Solving The EQ Problem

[calebkhill 10+ year member]

Well out of the toy budget of most folks, but I've seen them in action and they are top notch quality and pack a ton of processing power. Assuming somebody is ready to shell out 400$ on a HU and another 500+ in outboard processors it's not that far out of line price wise since it realistically replaces that much stuff that some folks would buy and greatly simplifies the signal chain. Less things in the chain = less potential for weak links.
The 80PRS is a very solid value and if you shop around online can be had for a reasonable price. Really I don't know of anything with more processing power than the 80 until you get into the 99, so it's about as good as you'll get without really breaking the bank.

If I buy a HU and use it for a couple months and sell it for a 60-80$ loss I chalk it up to the cost of "renting" or auditioning it. Can't be helped, and if you're buying good quality gear, shopping wisely, and don't beat things up you can usually get a fair resale value on equipment.

Well said

Yeah...if I had the money I could easily justify the purchase....I will stick with the 80PRS for now. I see equipment exchange as 'rental' just like you do as well. Losing a little on the experience is all good. Thank for taking the time to give me some good tips!

I agree

 

[Elvenking]

So I have the DEH-80PRS on the way...and I will probably swap my two channel JL 360/2 to the sub and get a JL 360/4 for the comps and go fully active soon enough. With some more RTA time, I am able to get pretty good sound from the current setup...but still see how the 80PRS deck will serve me much better for TA and EQ.

On another note...while I can get things relatively flat using an RTA....there is an area on the graph between 510Hz and 1KHz where there is a rather large dip in the levels that is quite significant. Is there some cancellation going on maybe taking this frequency down somehow. The rest gets reasonably flat aside from that.

Oh yeah...I removed the factory perforated pillar grills from the front of the tweeters and got a much clearer sound from them. Just going to get some thin colored cloth to put in front of them so they blend with the interior...easy fix. I could easily knock adjustments off the tweets in the 8-16KHz range with that change.

 

[Elvenking]

I installed that 80PRS last night. Haven't had time to do much other than level match and run the auto TA\EQ. Here is what I really love about it so far. The changes it makes to the reference curve are saved in setting separate from the regular 16 band EQ that you can adjust. I love that cause sometimes I want to adjust for sound...not tweak my reference curve. That is awesome. The second is...the 16 band EQ as opposed to the 9-band on my Alpine. It is firstly easier to adjust and not a menu nightmare. Oh how I dispised the claustrophobic navigation on the Alpine. The 80PRS is a simple left-right and bumping of graphic settings. So I think as far as a headunit EQ goes...I prefer the graphic as opposed to the Parametric....quicker targeting with this HU. Also...the time alignment does seem to solve the wave interference that was causing honking at certain freqs. The right comp set seemed a little low so I bumped the levels on it a lil...but it was overall a sweet reference to start with after the auto TA and EQ. If I didn't have this I probably would have gotten and outboard 31 band Kicker EQ and set that permanently and used the HU EQ for musical taste adjustments. Anyway...having fun with this thing. Gonna take it for a longer spin today.

May 4ch amp will show up very soon too and then...I will go fully active. I heard I should put a bass-blocker on the tweets though....I also want to see if there is anything else I should do before ditching the factory Xovers for the comps. I know I want to protect those tweets.