Need some help, something doesn't sound/feel right

[smtroupe 10+ year member]

I own a 2002 audi a4 sedan, I recently installed a ppi black ice 1800 amp, 2 12" audioqubed hds200 series sub and a custom 5^ft box tune to 35 hrtz made by Boomsday. I'm using 0/1 skyhigh wire sold to me by a member on here. My head unit is a pioneer avh 1500. I have everything installed but i'm just not getting sound like i thought i would. I mean it seems weaker then two type r's in a prefab with a alpine 1000 watt amp. I turned up the source volume on my deck, and have the speakers wired down to one ohm. (which i'm going to make sure is correct tonight with a ddm). On the amp i have the level at about 3/4 phase i believe at 0 boost at 0 sonic x over at half low pass x-over at half.

probelm i'm having i think is the box is so big in my trunk there is only about 10" between the box and the trunk lid. and literally wall to wall everywhere else. I just don't get that big kick idk what is going on.

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[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

I own a 2002 audi a4 sedan, I recently installed a ppi black ice 1800 amp, 2 12" audioqubed hds200 series sub and a custom 5^ft box tune to 35 hrtz made by Boomsday. I'm using 0/1 skyhigh wire sold to me by a member on here. My head unit is a pioneer avh 1500. I have everything installed but i'm just not getting sound like i thought i would. I mean it seems weaker then two type r's in a prefab with a alpine 1000 watt amp. I turned up the source volume on my deck, and have the speakers wired down to one ohm. (which i'm going to make sure is correct tonight with a ddm). On the amp i have the level at about 3/4 phase i believe at 0 boost at 0 sonic x over at half low pass x-over at half. probelm i'm having i think is the box is so big in my trunk there is only about 10" between the box and the trunk lid. and literally wall to wall everywhere else. I just don't get that big kick idk what is going on.

shoulda seen this earlier... bad amp settings....

your subsonic filter should only be half of your box's tuning frequency, in this case, at 18hz, so it should be barely 1/8 of the way up

Phase should be at 0.... no idea why the hell you would set it at 3/4 when your not even invert mounting your subs. i'm surprised they haven't blown yet.

Give those subs as much power as the amp will provide, you have box rise to deal with so set them for the full 1800 and back off just a tiny bit.

What are your head unit's settings? Low pass filter, EQ, sub level, loudness, etc.

before you start ripping on equipment, you might want to do things correctly first.

 

[smtroupe 10+ year member]

You read it wrong. And I forget periods. Phase is set to 0. There is no way to set to 18 Hrtz and on the deck I have loudness off. Bass at 0 trying not to blow up front speakers. Input level is turned all the way up

shoulda seen this earlier... bad amp settings....
your subsonic filter should only be half of your box's tuning frequency, in this case, at 18hz, so it should be barely 1/8 of the way up

Phase should be at 0.... no idea why the hell you would set it at 3/4 when your not even invert mounting your subs. i'm surprised they haven't blown yet.

Give those subs as much power as the amp will provide, you have box rise to deal with so set them for the full 1800 and back off just a tiny bit.

What are your head unit's settings? Low pass filter, EQ, sub level, loudness, etc.

before you start ripping on equipment, you might want to do things correctly first.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

If your subsonic filter is at half your setting it around 25-30 which is killing some output and your box is a little big which takes away from tightness and punchyness.

When you say input level.. Do you mean the amplifier gain settings? Also whats the max volume of your head unit? What do you have it at when your setting your gains?

 

[smtroupe 10+ year member]

If your subsonic filter is at half your setting it around 25-30 which is killing some output and your box is a little big which takes away from tightness and punchyness.
When you say input level.. Do you mean the amplifier gain settings? Also whats the max volume of your head unit? What do you have it at when your setting your gains?

imgur: the simple image sharer here is a exact picture of what i'm set at (gain)level-3/4 phase-0 bass boost-0 subsonic and lowpass-between half and 3/4

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

imgur: the simple image sharer here is a exact picture of what i'm set at (gain)level-3/4 phase-0 bass boost-0 subsonic and lowpass-between half and 3/4

Dude.. Your subsonic filter... Turn it down to 1/8 you set it waaay too high its killing off most of the bass. Lower the gains a little bit and turn your volume on your head unit higher most pioneer head units can go up to high 50s out of 63 without clipping. Low pass filter is fine where it is.

