So. I've been trying to adjust everything, and I'm getting pretty frustrated. It seems like my HU is doing a lot of the controlling of how my sub performs, and I can't seem to get it balanced out. Sometime I can't even hear/feel the sub over my woofers, and then other times it's hitting really hard, and vibrating the rear tray. I can't seem to figure it out, so I'm asking for advice/opinions.

My Bass Center (Fo) is adjustable from 60, 80, 100, and 200. I have it set at either 60 or 80. I keep adjusting it between those two.

My Bass Bandwidth (Q) is adjustable between 1, 1.25, 1.5, and 2. I have it set at 1.25. (Manual Note: Changes the boosted bass bandwidth to wide or narrow. A wider setting will boost a wide range of frequencies above and below the center frequency. A narrower setting will boost only frequencies near the center frequency.)

My Treble Control is left at the stock 10k Hz.

My High Pass is adjustable between 80 Hz, 120 Hz, 160 Hz and Off. I have it set at 120 Hz. I'm assuming this controls the rate between the woofers, and my subwoofer crossover point, which is why I have it set at 120 Hz.

I have my gain set to about 1/4-1/2, My Bass Boost is set at about 3db, My Subsonic filter is set at 25-30 Hz roughly, My LPF is set at about 80 Hz-100 Hz. On my HU, I have the Subwoofer Volume set to 15 (Range 0-15), and Bass level set to 2 (0-7?). Treble, Balance, and Fade are set to 0. Loudness and Defeat are off.

Running out of ideas. Any input would help. I got a multimeter, but I didn't find a Max/Min aka Peak feature on it. It's a Fluke 77 BN if anyone knows better than I do. I checked the resistance for the sub at the speaker terminals on the amp, and I get ~1.5 ohms, so according to my amp spec's, it should be running between (1 ohm mono 1500WRMS and 2 ohm mono 800WRMS). So I figured roughly 1000 WRMS. I noticed spikes on the scale of 30 Volts, which was equal to 600 RMS. Don't know if anyone has any better ways to check.

I know this is a pretty Technical set of questions/information. As I said, any help would be greated appreciated.

 

Ok, first thing I would do is drop your Sub volume on the HU to 0 and the bass boost to 0. Let the gain on the amp do it's thing to make the bass louder, not the HU or boost (the amp is far more effective/efficient and you'll have better SQ for it). Bass boost, of any kind - amp or HU, has a specific frequency that it boosts. Using this boost can negatively affect the bass as you're boosting only a small part of the frequency range (usually around 60hz or so) - making the bass boomy or seemingly intermittent as the bass plays outside the boosted range.

After that, if your complaint is that the bass still doesn't seem balanced, what music/media are you listening to when you're attempting the tune? Are you using a CD, MP3 or the radio? Here's a hint: If you're not using a CD, the quality of the rip is going to make a big difference. And I wouldn't even try with the radio (my experience has been that some radio stations like to boost the bass artificially, making the music in my car/truck overly boomy). The music you listen to to tune makes a big difference as well. I usually try to tune with classical or something like "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as performed by Steve Vai, etc. The idea is to use a high quality source that will cover all the frequency ranges - tuning using a rap song that has only a few low freqs (even if they're the same over and over, there's just not that many) will give you an unnatural sound when you switch to something else (or even a different rap song).

 

I agree completely with NS--turn off all the bass boost / increase / enhancement when you're getting it set up. And on a common media for your tuning, you may want to download the second focal disc. You can at least use it for tuning your bass.
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/diy-mo...y-download.html

If you haven't already learned how, search DIYMA for a how-to on tuning your system using a test disc. Basically you want to get a flat response as you sweep frequencies so your audio reproduction is as realistic as possible. You can certainly add EQ enhancements later to suit your taste and the music style if you want, but first you should get it realistic so you have a common setup.

