Question about my HP/LP settings

[logicalthought]

I'm a car audio novice (but with a decent set of ears, I think) and have a couple of questions that are confusing me:

I just had professionally installed (in a Boxster) a set of Morel Elate 903 3-way component speakers (woofers and mid-ranges in the doors and tweeters on top of the dashboard) powered by an Alpine PDX-F6 amp, with no sub-woofer and using the stock head unit. Although there's plenty of bass and the system sounds really good with the convertible top up, with the top down the vocals and upper ranges sound a bit harsh/metallic so I'd like to "warm them up" a bit, and I'm wondering if I could do this by tweaking the gain and/or HP/LP settings on the amp. Currently both gain adjustments are set at 50% and both filters are set at 60 hz. Do you guys have any suggestions as to how to warm up the vocals a bit? (I don't have access to an oscilloscope or voltmeter.)

Also, I'm conceptually confused a bit by the filter settings, as the woofers (almost 9") are rated at 25-3000 hz while the low end of the midrange speakers is 450 hz, so what good does it do to set the HP filter below 450 (and yet on the amp it only goes up to the 200s).

Thanks for any help on this!

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[vaiboy 10+ year member]

I don't have any experience with convertibles but adjusting the gain and the HP filter really won't help fix what you are describing. I would think your best option would be to add an EQ, that way you can adjust the levels for top up and top down.

The crossover that was included in your component set does most of the filtering for your speakers, it ensures that the correct speaker is playing the correct frequencies (highs>tweeter, mids>mids, and lows>woofers). The woofer has a frequency response of 25-3000hz but there is nothing to stop the woofer from trying to play sounds below 25hz, so the HP filter on the amp is used to protect the woofer.

 

[calebkhill 10+ year member]

If all your speakers are hooked to crossovers that came with your set, you need to turn the crossovers on you amp to full or off. Your passive crossovers that came with the set will do the crossing over for you.

Idk about convertibles, but all that wind I can i imagine screws your sound up. Also since their is open air above you its going to change the way your system sounds opposed to there being a roof overhead.

Try and set the amps crossovers to full/off and see if it helps.

Also, going fully active would give you more tuning capabilities, and with this type of set up (3 way Morel), I totally suggest going 3 way active. You could probably get better results without those passive crossovers.

 

[logicalthought]

Okay guys, thanks. I will try switching the HF and LF filters on the amp to "off" and see if that improves the sound.