 

[smtroupe 10+ year member]

K i will make that change tonight thanks for the help.

Dude.. Your subsonic filter... Turn it down to 1/8 you set it waaay too high its killing off most of the bass. Lower the gains a little bit and turn your volume on your head unit higher most pioneer head units can go up to high 50s out of 63 without clipping. Low pass filter is fine where it is.

 

[smtroupe 10+ year member]

Double checked the subsonic was actually at 1/8 not 3/4 and still only hits on low bass songs. any other ideas? because i'm out of them. I turn off the loudness on my deck and turned it all the way to 35 front speakers sound like they are going to blow and subs still don't kick on any metal songs. Like i said they only sound as loud as two type r's in a prefab and even worse on rock songs. so either this amp doesn't push enough power or something is wrong with the subs. I checked and they are wired to one ohm and my ground is near 0 resistance.

Dude.. Your subsonic filter... Turn it down to 1/8 you set it waaay too high its killing off most of the bass. Lower the gains a little bit and turn your volume on your head unit higher most pioneer head units can go up to high 50s out of 63 without clipping. Low pass filter is fine where it is.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Double checked the subsonic was actually at 1/8 not 3/4 and still only hits on low bass songs. any other ideas? because i'm out of them. I turn off the loudness on my deck and turned it all the way to 35 front speakers sound like they are going to blow and subs still don't kick on any metal songs. Like i said they only sound as loud as two type r's in a prefab and even worse on rock songs. so either this amp doesn't push enough power or something is wrong with the subs. I checked and they are wired to one ohm and my ground is near 0 resistance.

in order to even get to the level of loudness needed, you need to drive your head unit higher, Are your speakers amped? turn down the gain on your 4 channel down to match the sub, if they arent amped, turn down the mids and highs Via the EQ, turn everything above 125hz down a few notches(make sure you use high pass filter if you do this), because your not gonna get to the proper power unless you hit the 50+ mark on your head unit volume control, your head unit's preout is only 2 volts, it needs to be driven up a lot more so it'll match the input level of your amp, your probably only giving them 1/2 the power at 35.

its the same with most pioneer head units, at 35 i get some bass but when i go from 42 to 50, there's a huge jump in spl and frequency response and mines is a 5 volt pre out

also try having your low pass filter all way up to 3/4, If only i was there in person man.

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

Your HU has a LPF for the sub, make sure it's not set to 50Hz. Also turn LPF on amp all the way up and see if that helps.

Most AQ subs have a nice tight punchy sound, even in larger enclosures...

 

[smtroupe 10+ year member]

in order to even get to the level of loudness needed, you need to drive your head unit higher, Are your speakers amped? turn down the gain on your 4 channel down to match the sub, if they arent amped, turn down the mids and highs Via the EQ, turn everything above 125hz down a few notches(make sure you use high pass filter if you do this), because your not gonna get to the proper power unless you hit the 50+ mark on your head unit volume control, your head unit's preout is only 2 volts, it needs to be driven up a lot more so it'll match the input level of your amp, your probably only giving them 1/2 the power at 35.
its the same with most pioneer head units, at 35 i get some bass but when i go from 42 to 50, there's a huge jump in spl and frequency response and mines is a 5 volt pre out

also try having your low pass filter all way up to 3/4, If only i was there in person man.

Ya, i really appreichate your time and help. It is very frustrating dropping money for akward sound. Like i stated before i have only worked with simple systems before this one is alittle more creative ha. The problem i'm running into is at volume 30 my front speakers are just max volume. The audi does have amped back speakers but i just plugged in the RCA's which causes those back speakers to not have much volume. For what ever reason i need to look on the audi forum. But anyways the front speakers are max volume at 30 and the subs start really banging at 40-45 like you said. I was thinking about trying to turn the bass boost up on the amp to make up the difference but i'm not sure exactly how that works. I always read to never turn that up. As for the low pass on the stereo i will take some pictures of where i have the settings I can't seem to find the low pass controller. There is only two menus on this head unit. One is for EQ and one controls things like loudness, fade, stuff like that. I will look in my booklet and see if there is another menu i haven't been able to access yet. And yes if you were here i'm sure we would have this solved in about 2 minutes and already be drinking a beer and grilling some steak!