The LPF on the sub and the HPF on the speakers generally are NOT linked. This means you probably have a gap between 80/100Hz and 120Hz, as you have a LPF on the sub that is at a lower frequency than the HPF on the speakers if I understood you right. Do you know the rate of dropoff of those crossovers? That will affect this gap dramatically. Generally you desire to have a small frequency gap between the LPF and the HPF that has controlled slopes. Otherwise both speakers are adding sound in the "gap" frequency range, so it sounds too loud. Now, if you have 24dB/octave crossovers as your only option, I'd probably set it to the same frequency. But if it's 6dB/octave for example you'd probably want a range.

Also, if your subsonic filter is set at 30Hz, its not subsonic anymore. It's cutting the lowest bass frequencies from your subwoofer. I'd set it to 15Hz or something just below 20Hz, as that's generally considered to be the lower threshold of hearing.

 

The HPF is set on my headunit, not my crossover.

I know the slope for my subwoofer amp is 24db, and I just looked up my component amp, and it says 12 db slope. I haven't adjusted my component amp at all. That's another part of my project. None of the settings I listed were from my Component amp. All those setting were Headunit, except the ones I specifically said were for my sub amp, which would be the short paragraph that starts with "I have my gain set to"

Going to do some more tweaking with it as soon as I replace my gas door line. My tank is running on E

I'll leave my trunk panels out when I start tweaking with my amp settings and such. Should hopefully be able to do that tomorrow night, depending on if my parts come in tomorrow, and if it's a quick install.

I got some Test Tones from SSA's site. They have frequency loops (intervals of 1 hz), so I got a 50, 60, and 80 hz to test my gain on my sub amp. I'm just going to loop it on my iPod, and test the voltage that way.

How would I go about using those cd's? Any specific way to set my settings using them?

 

Update: In the process of reinstalling everything again, and adjusting my settings. Going to change the way my Amp in the toolwell is mounted, so I can hide the wiring. Going to purchase about 6 feet of 4 gauge locally, to extend my power wire around the outside of the sub box, and come from basically the license plate, to the middle of the toolwell.

Also need to find a 5-6 meter RCA cable to do the same with my RCA's, cause 4 meters is pretty much directly too the tool well, with no slack. So if anyone is looking for a 4 meter RCA, let me know, I'll probably be selling this one soon.

Need to order MORE clips, because I plan on replacing all the shitty ones I reused in the trunk, just to make it easier. I think I mixed up the short and long ones, which is causing problems, so I'm just going to order all long ones, and call it good. Probably order 10-20 more.

Haven't started on the Big 3, that's a project for next week maybe.

Haven't been able to get that passenger door grommet in... Still frustrated with that every time I try.

Haven't taken my door panels off. That's a project I'm going to attempt to work on tonight.

Thanks for all the support and help guys.

 

Sounds like a lot of work, but you have a great system put together!

The link I posted has 6 focal discs that are to test your stereo out. The second one is a set of only test tones, sweeps, etc. It's supposed to be great for tuning.

I can't talk you through the process explicitly, but basically you'll take test tones of equal volume and different frequency. You change your settings until the test tones output the same volume as you sweep up and down the frequency spectrum--so that it's not louder at 60Hz than at 80Hz or vice versa, but it's equal across the board. Then you don't have artificial sound coloring your music.

I think I'm going to finally do my install next weekend. I'll probably make a thread and take a lot of pictures.

 

So, I removed the Bass boost on my sub, Set my subwoofer volume on my headunit to 12 (0-15), bass to +1, treble 0, balance/fade 0, and my amp remote to max. Checked the AC voltage I had when using a 60 hz test tone, and I was running 61 volts... (Not sure how accurate my multi-meter is though. It's out of calibration by about 10 years ) So I kicked it down so I was getting roughly 38.7-38.8, which at 1.5 Ohms (Which is what I get when I test the resistance through my wires, gives me 1000 WRMS roughly.

