Having problems tuning my system..

[seanzy13]

I'v had this system for quite some time now, but ever since I let the car sit and battery go dead I'v never been able to find the original settings I had that sounded great. The issue is bass. I can tune it to sound great on one song, but others require a change in settings again and some just never manage to sound like they used to. I should also note that the entirety of my music collection comes from an Ipod, and I realize the quality and settings of each audio file will differ. I try to always use very high bit rate rips, and get rid of bad quality ones I find. I do use Sound Check on the ipod. Now for the system:

Head unit: Alpine CDA-9857, has standard bass and treb settings, BBE mode, sub level, etc.

Sub Amp: Alpine V12 MRD-M1005 1000w RMS, digital gains, bass boost lvl, crossover, subsonic filter

Sub: JL 13w6 in large ported enclosure.

I also have a kenwood amp and some components up front who's brand name escape me atm, but that amps and speakers settings are easy enough to tune on my own.

Now for settings: Amps bass boost is at 0, crossover 80hz, subsonic 15hz, Gain is 0.2 (one tick below highest possible gains). Heat unit settings: sub level 9, bass +2, treb -2, 80hz sub crossover, BBE mode 3. Anything else relevant please ask about.

I'm not sure how to handle the BBE system on the HU first off. It makes music sound good, and bass hit harder, but only below volume level 22, past that it bypasses the sound processor. Should I tune my system to be as loud as I want it at vol 22 and keep BBE on, or shut it off and bypass it completely in favor of manual tuning?

My gains on the amp seem rather high, but it seems that I need it this high to get the bass level that I desire, I'm not sure why. Perhaps quality of the RCA cables and voltage of the HU's output has something to do with this. I run at sub level 9/15 usually, I normally adjust this setting to suit the song playing. Perhaps my idea on how to set this is wrong. I basically set both to 50% and went from there until the bass was desirable, which for me seemed to be one tick below the highest possible gain setting.

The issues I notice is uneven bass response. I know there wont be a prefect universal setting for all my songs, but I do recall the sound was alot more even when I first installed the system many years ago.

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[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

i keep the MX or BBE off and try to run the HU volume to 30-35. Alpine has clean output at max volume when you keep the sound processing off. sound processing like MX and BBE sounds good at low volumes, as you've found. but i prefer better signal to noise ratio and less distortion.

you want your system to have good linearity. that means the sound (bass, mid, treble) are balanced throughout the volume range.

I tune using IASCA test CD's, JM Labs demo CD's, Autosound 2000, and a selection of well recorded CD's i've listened to many times. I never tune from compressed music or new "equal loudness - limited" music. New music lacks dynamics so you won't get the desired low end punch. you have to go back to the 80's to find really well recorded music. in the 90's music started to be changed for the benefit of radio playback, and in the 2000's it was changed again for the benefit of portable music player playback. certainly, there are some studios that maintain proper dynamics, finding them is a challenge.

get yourself some good test CD's. turn off BBE. lower sub amp gain and lower speaker amp gains. when you start to reach volume 30 you'll have a strong signal going back to the sub amp, so your amp gains need to be lower. adjust your speaker amp gains to balance with the sub. listen at vol 10, 20, 25, and 30 - you want linearity.

 

[seanzy13]

Thanks for the info, it was a great help. I will have to locate some bass test CD's perhaps the local electronics store will have something. I haven't listened to real cd's in about 6 years now, so I'm not sure the CD player actually even works.

I followed the procedure with the music I had available and I'm very happy with the way it sounds up around 30-35, very clear. The bass sounds good, but sadly I was only able to drop 1 more tick in gain to reach the desired level of bass, i'm now at 0.3v gain (2 ticks from highest possible setting). I shut off BBE, and turned the bass setting of the HU down to +0. Sub level is still set around 9.

I'm curious on what I should be doing with the bass adjustment on the HU and the bass boost setting on the amp. I'm not sure exactly how the amp bass boost works, but the HU allows me control over frequency, slope, and obviously bass level, in addition to subwoofer level. Should I perhaps be adding some bass boost and lowering the gain, or is that a bad way to compensate?

I still notice areas in the bass response that are a bit low, and I guess to determine where that is I need to obtain a CD with various different freq test tones before I go any further.

 

[EvilEd]

Since you mention that it's been this way ever since you let your battery die, the battery could be the problem. I recently was experiencing the same problem, my battery was about 4 years old and I had let it die about 6 times during its life. I drive a lot so the battery was still taking a charge and didn't seem bad but it just wasn't providing the power I needed about 6 months of that and the battery could barely hold a charge at all and the car wouldn't start if I played the stereo too loud without driving on the freeway. I replaced the battery about a month ago and it's been solid ever since.

On a side note check your connections and the speaker box for damage.