Hey guys so I just got my alpine type r 10'' in, and I'm getting a really noticeable lag from the subwoofer to speakers up front. I'd hear everything first in the speakers, then the subwoofer hits in. I mean it's not a huge gap, but definitely bothers me. I did a quick search and I read something about adjusting timing in the speakers? How do I do that? I have an alpine 9886 as my headunit. Or is there anything else I can do/adjust to fix this?

Thanks in advance.

 

There are three things you can try, but most likely you'll have to resolve it with the third option...

1. Bad cross over point: Most synthesized electronic music would have this kind of problem if the cross over point is not set properly. Their bass beats are actually composed of mixing two distinctive bass notes (not natural decay like a real drum). Therefore, if the cross overs (or if the speakers) of the mid/high range do not extend low enough(or low pass for sub not set high enough), you'll have a dip in between the two notes, thus hearing a gap that sounds like a delay. To fix this, you can try raising the low pass frequency for the subwoofer(most likely) or lowering the high pass frequency for your mid/high speakers until they blend.

2. 180 degree phase change: You can try to reverse the phase of your sub and see if it fixes the problem. There are two ways, the proper way is to reverse the subwoofer output phase in your HU, but you cannot do that without adding the PXA-H100. The second method is to connect your amp to sub wires reversely, which means positive to negative and negative to positive. However, this means the sub woofer's cone would be firing towards itself instead of firing out wards, so to compensate for this mechanical change you'll need to lower the gain on the sub amp by about half to avoid damage to the sub woofer's spiders.

3. Proper phase alignment by time alignment: Get PXA-H100 and do time alignment or imprint. When time aligned, the subwoofer output would arrive at the same time with the speaker's output, thus no delay or cancellation on bass.

 

I set my sub amp low pass filter to 100 and my speakers amp high pass filter to 80, seems to help a lot!

Another quick question, I noticed that with the filter off on the speaker amp, my speakers have their normal bass. With it at high pass, I have no bass. I didn't bother with low pass because that sounded stupid even in my head.

What should I leave it at? I found that the shop turned the speaker amp filter off altogether before I started messing with it. Should I just leave it off?

The good news is that no matter if it's off or on high pass my sub and speakers seem to be hitting at the same time. Thanks claus!

 

Your filter shouldn't be off unless you like blowing your woofers

The Sub should be providing most of the bass, not the woofers. Woofers are mid-bass, which doesn't really "pop" the same way sub-bass should.

Basically, I'd bet that with the filter on, your door speakers blend better with the rest of the music, whereas with the filter off, you're going to find your music too bassy.

 

Ah okay, so I should leave my speaker amp on high pass filter right?

 

you want your door speakers to be on highpass and your subwoofer to be on low pass. the crossover point should ideally be around 80 for both

 

Gotcha.

I don't quite understand why leaving filter off for the speakers would blow them though. Isn't this what people without a subwoofer do?

It makes sense to filter out the lower frequencies in the speakers up front when you have a sub so it won't interfere, but why is it bad for the speakers if you don't?

 

The problem is that speakers are designed to handle specific frequencies. Anything outside of those frequencies severely impacts the power-handling capabilities of the speaker.


I would set my sub xover to 100hz, but then I like a smooth transition between the sub and woofers... In fact, I have the xover for my 12 set at 100hz.

 

So what would somebody with aftermarket speakers and an amp, but no subwoofer set his settings at? Just curious.

 

Honestly...they should set them about the same.

80-100hz (depending the specific speakers).

My Seas 7 1/2" woofers in my truck I set at a lower freq (80-100Hz) than the ScanSpeak 5 1/2" woofers I use in my car (100-125Hz)