Need Tuning Help: Crossovers!

[onyxaltezza 10+ year member]

Hey hows it going guys. Im fairly new here so please bear with me if Im not providing enough info, or not asking specific enough questions for getting help //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Anyways, Ive installed systems before, for myself and a few friends. I just run the wiring and throw int he hardware, but Ive never had to really tune anything before...

My friend has a Mazda3 with a stock headunit, Infinity speakers, and an Alpine amp delivering 60W RMS per speaker. His sound is CRYSTAL clear, with decent midbass, and no distortion at all at any spectrum of sound...

I recently upgraded all my hardware, and Im having a hard time getting crystal clear sound.

This setup is in a 1992 Toyota MR2 T-Tops!

I'll try to give as much detail as I possibly can:

Pioneer Avic D3

Alpine MRP-F550 Amp

Alpine SPR-17S Components

Alpine MRP-M600 Amp

Alpine SWS-1042D Subs

Subs are 1 behind each seat, each in sealed .65cu ft truck boxes.

Entire interior was recently sound deadened: floors, roof, firewall, doors.

The car's engine is in the back, so I mounted the amps in the front where the spare is supposed to be, right next to the battery.

From the Battery:

4AWG to distribution block, to 8AWG to each amp. There is less than 3-4 ft of power wire.

Each amp is grounded with 8AWG wire, each ground wire is less than 3ft long.

Wiring from both sub amp and speaker amp is 12AWG to the subs/components.

Sub wires are about 15 ft and Component wires are about 12 ft.

Amps are grounded at different points, but both in the front trunk on the chassis. Ground points have been sanded down.

Now, the car being T-Tops, makes it really hard to hear the mids when on the freeway. Not to mention the spool of the turbo behind me is also pretty loud(not that I mind that at all //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif) My 3" turbo back exhaust isnt exactly quiet either...

Now Ive got the MRP-F550 bridged to power only one pair of components, which means Im sending 250W RMS to each of the speakers. They are rated at 110W RMS. I have the gains set all the way down, since Im still breaking them in.

Now before, I would run HPF on the components, and set the subs to FPF. It just sounded better that way, dont ask! hahah.

My last setup I had the HPF on the components, and LPF on the subs. With this setup, the highs were harsh, and the mids werent very great. It was high highs, and deep lows. Nothing in between. Maybe I should have went with Infinity Kappas isntead, but I am not liking the mid of these Alpines even though the midbass is awesome.

No on the amp, I have the components crossed over at 120hz @ lowest gain and full pass. On the Avic, I have the HPF set at 80hz. I really have no idea what Im doing here. My highs seem to be distorting now, when I crank it up a bit more than normal. With 250W RMS per speaker, midbass is AMAZING, I didnt even need subs, really. But the mids and highs are still not that great. I have the tweets at -3db on the crossovers. Would adjusting the level of the tweets on the Xovers affect distortion?

Should I just go back to running HPF on the components at 125hz? Ive never had an AMP with a built in Xover, usually just on the HU itself...

What are your settings guys? I hate hearing nothing but highs on the freeway, and feeling the bass but no in between. It sounds soooo HOLLOW! Thanks!

-Aaron

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[onyxaltezza 10+ year member]

Anyone?

 

[onyxaltezza 10+ year member]

=\

 

[onyxaltezza 10+ year member]

Anyone have any input at all??

-Aaron

 

[TreyE 10+ year member]

why didnt you just ground your stuff to your battery?

but anyways...your subs should have the LPF at around 100hz...your components you should have your amp setting on HPF and around 100hz also...now if your component crossovers let you turn the attentuation of your tweeters down more then DO IT!!! that will bring down the highs aka lessen the power given to the tweets..

If that doesnt help go on your head unit and go to your EQ and turn down the higher frequencies and turn up the midrange frequencies...just mess around with the EQ until you achieve the sound you want..that help?

 

[TreyE 10+ year member]

but do not let your subs play full range....pleease i have no idea how that sounds better to you

 

[skateboardkid 10+ year member]

Try your LPF at 80HZ as well though with 250 per side you want to be carefull not to get too much throw out of your mids. If they are fine there try a littel lower with 60-70 being as low as you could mechanically go with your door mids. This will give you more mid bass - at the expense of playing your components harder.

