Tired of my Active setup.

[Theride 10+ year member]

I just cant seem to get the sound right and im tired of tuning. At the same time, ive burnt up a few about 2 sets of passive crossover because i play the music so loud and hard. right now im using a minidsp for processing and the sound sounds HOLLOW. i like how loud it gets but its not clear and crisp as i would like

Click to read more...

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

Not sure what you're looking for here.... Is there a question?

 

[splwj47 10+ year member]

not sure if i read right, but how are you burning up passive xovers running active?

 

[Theride 10+ year member]

I just posted to see if i could get any suggestions. I had a set of ID XS passive xover and they stopped working. had to PG they melted.

another thing is, everytime im tuning my system i have to bring out the laptop since the minidsp work through a computer..just a pita.

 

[Theride 10+ year member]

not sure if i read right, but how are you burning up passive xovers running active?

this was prior to going active.

maybe im just getting tired of the tuning. just want to plug and play right now

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

How much power are you running? What crossovers were they?

 

---------- Post added at 11:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:41 AM ----------

 

I still don't see a question. Are you looking to go passive again? Do you want a different DSP?

 

[splwj47 10+ year member]

this was prior to going active.
maybe im just getting tired of the tuning. just want to plug and play right now

if you want to run active and take all the work out of it just get an ms8.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

If you would like to tune your sound "by hand and ear" I suggest to get a laptop based RTA setup. Get a precision measurement mic from Parts Express. They soon will have a dayton measurement mic that plugs directly into a USB port on a laptop. Get a paid version of True RTA or similar software (the free 1octave version is not very useful), once you have this you will be able to tune the frequency response. By the way, I assume you already tuned in time alignment, etc? I think there may be a software aid for tuning TA as well. Or.. you can get a sound processor that tunes all of this automatically (Pioneer head units with AutoEQ, Alpine imprint, H800, JBL MS-8)

 

[Sonic. 10+ year member]

If you dont have the patience and equipment then get the pioneer hu with AutoEQ and TA and keep it simple.

 

[West]

If you would like to tune your sound "by hand and ear" I suggest to get a laptop based RTA setup. Get a precision measurement mic from Parts Express. They soon will have a dayton measurement mic that plugs directly into a USB port on a laptop. Get a paid version of True RTA or similar software (the free 1octave version is not very useful), once you have this you will be able to tune the frequency response. By the way, I assume you already tuned in time alignment, etc? I think there may be a software aid for tuning TA as well. Or.. you can get a sound processor that tunes all of this automatically (Pioneer head units with AutoEQ, Alpine imprint, H800, JBL MS-8)

Auto EQ on pioneer isn't so good more of a gimmic to make people buy the deck. RTA gear or an MS8 is your best option. I have never heard of anyone melting crossovers... OP you should check your speaker wires and speaker resistance...

 

[West]

I have never used a mini dsp, but I suspect that may be one of the issues there. Or if you are truely blasting your music it's possible your speakers are damaged.

 

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

Ditch the mini. Get active deck. All the control from the HU. Learn to tune. Problem solved.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

Auto EQ on pioneer isn't so good more of a gimmic to make people buy the deck. RTA gear or an MS8 is your best option. I have never heard of anyone melting crossovers... OP you should check your speaker wires and speaker resistance...

I can't speak in general, but Pioneer DEH-80PRS AutoEQ worked quite well for me. First, after running AutoEQ, the imaging was pretty much spot on, better and more consistent than what I was able to accomplish myself simply by tuning with time delays and speaker balance with old head unit (frequency response is supposedly more important than TA at frequencies above 2KHz). Second, Pioneer really cleared up my upper mid-range. In my setup the woofer is supposed to play to at least 5KHz and the tweeter above that with a sharp high pass slope. It's well known that there will be a big frequency response dip above 2KHz for a 6.5 inch woofer if its installed off axis, and I think that was audible to my ears. Without any tuning, the vocals sounded too laid back, almost distant. This was another aspect that DEH-80PRS handled pretty well. Finally, what it did to subwoofer phase is something that I would not guess to try myself (it added a big delay to the front stage, much bigger than what actual distances would imply and then flipped the phase).

So in my experience, Pioneer DEH-80PRS was totally worth its price for its instant improvements to sound. It would be enough for most people, but there are certainly some limitations. "Only" 16-band equalizer. For example control at frequencies above 5KHz is pretty coarse. No parametric equalizer. AutoEQ does not always select a correct crossover frequency (it selected 125Hz high pass for mids in in my car, but I normally prefer 60-80Hz). Subwoofer was attenuated like 6-7dB from what I consider a good sub bass level. Bass was dry and gutless. However, the sub bass issues can be fixed manually pretty easily. DIY people would also appreciate that there is an auxiliary input in the back, so you can hook up a sound RTA system for additional tuning. So this head unit has "essential features" of more advanced processors, but costs only 30-50% of their price.

 

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

DIY people would also appreciate that there is an auxiliary input in the back, so you can hook up a sound RTA system for additional tuning.

Wait... wut? You can hook up an RTA to it? How's that shit work?

 

[zako 10+ year member]

Wait... wut? You can hook up an RTA to it? How's that shit work?

The head unit has a set of RCA input connectors on the back, so you can just run cables to it from a laptop USB sound card (DAC). To tell the truth, I think any analog input on a head unit would work for this purpose with some kind of a 3.5mm to RCA connector adapter cables, since most head units have a 3.5mm analog connector.

It would be interesting to do this. I already got all hardware pieces except for a microphone power source (I need some kind of USB mic mate or something similar).