Umbra
Hobbyist & CA Tenderfoot
Here's my setup. It's a little confusing, I apologize:
My HU has three sets of preamp outputs. I use two of them; one for front and rear stereo, component speakers, one for my subs. If I ran three sets of RCA cables I could have seperate outputs or the front and rear speakers and utilize fade, but I didn't care enough to do that. There's a setting on the amp that uses the front input for the rear as well.
So the HU goes to two amps. One for speakers, one for subs. Between the HU and amps I have two PAC LC-1, one for each set of RCAs. These knobs let me adjust the signal sent to the amps on the fly. I use the sub one as a bass knob and typically leave the speaker one alone unless I want to max the bass output, but the song is too loud, in which case I'd turn it down a little. I like to think of the HU volume knob as the master volume and I use the bass knob to quickly adjust the amps relative to one another.
Here's where I begin to question my setup. The HU (all my gear is in my sig) has a bunch of settings of its own. I had the knobs with a crappier HU prior, but liked them so I kept them, even with the more advanced replacement. Plus it's easier to adjust a physical knob than to go into the menus with a click-wheel and tinker. The HU has an adjustment for "bass", "mids" (I believe that's what it's labeled as), and "treble" I couldn't tell you what frequencies these adjust; it doesn't seem to say it in the manual, only that you can select the frequency on the more advanced model. Each of these goes from -8 to +8; default is 0. You can select them to your liking as a "custom" EQ. There's also preset EQs for various types of music. These simply skew the after mentioned levels to better suite the music. In addition, there's also loudness, bass boost, and subwoofer level. I don't use any of these, though.
When I set up my amps I turned the LC-1 knobs all the way up as well as the volume knob on the head unit. I also set the EQ to "powerful" because those had the highest values for the different frequencies (i.e. +8 to bass). That way, my girlfriend could theoretically turn everything up and put powerful EQ on without blowing anything, I'd just tell her not to touch SW level, bass boost, or loudness; I wouldn't have to get more technical than that.
The HPF on my sub amp is set to 70Hz and I believe my speakers are set to 80Hz, though I might play with these settings, maybe bump up the subs to 80 and see how it sounds. of course I'll have to redo the gains. I've been doing those with a sine wave generator app via digital input and an oscilloscope. Even with everything maxed and +8 bass on, nothing's clipping.
Here's what I'm pondering, and why I made this thread. The bass adjustment on the HU affects both amps. The way I set it, I need the HU volume, the LC-1 knob, and the bass setting on the HU to all be maxed to achieve maximum output for the subs, but that +8 setting still affects the speakers. I've tested various frequencies: 40, 45, 50, 60, 70, 75, 1000hz, etc to make sure they the speakers do not receive a clipped signal at any time with the HU set like this - and they don't. I definitely feel more of a bump from them when they're given +8 bass (I assume from somewhere around the 75Hz range), but I intended them to act as speakers, not necessarily midbass drivers. It this detrimental to the speakers, or the maybe the sound quality? Should I redo my settings and leave the EQ flat?
I apologize for the long, technical read. Any help that could be offered would be greatly appreciated.
Edit: I forgot I read something in the manual last night before I fell asleep that might might clear some things up, but I need it explained. Under the specs there's a section under "Audo" called "Tone Action". It lists the following:
Bass: 100Hz ± 8 dB
Middle: 1kHz ± 8db
Treble: 12.5kHz ± 8 dB
What does this mean?
My HU has three sets of preamp outputs. I use two of them; one for front and rear stereo, component speakers, one for my subs. If I ran three sets of RCA cables I could have seperate outputs or the front and rear speakers and utilize fade, but I didn't care enough to do that. There's a setting on the amp that uses the front input for the rear as well.
So the HU goes to two amps. One for speakers, one for subs. Between the HU and amps I have two PAC LC-1, one for each set of RCAs. These knobs let me adjust the signal sent to the amps on the fly. I use the sub one as a bass knob and typically leave the speaker one alone unless I want to max the bass output, but the song is too loud, in which case I'd turn it down a little. I like to think of the HU volume knob as the master volume and I use the bass knob to quickly adjust the amps relative to one another.
Here's where I begin to question my setup. The HU (all my gear is in my sig) has a bunch of settings of its own. I had the knobs with a crappier HU prior, but liked them so I kept them, even with the more advanced replacement. Plus it's easier to adjust a physical knob than to go into the menus with a click-wheel and tinker. The HU has an adjustment for "bass", "mids" (I believe that's what it's labeled as), and "treble" I couldn't tell you what frequencies these adjust; it doesn't seem to say it in the manual, only that you can select the frequency on the more advanced model. Each of these goes from -8 to +8; default is 0. You can select them to your liking as a "custom" EQ. There's also preset EQs for various types of music. These simply skew the after mentioned levels to better suite the music. In addition, there's also loudness, bass boost, and subwoofer level. I don't use any of these, though.
When I set up my amps I turned the LC-1 knobs all the way up as well as the volume knob on the head unit. I also set the EQ to "powerful" because those had the highest values for the different frequencies (i.e. +8 to bass). That way, my girlfriend could theoretically turn everything up and put powerful EQ on without blowing anything, I'd just tell her not to touch SW level, bass boost, or loudness; I wouldn't have to get more technical than that.
The HPF on my sub amp is set to 70Hz and I believe my speakers are set to 80Hz, though I might play with these settings, maybe bump up the subs to 80 and see how it sounds. of course I'll have to redo the gains. I've been doing those with a sine wave generator app via digital input and an oscilloscope. Even with everything maxed and +8 bass on, nothing's clipping.
Here's what I'm pondering, and why I made this thread. The bass adjustment on the HU affects both amps. The way I set it, I need the HU volume, the LC-1 knob, and the bass setting on the HU to all be maxed to achieve maximum output for the subs, but that +8 setting still affects the speakers. I've tested various frequencies: 40, 45, 50, 60, 70, 75, 1000hz, etc to make sure they the speakers do not receive a clipped signal at any time with the HU set like this - and they don't. I definitely feel more of a bump from them when they're given +8 bass (I assume from somewhere around the 75Hz range), but I intended them to act as speakers, not necessarily midbass drivers. It this detrimental to the speakers, or the maybe the sound quality? Should I redo my settings and leave the EQ flat?
I apologize for the long, technical read. Any help that could be offered would be greatly appreciated.
Edit: I forgot I read something in the manual last night before I fell asleep that might might clear some things up, but I need it explained. Under the specs there's a section under "Audo" called "Tone Action". It lists the following:
Bass: 100Hz ± 8 dB
Middle: 1kHz ± 8db
Treble: 12.5kHz ± 8 dB
What does this mean?
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