It sounds pretty good, but I noticed I had to turn my components down, so I could even hear the sub. I had to turn them down (Well, I adjusted my fader towards the rear, to see how much I'd have to compensate), and had to adjust it to -4 (-15 - +15) which is a pretty drastic drop, considering they're not audible at anything below -7 (IIRC). This also dropped my max volume down quite a bit . I haven't adjusted my gain on my component amp yet. That's a project for tomorrow.

I seemed to get it to balance out well between my woofers, and subwoofer when I turned my "High Pass Filter" on my headunit off (It's adjustable from 60, 80, 120 hz or off) The woofers seem to handle the lows REALLY well, and I can PHYSICALLY feel them through the door, as much as I can feel my woofer.

I haven't checked to see how it handles different frequencies though. I noticed on one song tonight, it hit really strong, and then on the next song, I couldn't even hear it. At All. Nothing for a bass line through the sub, but I felt it through the woofers, and I know it was below 100 hz. But I haven't check since I've adjusted it, so maybe it'll hit now?

 

How do I get it so they're all equal? I've got like 6 DMM's around the house, two in my room alone haha, so I've got plenty of multimeters.

What do I compare to see if the output is the same for the amps? Don't understand how I'm supposed to match them up.

 

Well, I was thinking do it by ear, but I suppose empirically could potentially work. For instance, you could play a 20Hz - 120Hz sweep and datalog the speaker output, then analyze that and retune. You have to take into account the fact that with varying frequency, the impedence of the speakers will vary nonlinearly. I'd have to think about it--maybe one of our EE's can just tell us. Additionally, the resonance characteristics in the car screw things up further. ... Maybe you need to measure dBs to get anything useful empirically...

But the point is you tune with a test sound that sweeps the frequency range of interest. Right now, you may be getting say 100dB @ 80Hz and ony 90dB @ 40Hz. You're transitioning with -XX dB/octave @ YY Hz. You want the area to have constant dB's reaching your ears as you sweep the frequency spread, and by manipulating the crossover frequencies and slopse you will pick the best fit. (Of course, part of this is the speakers themselves aren't linear, which is why people buy IMPRINT--they can then additionally tune out the nonlinear frequency response of speakers by coloring the input to offset it. If you want it to sound really good, you might look into this. But I don't know if IMPRINT covers crossover points.)

You this is really only going to be tuning the range from ~20-150Hz (centered around the 80Hz area) since that's the area you're trying to tune on the sub and shift into 100% woofers. Your other crossover point, mids to tweeters, is already "tuned" by the passive crossovers. So I'd find a test tone with a SLOW sweep from 20-120Hz or something like that and try to make it not sound "louder" or "softer" as it sweeps.
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For bass response, one thing that will probably make a huge difference for you (from the reports of others here) is to cut and port or remove the soft top tray entirely and dynamat (at least some of) the trunk. That will give you a direct pass-through from sub to ear with no baffling, so you'll get a lot more output from it. Hopefully that gives you the bass output you're wanting and you won't need to drop the output so much on the components!

 

Thanks for all the help. It would be nice to have some math I could work off, so I know almost EXACTLY what I should be tuning my outputs to. I'll try doing the sweep, and adjusting from there. When I'm adjusting my two amps, what settings should I be adjusting? The gain on the component amp? The LPF on both amps? Not too certain on this.

I intent to port or remove the soft top tray. It vibrates terribly. I need to look in that thread I posted on page two I believe, and see how they did it, and what they recommend. I'm considering doing 4 ports (One on each side of the headrest approximately).

Still trying to figure out my amp placement in the trunk.... Going to get some 4ga power wire locally, and try to change how I have my wires set up. I need to get a longer RCA cable though, because the 4 meter barely Stretches to where the amp is. KnuKonceptz only sells 4 or 6 meter, so I think I'm going to have to get a 6 meter. As I typed this I realized this means I'm going to have to run this new wire also FML.

Going back today to get some more clips. I'm going to buy 20 more, and just replace everything I can find. Tired of the hassle of trying to get the old clips to work.