope level of -6 or -12
Sub.W (subwoofer on/off setting) - NOR - normal phase, REV - reverse phase, OFF - sub off
Loudness - off, low, mid, high

Help would be great and any tips or songs/tones to test out my sub would help a lot!

Thanks

 

I tried the crutchfield guide but I don't know where the radio should be at

 

There are a lot of sites out there that explain how to setup your system. I find the most helpful articles on diymobileaudio.com also stevemeadedesigns.com has some good info too.

Here are 2 quick links to sites that talk about setting up your system.
http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/4319-sq-how-to-tune-your-system-a-must-read/
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...our-car-using-pc-based-measurement-setup.html

The quick way to setup your current system:
1. Set HPF to 63, 80, or 100. If you have aftermarket speakers in your doors 63-80 should work. If you have stock then 80-100 would probably be better. What this setting is doing is keeping your small speakers from trying to produce sounds below that level Hz thus reducing distortion.
2. Set slope to -12 so the setting above cuts off the sound quickly after the desired HPF setting.
3. I like to put bass boost to 0, but if you are not getting enough mid range out of your speakers put it at 3 that way you can go up or down based on the songs you are listening too.
4. Seeing that we took away the sounds below a certain Hz in step 1 we now need to fill those with the sub, so if you set the HPF to 63, 80, or 100 then set the sub.w ctrl to 63, 80, or 100. That way the sub will play the tones that the speakers are not playing, and the speakers play the tones that the subwoofer is not playing. Once caveat to this is if you set your HPF to 63 or 80 you may want to set your sub.w ctrl to that level or higher. Most subwoofers in the 10" size can play well into the 150hz range so by setting the Hz level on the sub.w ctrl to a higher level than the HPF will give you more midrange fill due to the fact that the sub and the speakers will both be creating the tone.
5. Set the sub.w to NOR then listen to your radio. Next set the sub.w to REV and listen to the same song. Which setting sounds better? On a properly setup system it should be NOR because that means all the speakers are extending at the same time (in the same phase).
6. Loudness gives a little extra oomph to your system at lower levels that way you can hear stuff without having to crank your system up. In my car I usually have it set to mid because I like to hear the mid-tones better at lower levels.

The normal setting to tune your system is 2/3 to 3/4 of full volume. By this I mean if your stereo goes up to 30 on the volume knob then 2/3 of 30 would be 20 and 3/4 would be 23. Set your stereo to level to somewhere between 20 and 23 for setting the sub gain.

 

Thank you! That is exactly what I needed. The little book with for the radio doesn't help much. I'm glad I know what each does now. I will definitely check out the links too.
I also have the little adjustment know for bass level. I put that in the center so I can either turn it down or up depending on song.
Thanks again, just in time too for my road trip today

 

So I followed the advice above.

Radio:

HPF = 125 (just changed from 100 before posting this) : -12
Loudness = mid
sub .w = nor
sub w. con = 125hz : 0:-12

Sub:

low pass filter knob : 11oclock
bass boost knob : 12oclock
Gain: 2oclock

My question is when I turn up the bass level remote control knob past about half way it sounds like thunder. Also when I turn the volume down to zero and rotate the knob past half way it makes the same noise. What can I do to not have this happen?