Interesting SQ observation; I may need some help

[docutech 10+ year member]

120hz highpass ? Man my little 5 1/4's would sound like subs to you then //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif Have you done anything to the doors deadening or sealant wise ? It will help a lot //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

no deadning whatsoever.

 

[bdawson72 5,000+ posts]

no deadning whatsoever.

maybe thats it

 

[docutech 10+ year member]

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif I knew it would come up sooner or later...

 

[Orion Man 10+ year member]

I have noticed a difference in the home vs car iPod situation. My buddy was demoing his new subs for me the other day, and it didn't sound the same from when he had the cd in. I think that the iPod isn't really a good SQ tool, IMO.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Seal and deaden the doors. You'll be suprised at the difference.

The big differences that you hear between the house and the car are the relative differences betwen the levels of the sub-bass, bass and mid-bass. The home is a lot easier to get mid-bass in. Typical car install leaves a large phase related hole in the response somewhere in the 150-500hz range. Below that the cabin of the car starts to boost the bass and sub bass response to levels that you just can't get in the home without going to extreme measures. A large room (even a small room in your house is a large room for these purposes) does not give you any appreciable boost on the low end making getting really low bass in the house a very difficult proposition. The typically suboptimal mounting locations of mid basses in the car makes getting good midbass response a challenge in a similar way to getting low bass in the house. Combine that with the usual lack of space for a large driver or a proper enclosure for it and it gets more challenging. IMO this is the most difficult part of getting a good sounding system in the car. Sub-bass is easy. Mids and highs are fairly straight forward. Midbass is the sticking point that can keep a good system from being a great one. A lot of the texture in music is found in the midbass region and most music just doesn't sound right unless its reproduction is addressed properly.

 

[docutech 10+ year member]

Yea "texture" that is the difference that I am hearing. Well said and great explanation!

About Deadening. I will not be keeping this car for much longer so investing time and money in in would not be beneficial for me. I know that it would make my sound much better but I just cant justify it.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

then wait.

its been since 2004 that i have been working on my system.

dont rush things. but know what you need to work on when you get to that point.

 

[Raven 10+ year member]

^ Best advice I've read in ages.

 

[docutech 10+ year member]

Ok here are the settings:

Comp Amp crossover setting:

100hz HP filter

Sub amp:

60Hz (subsonic filter set @ 30Hz, low pass slope @24db's)

HU crossover setting:

Comps:125hz, 0(zero)db, 12db slope

Sub: 80hz 0(zero)db, 12db slope

Alpine CDA9855 is the HU

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

Did you say what type of HU you are running?

Because I find my Alpine to be nasty in getting some frequencies to do what I want.

 

[docutech 10+ year member]

Cda 9855

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

Cda 9855

Same little devil I have...

I have tried 3 sets of door speakers, 2 sets of subs, 2 sets of tweeters, 3 different amps and I can NEVER get enough midrange out of them...

Until... I put my brothers 880PRS in... Go figure. I hate my Alpine...

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

It looks as though you have a giant gap in your filters in the 60-125 Hz region. Get rid of that gap. Defeat the HU crossovers if using the ones on the amps or vice versa if possible. If not possible, set them out of band i.e. really low on the HP on the amp and really high on the LP on the amp and use the filters in the HU.

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

I would disable the crossovers on the headunit and play with the crossovers on the amp. I wouldn't trust what the numbers on the amp say though. I would play around while listening to music and see if you can get some improvement.

If you don't want to do this, I would take helotaxi's route of setting the lpf on the amp as high as possible and setting the hpf on the comp amp as low as possible. From there, use your headunit and see what kind of sound you can get out of it. If you really don't notice a difference besides in excursion of the mids, then your problem is in the doors.

 

[dirthog 10+ year member]

Also deaden your doors if you haven't already to bring the midbass out. Go to the speakers forum and look for the sticky proper door deadening. It helped mine a lot.