Just use one crossover, either pick the sub crossover or use the AVIC crossover, try and turn the other one completely off or send a full range through to the one crossover you want to use.

ALSO you said

"on the amp, I have the components crossed over at 120hz @ lowest gain and full pass. On the Avic, I have the HPF set at 80hz"

How are they crossed over at 120 and full pass? one or the other right? no need for teh redundant crossover, just pick one to use. Dependign on your setup it sounds like you could go active and send each mid and tweeter its own amp channel giving you that much more controll over your sound.

 

[Motley 10+ year member]

LOL he's got all that in a Toyota MR2

 

[onyxaltezza 10+ year member]

why didnt you just ground your stuff to your battery?
but anyways...your subs should have the LPF at around 100hz...your components you should have your amp setting on HPF and around 100hz also...now if your component crossovers let you turn the attentuation of your tweeters down more then DO IT!!! that will bring down the highs aka lessen the power given to the tweets..

If that doesnt help go on your head unit and go to your EQ and turn down the higher frequencies and turn up the midrange frequencies...just mess around with the EQ until you achieve the sound you want..that help?

I did exactly that today. Let the speakers play for 2-3 days without messing with them too much, and now Im starting to play with the gains and crossovers. First off god **** these things are capable of producing a LOT of midbass, with HPF off running full range. Wouldnt want to do that long term though, looks painful watching mad excursion on the woofer lol. I left them full range on the amp, and turned the gain up 1/4 of the way. I set tweeters to -5db instead of at 0 before, and made a huge difference! I then proceeded to cross the components over at 80hz on the HU. The subs are at 80hz also. So far, this has given me a pretty decently balanced system.

I proceeded to mess with the EQ on the AVIC, and my settings are now:

Lows: 100hz, +0, Wide 1

Mids: 1K hz, +4, Wide 1

Highs: 12.5K hz, +0, Wide 2

I dont get what the 'wide' settings do exactly though, but so far this sounds great.

ALSO you said

"on the amp, I have the components crossed over at 120hz @ lowest gain and full pass. On the Avic, I have the HPF set at 80hz"

How are they crossed over at 120 and full pass? one or the other right? no need for teh redundant crossover, just pick one to use. Dependign on your setup it sounds like you could go active and send each mid and tweeter its own amp channel giving you that much more controll over your sound.

Yeah, I realized they were on full pass, not X'ed over, my mistake. I basically decided to leave the amp full pass and mess with the settings on my HU, much easier.

I might go active soon.

Another thing is I plan on getting a line out converter. Reason is, the rated preamp output on the Avic is a mere TWO VOLTS! I dont want to turn up the gain on the amp to make up for this, since its already pretty ballsy to run 250W RMS I guess, thats more than double the rated output of the components. Id rather leave the gain down, and see if a LOC can help the situation out, and maybe reduce a bit of the background noise. Its not engine whine, its just the static you can barely here in between songs when it pauses.

but do not let your subs play full range....pleease i have no idea how that sounds better to you

Yeah I dont know, that was in my last car lol. Not doing that again =D

LOL he's got all that in a Toyota MR2

Whats wrong with that! lol. It gets so loud in there now...but still not as clear as I hoped. Here are some pics of my semi-clean install. Hey, its an old car what do you expect. But man o man. BOOOOOOOOOOST. =D

-Aaron

 

[onyxaltezza 10+ year member]

Also, when I ground both amps to the battery, would I be better off using a distribution block at the battery then?

One for the power cables on the + side, and one for both ground cables on the neg side? I dont think Ive seen that before lol....

What you guys thing of the hardware I chose and the wiring I chose? i think 12G might be a bit of overkill for the components...but it does sound very powerful right now.

-Aaron

 

[onyxaltezza 10+ year member]

Went for a freeway drive tonight, still sounds hollow with too much highs and deep low end on the freeway.

Im putting the tweeters down to -7db right now, and Im going to go out for a drive again to see how it is =D

-Aaron