 

---------- Post added at 05:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:59 PM ----------

 

Your HU has a LPF for the sub, make sure it's not set to 50Hz. Also turn LPF on amp all the way up and see if that helps.
Most AQ subs have a nice tight punchy sound, even in larger enclosures...

What should the LPF be set it if not 50 hrtz? Thanks for the responds.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

What should the LPF be set it if not 50 hrtz? Thanks for the responds.

have it at 80 or 100 hz depending on your music tastes, but for rock, i'd definitely leave low pass filter at 100 on the amp and on your head unit.

from what you say, I'm assuming your front speakers are on head unit power?

Go to the Equalization menu, there's different hertz you can choose to go up and down there's 125 hz and under for midbass and sub bass, leave that alone and anything 300hz higher, just lower it down a few notches this will in turn make your mids and highs from your speakers a lot less loud so you'll have to reach that loudness by cranking up the head unit volume. Make sure you turn on high pass filter to 100 or 125 so it'll filter out some bass thats going to your speakers so your speakers wont play too much bass and get distorted.

If your front speakers are ampped also, turn down the gain/input level of that amp really low.

I would try these other options before trying the bass boost function, the only time i would consider using bass boost is with an oscilloscope to make sure the signal is clean and not clipped because using bass boost without tools that can show you the signal is like playing with fire.

 

[smtroupe 10+ year member]

have it at 80 or 100 hz depending on your music tastes, but for rock, i'd definitely leave low pass filter at 100 on the amp and on your head unit.
from what you say, I'm assuming your front speakers are on head unit power?

Go to the Equalization menu, there's different hertz you can choose to go up and down there's 125 hz and under for midbass and sub bass, leave that alone and anything 300hz higher, just lower it down a few notches this will in turn make your mids and highs from your speakers a lot less loud so you'll have to reach that loudness by cranking up the head unit volume. Make sure you turn on high pass filter to 100 or 125 so it'll filter out some bass thats going to your speakers so your speakers wont play too much bass and get distorted.

If your front speakers are ampped also, turn down the gain/input level of that amp really low.

I would try these other options before trying the bass boost function, the only time i would consider using bass boost is with an oscilloscope to make sure the signal is clean and not clipped because using bass boost without tools that can show you the signal is like playing with fire.

I got the HLP adjusted to 125 but i can not find a LPF on my deck, here is two pictures of the menus imgur: the simple image sharer imgur: the simple image sharer, i adjusted the sub amp to 100 LPF. It is deffinetly starting to sound clearer and louder!! Need to find a way to get my dome light not to rattle that is really the biggest rattle in my whole car.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

You may well need to use more gain on the amp if you're only using half the dial on your HU volume.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

I got the HLP adjusted to 125 but i can not find a LPF on my deck, here is two pictures of the menus imgur: the simple image sharer imgur: the simple image sharer, i adjusted the sub amp to 100 LPF. It is deffinetly starting to sound clearer and louder!! Need to find a way to get my dome light not to rattle that is really the biggest rattle in my whole car.

lol glad to see your starting to have the rattles! both good and bad lol.. take off the dome light to see whats causing the rattle, if its the light itself, try to find anything that'll keep it still. If its your roof, you might need some sound deadener.

As for your EQ settings, you can either drop everything 200hz and over, down a few notches or put it at -6db slope so you can turn up your head unit volume without stressing your front speakers too much. Or the other way is to bring up the gain like hispls said, but be very careful doing that though.

Main thing to check: If you are fully blasting it, make sure you check every 5 or 10 minutes to see if the sub is overheating or getting smelly. If it does, your clipping the signal with either the amp or head unit and you gotta back off on the gain or headunit volume (whichever is set closest to max). If its still fine, only warm and doesnt smell, then your good to go.