Here is the equipment:
Alpine 9851
CDT components w/ x-over's in the trunk
JL Audio 10w6 (well box)
MBQuart RAA4200 (spare tire mount)

I have two channels to the CDT's and the rears are bridged to the sub.

here is the situation. I had my car in storage for the winter (battery on a tender). I took it out for some work only to realize that everything was reset. At first I thought the Sub wasn't working but closer inspection showed it was, just at very very low volume.

I then starting playing with the settings. I turned the sub to "on", turned on BBE3.
In order for me to get any base out of the sub, I have to turn the base and subwoofer settings on the deck practically all the way up. The power to the sub just doesn't seem there like it was before the settings were reset. The sub used to rattle the convertible tray it had so much power. Now I'm struggling to get clean powerful base out of it.

What would you guys try first? It seems as if the gain to the sub is powered down. I did however turn up the Bass (at 60,80,100) and turned the sub to "on" as well as the "subwoofer" setting up to "09" out of 10.

I know my battery was struggling before I put it away for the winter (although it started fine after being on the tender). Could this be the problem?

One last question (and this may be dumb) but can you keep your battery terminals connected to the car with a tender connected to them? I'm inclined to say no and I did not have it this way.

Thanks in Advance!

 

I'm thinking it shouldn't make a difference if you had the battery hooked up, or not. For long term storage, I have always disconnected the battery.

As for your audio problems... are they happening with the car running, or are you just running it off the battery? If you're battery's low, yes it will foul your audio. Older batteries do not recover well from a full discharge. Sounds like your tender didn't do it's job.

Running your car should provide 12V+ to your system, and power your system up as before. Maybe one of the EJ's could jump in and provide other suggestions. Sounds like you need a new battery anyway.
-golfpro

 

Sounds like you just lost all of your presets. Here are mine.....I have the same HU and close to the same amp (mine is 110wrms instead of 200, but the sub is bridged at 440wrms).

Bass: +4
Treble: +5
Sub: +5-7 (anything more and the Boston rattles EVERYTHING!)
Center the bass at 80 htz. Play with this and see which frequency matches your music most. Some like it higher at 100htz, but that is when the major rattles start in my car. I would also play around with the "Q" setting in this screen as well. Once you have a frequeny selected, press "band" and you will see a number appear between 1-4. 1 being the tightest curve (almost a "spike" at the selected frequency). 4 being the flattest (will boost surrounding frequencies more than in the lower settings, resulting in a flatter curve). I would use the lower settings (1-2) if you are trying to unload bass onto the sub from the components. Use the higher settings (3-4) if you like more bass-midbass from the drivers.

I have the treble set at 10khtz. Just personal preference. If you listen to a lot of vocals, I would chose 7.5-10.0khtz. If you listen to jazz, instrumentals, anything that goes HIGH, I would select the higher ones (12.5-15.0khtz).

Also, check the input level on the amp, as well as the gain and crossover settings. You will want the x-over setting as close to the frequency selected on teh HU for the bass (whether it be 60,80, 100, etc.). You want the input signal as close to the pre-amp out of the HU (2V for the 9851's case). You will want the gain to a level where it sounds good to your ears. If any of these settings on the amp are off, it could DRASTICALLY affect the sound coming out of it.

John

 

My battery did die twice from me leaving my cabin lights on. That coupled with two winters in storage with no tender have certainly limited its live. Only this year did I put it on a tener.

My problems are happening with the car running.

Hey JWA, are you using BBE at all? Am I safe to asume that I shouldn't need to touch anything on the amp since again this was just a power reset. I believe on my amp all of those controls are analog anyhow.

And of course I wen to pull out the manual for the deck, but it wasn't in the box Maybe I can get it off of Alpine's site.

 

Nope....no BBE for me. Too artificial sounding. I think all BBE is is a preset EQ curve (kinda overrides the bass and treble gains you set with its own). If I use BBE, it sounds WAY too muddy / bass heavy.

I was not sure with regard to the amp settings, so I went ahead and mentioned it. I think its just the fact that all of your tuned settings were lost, and you are now working from a bass-line EQ. I think once you set the treble, bass, sub, and frequency centers with the width for the bass, it should be fine.

Also, if you set the center for the bass setting on a different level than the x-over on the amp (higher at the HU), it will be upping the level of a frequency that gets cut by the amp anyways. You will want the frequency center at, or below, the x-over point. 80 is a good setting. Anything around 60 or below, and the bass becomes non-directional (just sounds like bass, but you cant tell where its coming from).

Yes - you can download the manual off Alpine's site. Just click on the 9851 under the HU section, and there should be a link towards the top, off to the side, that is the owner's manual PDF.

John