What do you guys do for "fine tuning" when on the meter?

[MONSONwarrior Premium Member]

I haven't had much meter time in the past but my SPL Labs meter should be here today and I kinda wanna get some ideas of things I should try and play with for a better score. What do you guys do to "fine tune"? I've seen this phrased in lots of build logs but could never really figure out what you guys do.

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[CRXBMPN 5,000+ posts]

by fine tuning I mean, for me, I was literally going up a volume click, getting a #, writing it down on a pad, staying at that volume and going up and down one frequency at a time after voltage got back exactly to same burp prior, writing # down, going up a volume click, getting a number, freaking anything and everything. It gets to a point where you go up a volume click and you lose a tenth, also I 'open up' the amp by maxing out the low pass filter and turning the ssf all the way down, and on my deck putting the cut off freq at the highest point, which i think is 160hz.

Another thing- my buddy had an explorer with like 500w and three 10's in a ported box and we got a # out of it, moved the box 4" forward off the hatch a bit and gained THREE db, never saw anything like it. So I put a piece of tape on the carpet so we knew exactly where it would be loudest.

Opening your glove box, pushing pass seat all the way forward and tilted forward, umm... I wasnt a firm believer in pushing my hatch down until I burped, got a #, and then gained .3 when I had my hatch leaned on at a show. Another friend gained .5 when we pushed on his pass front and rear door in his Grand Am. Pushing on the windshield in the spot where the sensor is may help. If its a truck with a bed holding the back glass together if it slides helps, or taping it off all the way.

Thats a good start //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

 

[pro-rabbit 5,000+ posts]

What not to do...punch the laptop because the last 10 hours of adjustments made your score worse....//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/compcrash.gif.4ecfedd515e492755e2899769e83940b.gif

Believe me, it will be hard to fight that urge when the time comes.

 

[CRXBMPN 5,000+ posts]

What not to do...punch the laptop because the last 10 hours of adjustments made your score worse....//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/compcrash.gif.4ecfedd515e492755e2899769e83940b.gif
Believe me, it will be hard to fight that urge when the time comes.

Hehe, the TL is humbling, wasting hours on end to lose a score... makes things a bit worse

 

[slim2fattycake 10+ year member]

If you're running a lot of power, make sure between runs that your voltage is up to where it was before. Try to have as much to be constant as possible except for the things you are trying to test for change in dB.

Hope you like the meter and remember to keep up with the website to get free updated software for more features to come. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif And let me know what your impressions of the meter are. Always looking for feedback to improve.

 

[bhsdriller 10+ year member]

I lose when the doors are braced...but gain when the roof is braced

Just gotta try a bunch of things out

 

[MONSONwarrior Premium Member]

If you're running a lot of power, make sure between runs that your voltage is up to where it was before. Try to have as much to be constant as possible except for the things you are trying to test for change in dB.
Hope you like the meter and remember to keep up with the website to get free updated software for more features to come. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif And let me know what your impressions of the meter are. Always looking for feedback to improve.

How am I supposed to use the o-scope that the website says the LCD meter is equipped with?

 

[slim2fattycake 10+ year member]

I have no idea. lol. I have no idea how to use the termlabs oscope either. I'll talk to shizzzon and see or you can email shizzzon if you want. I personally have the LCD handheld. I don't see how either software's oscope works because how does it check the signal like a real oscope through just the sound pressure? I have a real oscope so I never used that feature to know personally.

 

[tommyk90 5,000+ posts]

There are literally hundreds of things you can test and tweak when trying to find your max spl score.

Some of them have been mentioned already.

On top of that, you can also play with heat/ac vents and the settings themselves, combinations of seats forward or back, up or down, etc. Find out if your car likes hot or cold temps and set the heat/ac accordingly, moving the box around (if possible), duct taping around subs, rounding off corners inside AND outside the box, smoothing out the enclosure inside and out, deadening individual panels, to name a few.

Also, you need to fine tune your amp and headunit settings to get the most out of your equipment as well. Some amps like more gain and less headunit volume, some are the opposite. I know on my zx2500 it liked the gain nearly maxed with minimal headunit volume. My saz2500's are a little different.

These are all things that will take a LOT of time to get perfectly dialed in. I've been competing with my S-10 since 2004 and I still learn new things every year.

 

[MONSONwarrior Premium Member]

I have no idea. lol. I have no idea how to use the termlabs oscope either. I'll talk to shizzzon and see or you can email shizzzon if you want. I personally have the LCD handheld. I don't see how either software's oscope works because how does it check the signal like a real oscope through just the sound pressure? I have a real oscope so I never used that feature to know personally.

This may be a stupid question, but how do I access it? My meter got brought back to the post office today cause no one was home when they got here so I'm picking it up in the morning.. but all I see on the software is a graph for frequencies, no o-scope graph.

 

[slim2fattycake 10+ year member]

How did you even run the software without the meter?

 

[MONSONwarrior Premium Member]

How did you even run the software without the meter?

Downloaded it off the site and just ran it to see the interface. But I just get a giant graph with Db's on one side and Hz on the other.

 

[slim2fattycake 10+ year member]

lol. That is weird. Its not supposed to run without the meter connected. I just tried to it and it didn't detect a meter so it didn't run. Did you get the software from SPLlabusa.com? The measurement center? I think you opened the LCD's software.

PS- Wait, did you buy an LCD meter?

 

[MONSONwarrior Premium Member]

lol. That is weird. Its not supposed to run without the meter connected. I just tried to it and it didn't detect a meter so it didn't run. Did you get the software from SPLlabusa.com? The measurement center? I think you opened the LCD's software.
PS- Wait, did you buy an LCD meter?

I have the LCD, but their site says it has an o-scope function.

 

[slim2fattycake 10+ year member]

I just texted shizzzon. But I saw what you were talking about. Let me check with my meter and see. I, however, have the older version of the meter so I don't know.