Do you prefer to tweek your EQ or leave it flat

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

this is mines from when i had to unhook the battery the other day (took pic to put it back the same)

it's not much of an EQ, but it does help vs being flat

 

[xxxbasshead 10+ year member]

I have a 7 band graphic right now and mine is flat (9887).

this except i have a 9855 which is only 5 bands

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

That depends on the setting you have it on. It has a 5 band PEQ or a 7 band GEQ. The 9887 has the same functionality.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

Every time I mess around with EQ, eventually I end up going to flat EQ. This is what seems to sound best with my speakers. The answer is probably dependent on the speakers.

 

[Bassin Buick]

i had a alpine 9855 and preferred to keep defeat activated.

 

[Chriszle 10+ year member]

Depends. In some vehicles, I have felt the need to tweek, depending on what song I am playing. Currently, I have my eq flat and everything I play sounds good to me.

 

[artg]

what about loudness? on or off?

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

Well what I've heard other people say is makes no difference if you run it on or off...but to me it seems to add a lot of distortion. I leave it off for protection and longevity of my speakers.

 

[BnGRacing 10+ year member]

My thoughts on EQs is you should set it and never touch it again.

You EQ your system so that you get the best response possible from the car & equipment; it has nothing to do with what music you're listening to. Most, if not all, EQs that you'll find in a HU ****. They either sound bad, don't give you the flexibility you need, and I'm not aware of any affordable HU w/an EQ that has different settings for the Left and Right channels.

That last part is key as your car's interior is not symmetrical; so the response will be different on either side.

With that, I'll tweak once and never touch it again unless I change crossover points or the speakers.

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

My thoughts on EQs is you should set it and never touch it again.
You EQ your system so that you get the best response possible from the car & equipment; it has nothing to do with what music you're listening to. Most, if not all, EQs that you'll find in a HU ****. They either sound bad, don't give you the flexibility you need, and I'm not aware of any affordable HU w/an EQ that has different settings for the Left and Right channels.

That last part is key as your car's interior is not symmetrical; so the response will be different on either side.

With that, I'll tweak once and never touch it again unless I change crossover points or the speakers.

I think everyone wants to tune their EQ just once and never touch it again. Thing is you can have it perfect for the music you're listening to and some other kind of music it sounds like crap. You either have diff presets or make one thats all around the best for you. That being said eq changes affect different instruments in different ways and tends to create peaks/valleys very easily if you don't know what you are doing...therefore a lot of people that halfway know what they're doing leave it flat. IMO the only ones who don't have it flat seem to be those who are really picky and know what they are doing or its people who have garbage systems and are trying their hardest to compensate to make it sound decent.

I'm just kind of curious how people go about setting it, I figured take one frequency band at a time and adjust to find what sounds best for that frequency, the issue I run into is that adjusting that to sound it's best will affect the rest of the eq and now some other band might sound worse, I end up not being able to find an effective way to set it except just playing around with it and listening to every change for hours and hours. Is that really the best/easiest way to do it?

 

[bhsdriller 10+ year member]

this is mines from when i had to unhook the battery the other day (took pic to put it back the same)
it's not much of an EQ, but it does help vs being flat

I hate it when I take off my battery and it resets everything....Then you have to go in and try to remember where everything was

 

[BnGRacing 10+ year member]

I think everyone wants to tune their EQ just once and never touch it again. Thing is you can have it perfect for the music you're listening to and some other kind of music it sounds like crap.

That's why you EQ for the car and not the music you're listening to. If the system is set up right, everything will sound good or, at the least, it will reveal poor recordings. When you try to make a poorly recorded piece of music sound good via EQing, you run into the problem you've stated before.

I'm generally pretty good at hearing weird peaks in a car but my ears are not a substitute for an RTA.

 

[thisistiny 10+ year member]

what about loudness? on or off?

People elaborate more on this please? I know it sends clipping signals. But I do keep mine on low. I have a pioneer avh-4200dvd

 

[Sub Woofin 10+ year member]

tweak

 

[dumple 5,000+ posts]

i do tweak it but only above like 600 hz usually