Courtesy of Matt Borgardt of Image Dynamics:
1) Set gains
2) Set x over points
3) Repeat rules 1 and 2 till you get a balance in the system, do not worry about the stage height or if the sub is in front of you or in back of you at this time...
4) Must have at least some good music to listen to. A test disc would be best (NO HIP HOP or mp3) My 14 year old son can record better...
5) Listen for the height of the system (is it near eye level or low like mid dash or leg level)
6) flip the phase of both Mids so that they are out of phase with the tweeters. Listen to the system again. You may only need to flip one mid out phase to make this work....
Remember to only do one thing at a time and right it down so that you do not repeat a step...
7) Repeat steps 4 threw 6 till you get the stage height near eye level
8) Now listen to the sub, I f the sub seems to anchor in the back of the can flip the phase on the subs and listen again...
9) Listen to the system and see if your balance is correct repeat step 1 and 2 if needed...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is courtesy of Chuck Music, IASCA Judge and Competitor:
1. Set all bands flat, as well as the head unit bass and treble.
2. Turn off the subs. Using music with a good bass line, run the highpass crossover up and down until the midbasses can play as low as possible without any distortion or excessive door panel vibrations.
3. Unhook the mids and tweeters [for a 3-way system, for a 2-way system you only need to worry about unhooking the tweeter], allowing only the midbasses to play. Listen to mono pink noise or a well-recorded song with a centered vocalist. Test CDs such as the IASCA test CD or Autosound 2000 Test CD 102 or 103 will work great. Listen to where the centered sounds are coming from. Then reverse the polarity of one midbass (Reverse the speaker wires coming from the passive crossover and going to the speaker, just flip the positive and negative wires. I usually flip the driver’s side speaker.) and re-listen to the test CD. If the sounds are more centered then keep it as is. If the centered sounds are more diffuse and un-locatable, then flip the polarity back to where it was originally.
4. Then unhook the midbasses and play the mids only and follow the same polarity and listening tests as before. Mark your best settings. [this step is only necessary for a 3-way system. If you have a 2-way system, proceed on to the tweeters]
5. Do the same procedure for the tweeters.
6. When you have tested for the proper polarity from all three ranges of speakers, hook all of them back up with respect to each set of speaker’s best polarity. You can have any combination of polarity, such as all the midbass and tweeters straight and one midrange reversed.
7. Now you should have the correct “acoustic†polarity set within each set of speakers. Next is to set the acoustic polarity between the sets of speakers.
8. Listen to some very familiar music with a good range of sounds. Then flip both midbass’ polarity and listen again. Before you only flipped one midbass, now you are doing both at the same time. For example if the left midbass was reversed and the right was not before, now the left will be not reversed and the right will be. Listen to the music again. If the midbass is more powerful and full then leave the wiring as is. If the midbass sounds weaker and wrong then restore the wiring as before.
9. Perform the same listening tests while flipping the mids and tweeters, and use the wiring configuration that sounds the best.
10. If you have went though all these steps adjusting the polarity of the speakers then the system should sound really good without any eq adjustments. You might want to play with the gain adjustments on the crossover and/or amp to better blend all the speakers together.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then you need to sound deaden, sound deaden and sound deaden some more. Floors, doors, etc etc. Underdash pads (cardboard with thick foam and carpet) and dash mats can help also. If you have a center console, cover it with something non-reflective. You can line the inside of your kickpanels with clay to reduce their resonances. Maybe try re-aiming your kicks if you still have the materials and some free time.
Only after all this stuff (and more) has been done should you start worrying about the EQ.
Some good sound quality forums to check out are
http://forum.elitecaraudio.com/ and
http://www.carsound.com