Help: Tuning 5 Band Equalizer

[Snyperx 10+ year member]

Hey everyone. I really need to tune my car stereo now that I have all my Polk speakers installed. Mu Pioneer FH-X700BT deck has a 5 band equalizer with the following bands:

80Hz

250Hz

800Hz

2.5kHz

8kHz

Can someone with some serious audio knowledge show me the ropes of truly tuning or at least point me to a good article how-to (the ones I found so far on Google are pretty weak). Thanks.

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[ciaonzo 5,000+ posts]

Looks like that is a parametric EQ which means you can choose the center frequency as well as the boost/cut, and perhpas the Q (bandwidth) of each center frequency. Read that owners manual!

A good starting point is to apply cut only. Boosting frequencies eats into your amplifier headroom and can even induce clipping on the low level outputs of your head unit.

You could start by gently reducing the 120-350hz area. Many door speakers exhibit peaky response or lack of contorl due to the dimensions/acoustics of the empty metal door. Sound honky or canny. This will help tame that and give some clarity. There's lots of important body to the music in that region so if you cut too much, it will sound thin and weak. If you find you have the right amount of cut to get rid of that honky sound but you want to add weight back to it, try gently boosting the 60-80hz region to compensate. Not too much, though.

Another area to cut is the 1khz-5khz region. This is the area that really gets in there an irritates the ear because it's most sensitive there. Google the Fletcher-Munson curve. You can cut pretty agressively here and still be okay, depends on how laid back you prefer your midrange presentation. Too much, and you will strain to hear details and overtones for the body of the music. Get it just right and you will hear things easily at low volumes but you will won't cringe at high volumes. It will seem to stay linear as you apply volume, assuming things are setup correctly between your head unit's loudness control and your amplifier's gain settings.

To finish off, you can apply some gentle boost in the 12-16khz region. Not too much or you will be sizzling and your tweets might, too. Just enough to add a bit of clarity and silky smooth quality. Airy, some like to call it.

Bass is tricky, as it depends largely on your enclosure and power. If you like midbass attack, or a solid tight kick, try a gentle boost in the the 50-80hz region. Or, you might already be perfect. Leave it. If you like the lows, you could try a gentle to modest boost in the 20-40hz region. This will sound incredible but you will very quickly run out of excursion and/or amplifier headroom. Be careful.

The trick is to take your time with each adjustment and give it time before you decide if it's enough or too much. If you hear a black and white difference, you've likely made too much adjustment. Concentrate on and area such as midrange and try to tame it, drive around a bit and see how you like it with lots of different music. Then move on to your highs and lows. with practice, you can cut down the times between adjustments because you will know what to expect.

Or you can "go hard" and shotgun that motherfucker in an hour. or so.

 

[Snyperx 10+ year member]

I just ordered a pocket oscilloscope called the DSO201 Nano that I hope to use it to help me tune my stereo. I should be able to easily see the "clipping" that occurs.

Amazon.com: DSO Nano Oscilloscope v3: Home Improvement

 

[momofx 10+ year member]

Some will say not to go only by the oscilloscope since music is dynamic. I found that setting my gains with an oscilloscope almost always had them set too low when playing music. Now setting the gain on your bass amp for spl is whole different story...