Will this headunit improve my SQ? details inside

[Dozy_production 10+ year member]

Tuning with your eq is all about how much time and patience you have. Bring a good meal, a drink and a lot of time, and just sit in your car and just turn the knobs until you think its starting to sound better. In most of cars ive 'tuned' every eq knob wasn't really turn to an extreme just subtle changes here and there.

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

Also, try to cut more frequencies instead of boosting them. It also helps to know what frequencies are associated with what types of sound.

This is a good article to read to help you out some:

http://www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/eqprimer.php

Just know that EQing should be the last thing you do in tuning and you shouldn't have to adjust it much. Too much EQing is a great way to get a colored sound. Working with the relative phase of each speaker and the positioning of each speaker is just as important, even more so, than changing the EQ.

 

[MBrock4u 10+ year member]

Interesting comments. This is a very good question that you bring up. This is how we learn! I will tell you from practical experience that a better head unit will make a difference and it can be quite significant IF and that being the key here, if you can properly tweek you settings. True their are other factors involve here, install, other equipment ect.. but a higher end deck gives you the ability to fine tune everything. Also it can send a cleaner signal to the rest of your system. It is your command central which eveything feeds off of. In the process of upgrading decks I have seen first hand what a difference it can make, The deal is you have to take the time to figure your head unit out to make ot sound its best.

 

[ebrunn 10+ year member]

nobodys answering my question really, excepy one person.

A few people have said that vehicle acoustics matters alot.

This is a good article to read to help you out some:

http://www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/eqprimer.php

J

thanks for that link. Alot of good info on their.

 

[goonandbuck 10+ year member]

Some of those 'geniuses' are actually try to help him by giving him real advice because the OP's question is a little more complicated than yes or no.
Obviously you don't have too much experience with different driver locations or tuning a system if you blow of the most important side of car audio off like that.

the OP was being "put down" because he wasn't and still isn't listening to anyone who won't give him the answer he wants. He's being a woman

thats exactly what im talking about all the sudden im an idiot because i didnt bore the hell out of him trying to explain a bunch of stuff to him.......i have had personal experience with having cheaper head units and upgrading them to higher quality head units and my sound quality went up ten fold and higher pre outs made my subs sound better even though he doesnt have subs. so im not an idiot i just dont go around preaching at people

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

Higher pre-out voltage has NOTHING to do with your subs sounding "better". You probably just left your gains set where they were and you gained output due to the increased power.

 

[goonandbuck 10+ year member]

Higher pre-out voltage has NOTHING to do with your subs sounding "better". You probably just left your gains set where they were and you gained output due to the increased power.

so you're saying that if the head unit is sending a stronger signal to my sub amp that wont improve my bass?

 

[Ken448 10+ year member]

I honestly think a diffrent HU will change the sound. Weather or not it is a good change is subjective. Go to that shops display, and use the same speakers, amps whatever and toggle through radio's. Set them how you like the sound (this REALLY helps if the PITA salesmen will leave you the hell alone for a while) Find what YOU think sounds best. Sure his doors arent sealed or deadened, but MAYBE the factory did a good job on those particular doors, and they have better acoustics than yours. Maybe its all in imaging.. You have to make the call on that, and not let a bunch of strangers make your decisions.

I was at BB one day toggling through the Alpine 9881, 9883 and 9885.. I could hear a diffrence between all three of them with the 9885 sounding the best (to me)

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

so you're saying that if the head unit is sending a stronger signal to my sub amp that wont improve my bass?

Define "improve" first.

If you mean that it will get louder, then that is gain dependent. If you mean noise rejection, that is more output impedance, cable quality, and amp quality. Other than that, I stand by what I said because it's true -- higher pre-out voltage will NOT do much of anything but change output if the gain is not adjusted.

You do know what the gain does, correct?

 

[ToyTundra 10+ year member]

This is a good article to read to help you out some:

http://www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/eqprimer.php

awsome link. I'm gonna print it out an eye it over while i'm tuning

 

[goonandbuck 10+ year member]

Define "improve" first.
If you mean that it will get louder, then that is gain dependent. If you mean noise rejection, that is more output impedance, cable quality, and amp quality. Other than that, I stand by what I said because it's true -- higher pre-out voltage will NOT do much of anything but change output if the gain is not adjusted.

You do know what the gain does, correct?

once again you use big words and put me down.....yes i know what the gain does.....your pretty much saying the same thing as me but using fancier words........yes with the gains the same on the amp and the stronger signal with the higher pre outs is what im calling better.......so changing nothing but the head unit made it better

 

[Worlddre 5,000+ posts]

once again you use big words and put me down.....yes i know what the gain does.....your pretty much saying the same thing as me but using fancier words........yes with the gains the same on the amp and the stronger signal with the higher pre outs is what im calling better.......so changing nothing but the head unit made it better

what is your definition of better. in what you are describing all that is going to happen is that it will get louder. And if your gains were properly set the the original HU all that is going to do is drive your amp into clipping wont be so great for any of the involved parties.

 

[ebrunn 10+ year member]

once again you use big words and put me down.....yes i know what the gain does.....your pretty much saying the same thing as me but using fancier words........yes with the gains the same on the amp and the stronger signal with the higher pre outs is what im calling better.......so changing nothing but the head unit made it better

Prolly was just a placebo effect inside your head.

 

[goonandbuck 10+ year member]

OMG whatever i quit.......stop trying to find holes in what im saying.......the guy wanted to know if upgrading his head unit would be a good idea get back to the original topic and stop trying to just make me look wrong

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

once again you use big words and put me down.....yes i know what the gain does.....your pretty much saying the same thing as me but using fancier words........yes with the gains the same on the amp and the stronger signal with the higher pre outs is what im calling better.......so changing nothing but the head unit made it better

Ok, so you obviously don't know what the gain is and you think that because I tell you that you don't know what it is, that I am putting you down. That is not that case. The gain is used to adjust the maximum potential output of the amp. If an amp does 100wrms @ 1% THD, it will do that power whether the input voltage to the amp is 8v or 2v.

Let's say that you set the gains of the amp to put out that 100wrms with an input source of 2v. When you hook it up to a headunit that has 8v pre-outs, you will be driving the amp into clipping and you may be getting something like 140wrms @ 20% THD. Is this "better" in your eyes (or ears I should say)? Will it be louder? Yes.

Now let's say that you have this same amp and replace the headunit but this time, you change the gain and lower it a good amount. Now you're getting 100wrms @ 1% THD like before. This will be just as loud as it was previously and nothing else will be affected. The noise floor may be lowered but the difference will be very small. If we're talking a 20mv input voltage then yes, the noise will be a factor.