what difference will i hear with an equalizer?

[ekah]

im assuming its more tuned so it sounds maybe cleaner but how much of a difference if my headunit has an equalizer and crossover points built in?

i have a pioneer avh-3700bhs

was thinking of buying an equalizer but need to know the whole idea behind it and why its worth it etc.

and if someone could link me some good ones from amazon

i do noticed a lot of equalizer comes with some sort of plug rather than a power in and out.

or actually whats a dsp used for is it the same as an equalizer

Click to read more...

 

[Boomin_tahoe 5,000+ posts]

With technology advancements of Hu's today, a lot of them come with all that which makes it unnecessary for a separate EQ. For your situation tho, it'll add a headache. Unless you were a Soundoff competitor and into SQ, then I would say yes. If you got a every day ground pounder then I'd say no. or, upgrade to a better HU when $$ allows.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

im assuming its more tuned so it sounds maybe cleaner but how much of a difference if my headunit has an equalizer and crossover points built in?i have a pioneer avh-3700bhs

was thinking of buying an equalizer but need to know the whole idea behind it and why its worth it etc.

and if someone could link me some good ones from amazon

i do noticed a lot of equalizer comes with some sort of plug rather than a power in and out.

or actually whats a dsp used for is it the same as an equalizer

no... just no. Your head unit's EQ is 1000x better than whatever 7 band junk EQ you can find on amazon. Learn to use and tune your head unit before trying to do unecessary stuff thats literally taking a few steps back in terms of audio quality progress.

Learn to use your head units EQ, speaker level, time alignment and ACTIVE NETWORKS before you even think about doing something extra.

A DSP has 31 bands of parametric EQ, i doubt you want to do a DSP right now at your current tuning knowledge.

 

[youdoofus]

im assuming its more tuned so it sounds maybe cleaner but how much of a difference if my headunit has an equalizer and crossover points built in?i have a pioneer avh-3700bhs

was thinking of buying an equalizer but need to know the whole idea behind it and why its worth it etc.

and if someone could link me some good ones from amazon

i do noticed a lot of equalizer comes with some sort of plug rather than a power in and out.

or actually whats a dsp used for is it the same as an equalizer

couldnt agree more with the two replies before mine. a DSP would be jumping in to a 80 ft deep pool wearing a pair of lead waders. There is actually a pretty steep learning curve when you are looking at a DSP based on where you are. First get a firmer grasp on the audio concepts youre delving into before blowing a ton of money one something you dont know how to run. BTW, i mean zero insults by that

 

[nauc 10+ year member]

i have the Alpine 9887 deck, it has 1-4th order 2-3 way xovers and 2 EQ's, 1 graphic, 1 parametric, but i only use the xover. i bought this, and mounted it to the underside of my seat. love it. main reason i got it, tweak on the fly. i hate all the menus and submenus id have to go thru to make a tiny change. its so nice to be able to reach down and tweak a knob if i dont like how a song sounds. paid around $60 for it a few years ago on ebay. things built really solid too. ps, this thing can REALLY REALLY change how a song sounds. turn a knob, you hear a BIG difference.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

i have the Alpine 9887 deck, it has 1-4th order 2-3 way xovers and 2 EQ's, 1 graphic, 1 parametric, but i only use the xover. i bought this, and mounted it to the underside of my seat. love it. main reason i got it, tweak on the fly. i hate all the menus and submenus id have to go thru to make a tiny change. its so nice to be able to reach down and tweak a knob if i dont like how a song sounds. paid around $60 for it a few years ago on ebay. things built really solid too. ps, this thing can REALLY REALLY change how a song sounds. turn a knob, you hear a BIG difference.

thats exactly what I told him to avoid. His head unit EQ is way superior to this and with this EQ, depending on the car, this adds risk of noise as well. His head unit EQ is VASTLY superior to this EQ. This EQ is only viable if your head unit already has a sh*tty 2, 3 or 5 band EQ. From an actual SQ standpoint, it doesnt really fix whats needed to be fixed, it literally affects too wide of a band and never actually solves the underlying issues of the sound for example a super harsh peak, its still there after bringing the band down. while it also affects frequencies that should not have been cut down making you lose precious detail and clarity. Overall extreme sh*t compared to what modern head units are capable of.

 

[Jcsaudio]

no... just no. Your head unit's EQ is 1000x better than whatever 7 band junk EQ you can find on amazon. Learn to use and tune your head unit before trying to do unecessary stuff thats literally taking a few steps back in terms of audio quality progress.
Learn to use your head units EQ, speaker level, time alignment and ACTIVE NETWORKS before you even think about doing something extra.

A DSP has 31 bands of parametric EQ, i doubt you want to do a DSP right now at your current tuning knowledge.

Kahn, Listen to Jeff, it’s good advice.

I started a long time ago by learning about what a proper frequency response curve looks like and using a free AudioControl mobile tools app on my iPhone and a $15 microphone from Parts Express. I then used a free RTA program called REW with a $100 Mini DSP microphone on my laptop to tune using a DSP. You can do this with just your head units time alignment settings and graphic EQ to get it to sound better. Just measuring to each speaker and inputting that information into your HU will make a difference.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

I dont have my original RTA graph of my old corolla setup but it was similar to this. Used that clarion's 6khz knob to lower down some harsh peakiness, after lowering it down the peak was still there just the overall volume level of those particular sets of bands were attentuated but it did not solve the issue whatsoever. It just killed the good frequencies while still letting the peaky nasty frequencies run rampant.

 

[nauc 10+ year member]

depends, i dont care about curves, RTAs, blah blah blah... if the song sounds good TO ME, i dont care about ANYTHING else

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Why settle for mediocrity thats basically it. OP should not limit himself to something cheap and sh*tty when he has something vastly superior.

 

[Jcsaudio]

Nauc, I have found that using an RTA helps with finding the frequency’s that are causing issues with the sound. This is especially important in the car environment where reflected sound cancels or reinforces different frequency’s and therefore changes the sound at your ears from the original. It’s a tool that gives you a visual benchmark much like a tape measure is to a carpenter. Once I have an RTA to help me find and fix the frequency’s that are causing issues I then fine tune the overall curve by ear much like you said until I’m satisfied with the result.

I would agree though if it sounds good to you and you are satisfied than leave it alone. I was running a cheap passive component set in my Mazda and it sounded good to me. One day I decided to check with REW RTA and Mini DSP microphone the frequency curve and to my surprise it looked really good with a smooth downward sloping graph, which is the way I like it. Sometimes you just get lucky I guess!

 

[JohnKuthe]

depends, i dont care about curves, RTAs, blah blah blah... if the song sounds good TO ME, i dont care about ANYTHING else

Yep! That's my criteria too, and even though I put together a system many (some?) here hate, it SOUNDS good to me! And yes I have a stupidly expensive DSP basically doing nothing except passthru, I know it;s because I have not hardware wired or software tweaked the DSP to do any good ACTIVE SQ improvement (which some here will say will be useless for me because they don't like ME and what I have put together!)

John Kuthe...

 

[nauc 10+ year member]

Why settle for mediocrity thats basically it. OP should not limit himself to something cheap and sh*tty when he has something vastly superior.

i guess it depends on what the OP wants. flat response, maybe the deck can do it, but i doubt it. might need a 10 band or 30 band, dont know