like it says, i need help tuning my system....

THE SET UP:
-Alpine CDA 9857 (i think...it was the first one with the Ipod hook up that didnt plug in the front)
-2 Kenwood 9x6 speakers in the rear with "Tri-Tweeters"
-2 Kenwood 4x6? (stock size in the dash)
-1000x2 Watt Profile Californian Amp
-2 10" Alpine Type R Subwoofers

THE SETTINGS:Head Unit
-Bass Engine
*Bass Level (-7 to +7)
*Q - Level (.50 to 1.25)
*Frequency (60 to 120 Hz)
-Treble
*Treble Level (-7 to +7)
*Frequency (7.5 to 15 Hz)
Amp
*Gain
*Subsonic (20 to 50 Hz)
*Bass Boost (9 to 12 dB)
*Low Pass Filter (50 to 250 Hz) <-- it may only be for the amp crossover that i dont have

THE MUSIC
The music i generally listen to is everything from AC/DC to Young Buck (for those of you who listen to rap)....i like a pretty decent amount of bass but i keep trying to set the system up and keep seeming to mess it up more and more.....hopefully someone here can help me out, i dont understand the Subsonic frequency and stuff on the amp, and i dont understand the Q Level either, i can understand the Frequency but i dont know what level to set it at........please help

thanks a bunch
-brian

 

My first suggesting, get an amp for your mids and highs... Preferably 4 channel.
You got a 1000w amp for the subs & 40 or less watts for the mids & highs running off the deck...

Hopefully that one amp you has has a crossover built in to play only low frequencies for the sub...

Make sure the new amp you get has a crossover to just play mids and highs...

Sending the right frequencies to the right speakers will make everything sound better and play louder before distorting.

Raf

 

it in fact doesnt play just the low frequencies, i can sometimes hear the singing coming from them....i know thats not supposed to happen but i dont have money for a new amp yet.....any suggestion on the tuning that i should set it at though? im mainly concerned with the amp tuning, for i need to keep the bass on the head unit at like -4 or 5 all the time or else i'll get mega distortion out of the subs, i tried setting everything up differently on thursday but it just sounds horrible now and i can hardly listen to the music loud, i know this isnt a great amp but when i get money i'll get a new one.......but what would your suggestions be to set the amp at? <<---sorry if i look like a deuche with the bold and underline, i just wanted to highlight the question from my rambling lol

thanks
-brian

p.s. what is the subsonic frequencies and what should i set that to? i dont know what it is really

 

1st question...

Are you running all the speakers off the amp, or just the subs?

If you are running all the speakers....
The amp has to play full range & you can get passive devices for the speakers...
Coils to only let bass play through subs, caps / bass blockers for mids and highs...

If you're running just the subs off the amp and the deck is running your mids and highs....

Put everything on the deck @ 0... so it's flat...

Amp
*Gain
*Subsonic (20 to 50 Hz) set to 20Hz....
*Bass Boost (9 to 12 dB) Turn off if possible, or start at 9, lowest setting...
*Low Pass Filter (50 to 250 Hz) Between 80 and 100.... can vary depending on subs, enclosure & slope @ cutoff frequency...

The gain, when set properly, can save your speakers from destruction....
Different media (CD / Radio / Ipod) have different levels, even CD to CD)....
So say your deck goes up to 30.... with the gain low, turn it up to 25 (again, full blast is no good)... put in a CD (best dynamic range) and slowly start turning the gain up... until you begin to hear distortion, then back down a little til its gone... This way you still have a little play room for cd's that have lower levels, etc...

Recognize what distortion is... the easiest way to describe it is when you start hearing sounds that arn't in the recording... or instead of a clean voice / drum / bass it sounds like someone is slapping a box... thats your speaker ready to fly apart...

After all that is set, then go and play with the deck...

Again, start @ 0 with all this...

THE SETTINGS:Head Unit
-Bass Engine
*Bass Level (-7 to +7) Start at 0, up to boost, down to take away...
*Q - Level (.50 to 1.25) for later tuning, the bigger the Q the wider the spectrum it's covering... small Q 80 hz, larger Q 70-90 hz...
*Frequency (60 to 120 Hz) Chose what freq you want to boost
-Treble... adjust highs...
*Treble Level (-7 to +7) start @ 0...
*Frequency (7.5 to 15 Hz) bigger number, higher frequency, higher pitch...

