Help with active tuning (stereo EQ vs mono EQ)

[ronjon228 10+ year member]

I now officially wish I never would had learned a thing about tuning in a car environment. No matter what I do, I can't get it right. I never realized how horribly bad the sound fields are in a moving vehicle until now. Aye...

I have my time alignment set based on my measurements and that part works great. This part I can completely comprehend and have no trouble with configuring.

However, the car is absolutely killing my frequency response from right to left side. The main problem, of which I can't do anything about, is my leg. It baffles the left woofer so much that I really can't get the sound stage right no matter what I do. The 1k to 4k range is way too heavy on the right side, and the 4k and up is too bright on the left side. No matter what I do, I can't find a happy medium.

So here's what I'm thinking:

To sure up the high end on the right side, I'm going to put my tweeter for the right on the regular x-over setting, and the left on -3db setting.

Then for the mids, I'll add a stereo EQ in and adjust that to get the 1k-4k sured up on the left side.

Does this sound like it should correct my issue, or am I simply adding too much into the loop and making things even more difficult? If this is the case, what would be the best way to go about equalizing the left and right side?

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[mrjoeyjiffy 10+ year member]

sounds good. topic closed.

actually i have no idea but sounds like an interesting topic, hope someone with actual knowledge can contribute.

 

[ronjon228 10+ year member]

Me too. I was enjoying all this SQ tuning when I first got into it. However, as time goes by, I'm enjoying it less. I will say that my SQ level and awareness has increased greatly. But this can be a double edge sword. Now it just feels like I'm spinning my wheels and I'm running out of ideas on how to get to that "sweet" spot I hear so much about. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[mrjoeyjiffy 10+ year member]

well i feel your pain im 6'6 and have big legs //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif ive always had the problem of covering up my door speaker with it.

 

[tcguy85 10+ year member]

get something with a powerful L/R EQ like the 880prs has. made a pretty good difference in my car.

 

[ronjon228 10+ year member]

Well I'm using a PC as my source right now and I've got a DSP on the computer (for my Sound Blaster card - Kx drivers) that lets me do just about anything I want. I can put seperate EQ's on any channel as well as gain controls, volume levels, time alignment, etc.

So I'm not being limited by hardware/software tuning, just can't figure out how to balance the mids and highs from right to left.

 

[tcguy85 10+ year member]

have you tried using test tones? make a test tone at whatever frequencies your hardware/software has. play them through the stereo and adjust each band until it sounds centered. it will kinda seem like another for of T/A. you won't be able to get all frequencies to sound centered but most you should be able to. that method worked wonders in my car. a lot easier that trying to make those adjustments with music.

 

[miker 5,000+ posts]

Me too. I was enjoying all this SQ tuning when I first got into it. However, as time goes by, I'm enjoying it less. I will say that my SQ level and awareness has increased greatly. But this can be a double edge sword. Now it just feels like I'm spinning my wheels and I'm running out of ideas on how to get to that "sweet" spot I hear so much about. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

Lol, and to think I'm jsut happy to have my PG RSD's.. lol

 

[ronjon228 10+ year member]

have you tried using test tones? make a test tone at whatever frequencies your hardware/software has. play them through the stereo and adjust each band until it sounds centered. it will kinda seem like another for of T/A. you won't be able to get all frequencies to sound centered but most you should be able to. that method worked wonders in my car. a lot easier that trying to make those adjustments with music.

I've actually just started to do this as well. However, it's so out of whack right now, that I simply can't get it to be centered to the point of "acceptable" to me. I really thing that if I put my tweet on the right to the regular wiring scheme (not -3db) and leave my left side tweet on -3db wiring, I should be able to work it out. If I do this, the high end on the right side SHOULD come up enough to equal the low end. Then, I can simply lower the gain on the right side to bring the image back to the center, without having to EQ anything.

 

[blackbonnie 5,000+ posts]

Lol, and to think I'm jsut happy to have my PG RSD's.. lol

lol, well they are great begginer setups, and are very nice for the money. but when you switch to higher end and you have the knowledge to go active, you will want to

 

[ronjon228 10+ year member]

Well, for the first time in about a week (bout the time I went active) I was officially able to ENJOY my music on the way home from work tonight/this morning. I ended up putting the right side tweet on the regular setting, while left side tweet is on -3db. This brightened up the highs on the right side. I then made a volume control is Kx DSP (my sound card DSP) for the right side only and turned it down to about 65-70%.

The combination of the louder highs (from the x-over setting) and louder high end of the midbass (which was already there), allows me to use the volume control on the right side, to balance everything out perfectly. I used a combination of time alignment and actual driver/tweeter balance to find the sweet spot. I can now officially say I've found it, and love it.

I do have one last question. My subs, while sounding much more "front" staged are still sort of pulling the bass behind me. I'm guessing this is mainly due to the small 5.25's in the front not being able to compensate. However, if I wanted to adjust time alignment to bring the subs a little farther forward, how would I do so? Raise the delay in the fronts, or lower it?

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

You can't use delay to move the sub forward or aft, it will always sound like it is behind you. You can make it more coherent with the front stage by messing with the phasing and then correct the path length to fix the arrival time, but you can't fix the fact that it is still behind you.