Adjusting Volvo HU-803 equalizer

[sanpt7777]

Hello guys

Haven't been active on the forum. I had a VW when I joined the forum, I wanted to upgrade the sound but it was crashed. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/general-discussion/607202-replacing-car-system.html

After some time without a car, I now have a 2004 Volvo S60.

It has a very nice sound system, I think it's the high performance audio, just below the Premium audio.

Well, it has eq options for Bass/treble Fader/Bal and Centre/effect

Centre is just the volume for central speaker on the dash (which is all the way up) and effect I think adjusts the mid and treble volume on the rear shelf speakers. if you turn it all the way down, they just reproduce bass

Well, my car also happens to have a secret menu on the radio which lets you fine tune the eq which has the following parameters for front and rear speakers

Front Low 1: Lowest frequencies

Front Low 2: Low fq

Front Mid

Front high

Rear Low

Rear mid

Rear high

Possible values are 0 to 6

Should I adjust this parameters first?

When I turn the volume up, the bass is great, but I start to have some kind of headache because it sounds too bright (is that the term?). I think I have too much treble. It kind of pierces your ears slowly.

I've been trying to adjust it but if I lower the highs then the snares and things like that dont quite sound right.

I'm aiming at a powerful bass but I really like overall clean and vesatile sound with a front stage. I play classic rock, alt rock, metal of all kinds, electronic and rap mainly. I really love it when a car stereo nicely covers the whole spectrum, but mine is lacking. Like either I have nice bass or crisp highs. I'm overwhelmed with the equalizers.

It's important to note I can't tune the secret eq while listening to music. It goes silent when you enter the menu.

I'm guessing it would be ideal to put higher bass values at the back, with mids at the middle and highs at something like 4 out of 6?

Rear bass 6

rear mid 3

rear high 4

And then leave the mids and mid lows to the front speakers.

I will be eventually upgrading my speakers to the Premium speakers, but now my setup is

Center chanel 6.2" coaxial

Front doors 6.5" and 1" tweeters

Rear doors 6.5"

Rear shelf 8"

This is a pic of the Premium audio, mine doesnt have the 3" nor the rear shelf tweeters, but I'll get the front 3" eventually along with the 8" (they come together) I hope they are plug and play



Thanks a lot in advance

EDIT:

This are my front speakers, they are 6.5" and they certainly have powerful bass, but I think the 8" coupled to the 3" would perform better tan this. The 3" goes where that curvy plastic is

Click to read more...

 

[gimling]

snares should be more on your midrange bank. and it sounds like your correct on bright/harsh here is a link to help you with the instrument frequncies Interactive Frequency Chart - Independent Recording Network, factory unit your going to be limited with what you can do, but maybe that link can help you with your adjustments, i would probly up the mids a notch and back off slightly on your highs,

 

[sanpt7777]

Wow that link is really useful. I remember seeing something like that before, if not the same, but never ocurred to me to use it. I mean, I forgot its existence completely

I appreciate a lot.

My guess is I should tune the "secret" eq first, while leaving the knobs on the radio all in the middle, and then fine tune that? Or the other way around?

Or tune fade/bal and rear shelf s´peakers first and then tune the frequencies using the chart as a reference?

 

[wanderer1]

that's quite a factory sound system

 

[gimling]

yeah i would leave everything on the radio flat, tune your "secret" eq and then use radios adjustments to your song preference. but yeah thats a pretty nice factory setup.

 

[sanpt7777]

It is a nice setup indeed, but that is the premium audio. I just posted it as a reference.

Here is a corrected version of mine, I have the high performance, which is a step below premium but quite good actually. It just needs balancing the eq but I'm not experienced xD

It doesn't seem to need a subwoofer with the two rear speakers. I can only imagine the quality of the premium setup. Anyway, here's mine



I'm gonna shine a light over the rear shelf speakers to see if there are tweeters on top of the woofers, I can't see them from below, only the woofers are visible.

I'll try tuning the HU now that I'm home. Ill tune the lower frequencies towards the rear. I'll tell you how it went using the chart and tuning the secret eq first.

Thanks guys

 

[sanpt7777]

Hey guys, couldn't update before.

I did tune the eq

I find it to be better now. Gimling, you were right about lowering the highs and increasing the mids. It's not perfect though, but I can't further tune it because I'm using an FM transmitter to reproduce my music, the quality is not that good and CD doesn't work. Maybe it's the noise what gives me a headache?

I tuned it like this:

Front Low1: 5

Front Low2: 5

Front Mid: 6

Front High: 5

Rear Low: 5

Rear Mid: 4

Rear High: 5

I think I made a mistake tuned it because I tuned the eq using Pro Logic on, I'll tune it again in 3 channel mode, because sitting in the back with Pro Logic, the sound is awful. All you hear is bass. It feels almost as if the car had a sub woofer. On the front it's good though, and the bass is great.

I want to find a good balance where the equalization is good for both Pro Logic and 3 channel mode. I would use Pro Logic when I'm alone or with other person, but if there's people in the back I'll disable Pro Logic and leave it on 3 channel mode.

By the way, the rear shelf speakers have tweeters on top of the woofers.

Also, seating in the back, I found the rear door speakers to sound awful, maybe because I had Pro Logic on [it creates a front stage automatically].

For you guys with sound systems tuned towards SQ, how is your eq set?