Again, start with deck @ 0 and after amp is set, slowly start playing with those settings...

Raf

 

how about the BBE settings? for some reason if i turn it to BBE setting 3, its the loudest, if i use no BBE at all, then i hardly hear any sound....this head unit goes up to like 45 or 50 but for some reason at 23 it seems to cut the sounds of the speakers to like just really crappy sounds, not distortion, but it like cuts the quality of the speakers, i dont know why

and no i dont have the amp running the speakers too, the amp just runs the subs but for some reason i'm getting some medium to high range stuff coming through them......im not sure if i read over it or not, but what is the subsonic setting? i will try setting all this up next time my neighbors arent around lol they dont like me to begin with and im sure they wouldnt like to hear my music

and one last question, seeing as how i listen to rap (which as we all know has a lot of bass) should i tune it to rap being on or just tune it to whatever? cuz i know that rap has lower lows and rock has higher highs

thanks again
-brian

 

Leave BBE off for now... It's a kinda processing the deck does (pioneer), turn it off, start everything @ 0...

Subsonic... prevents harmonic distortions below what U hear, but can damage sub... set @ 20...

One last thing... make sure deck is hooked up correctly or you may lose your settings each time you turn it off...

Raf

 

so i couldnt sleep last night so i picked up my old amp manual and read over something i must've missed when i rigged up the amp or i may not have even looked at the manual and just thought "i know what im doing" lol which i obviously didnt lol, anywho, apparently theres two different pre-amp out puts on most radios, a high and low frequency outputs, i most likely plugged mine into the high one andshould have plugged it into the low so i should look at that too lol, i also have found a converter incase i only have a high preamp output that will convert it to low frequencies....i have plenty of time on thursday so i'm going to try to do all this then......i'll let you know how it goes

let me know if you ahve any other suggestions, i have like 2 hours to kill between classes at my community college on that day so i plan to kill all 2 hours just tuning this system lol

thanks again forall your help
-brian

 

If your deck has 1 RCA out's, they're full range...
2 they're usually full range, front & rear...
3, or the 3rd additional set is for Subs, which only plays bass...

use either the cross over in the deck or the amp, not both.

Raf

 

well i went out today in the snow (yes it finally snowed in jersey) and took out the head unit and for 2 and a half years now i've been driving with my rca plugs into the rear speakers plug lol and not the subs.....so i switched it over and have it in the right plug now, and it does sound better except for one problem

its distorting the sound so easily, it may be because i havent really tuned it good yet, but like i said, on thursday i will.....i hope that it'll work out ok with tuning it correctly and i hope it'll sound real good.....i dont really know what i'm doing when it comes to this step, i usually just get lucky and find a setting that i like lol....hopefully i'll get this sounding good lol
----------
like i want it to hit hard, but for some reason its not hitting hard, its jsut distorting whenever it tries to hit at all

 

since you have changed the wireing it would be good to set all gains down and work them up till , like luvofjah mentioned that you hear the distortion ans then turn it back till you don't.

to racer and luvofjah,
I use a cd from Richard Clark and David Navonne to set my subs. I payed $25 for it back in the early '90s but it is free nowadays+shipping. they don't seem to have a download available though:-(. On it there is are several tracks for setting gains and EQs. they also have a track just for setting subs. instead of useing pink noise or sine waves it uses asynchrinous bass tones. IT starts our recorded at 1db headroom without any distortion. after a few seconds it raises into clipping so you can hear and recognise the sound of the distortion, then it drops back to no clipping/distortion. At this point you raise the gains until you hear the distortion that you just heard then back it off till it stops and your set.
It is simple enough that anyone can use it.
I did a seach on this CD and it appears that they are giveing this CD away for free now +shipping.
Racer explained that he new what the fequency was for but capitalized on what the "levels" should be. levels are equipment and user decided.
Levels are used because not all sound epuipment accepts or emitts the same voltages. IF you try to feed 2volt from one piece of equipment into a devise that can only accept 1 volt then you will get distortion from clipping. use the gain control to adjust the input of a devise to accept the input given to it without clipping.