Gain settings/Tuning problems

[Kickstand Premium Member]

So I know how to set the gains using the multimeter but this seems flawed to me.
Is setting the gains not just matching the output from the head unit.
So my question is shouldn't the output voltage of the RCA's not be part of the equation.
Is there a way to factor it in or is this just a by ear kinda thing cuz that doesn't seem very technical and differs from person to person
I'm trying to tune my new system and I'm basically using the same equipment from my old setup the difference being a 4 volt pre out HU in the old and a RF 360.3 with 8 volt pre outs in the new and nothing is even close
I tell you between the 360.3 and the Bose surround sound this car is kicking my ass but I have done everything from make the box to making fiberglass pods for the front doors myself and refuse to take it in to a shop.
I started this **** and I'm going to be the one to finish it.
On to the other problem
My front components
Ampere Audio 6.5" Dream series components running active off a DD Cb 5 (100x4)
Front chanel runs the 6.5's rear runs the tweeters
The amp is set to all pass on the crossover
360.3 settings
Tweeters -3k-20k 12 db slope
mids- 80-3k
sub- 20-80
The sub is fine
In fact the only problem with the bass was I forgot about the air vents in the trunk and had to rip everything apart and pull them out and cover the hole to stop the rattle
The front end is a little sketchy to say the least
It gets loud, but not the actual voice in the song.
I turned off all the Bose crap (infinti q 50 w/14 speaker bose) in the HU
Still sounded like ****
So I turned the surround volume all the way down this made things a hell of a lot better but still the actual voice in the song is quiet. its better but not nearly as loud as the rest of the music playing
Is there some setting in the 360.3 that will compensate for this that I'm missing
I'm guessing because I don't have the rest of the Bose system playing that its putting the voice out to a center or virtual center speaker

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[JW266]

I know nothing of the 360.3 but I do know that integrating dope **** into a bose system is just not gonna work. Bose uses dark matter in all of their products. ****'s like DJI for drones or Apple for computers. Modding is just not possible.

My Lexus had the Mark Levinson system which only had 9 speakers and they use the weirdest ****. The rear speakers are 4" mids and play some weird combination of frequency ranges. When playing only the rears it doesn't even sound like music.

You can definitely bring up the vocals with your crossover points and eq. Depending on your tweeter location. With my pioneer hu I use from 500hz up to 3.15khz to raise or lower vocals. Also try lowering your xover point (if your tweeters can handle it). I always have my tweets up at or above the dash and as on axis as possible. Lowering the xover gets more of the vocals coming from the tweeter and makes them clearer and more prominent. Obviously that's just my experience.

For gain setting you don't need to bring the preout voltage into the equation because you're using the output voltage tomatch the amp to the headunit. Easiest way I can explain it. Gain = exponential multiplier. The higher the preout voltage you feed the amp the lower the gain setting will have to be to hit that rated output. If you had 2 volt preout you would have to turn the gain up much higher than if you have 8-volt preout to get the same output. It also like calibrates the amp to the HU so that as you raise the volume on the HU the amp will up it's "multiplier" value so that your volume knob stays linear (or as close to linear as possible).
When you hit full tilt on your HU the amp will also be at full tilt.

 

[Kickstand Premium Member]

Thank you

 

[YourNameHere 10+ year member]

Have you eq'd all channels with RTA seperately? Or just have crossovers set?

 

[Kickstand Premium Member]

I've done them all separately
I think I have exhausted every function of the 360.3 looking for a way to compensate for the surround sound on the Bose.
It sounds bad enough that If I can't find a fix for it I'm going to wire in a separate HU and totally bypass the bose while still leaving it in place.
I'm fairly sure I can fit it in my center console
Ther other thought I had was adding another amp and speakers to the front and tapping what the Bose is using for center channel for them
This means new pods for the front doors and I swore if I ever had to deal with fiberglass or bondo again.....

 

[YourNameHere 10+ year member]

Yeah yer gonna have a frustrating hell of a time tuning with factory processing goin on...