Setting headunit frequencies?

[filleyboy]

I just got an Alpine 9856 with the stock Explorer XLS speakers. I want to set the frequency for bass and treble for the best sound quality but I am not sure what all the different frequencies for the bass and treble mean. And the bass also has a setting to adjust from Narrow to Wide.

Are there any decent speakers that I could replace the stocks with, without modifying for tweeters, that would sound like a really good home stereo, a nice blend of lows and highs without getting a sub too. I don't really need the rattling, just something that sounds awesome.

 

[ajr2000]

Sure there are, go to your local circuit city, best buy, or other car audio distributor to check them out.

 

[jluv]

"Great sound" is relative. In my opinion, you're not going to get decent sound without a sub. Even one small sub would be a wise addition. Without, you will literally miss out on part of the music. No need for rattles - you can always turn it down. Door speakers just aren't going to accurately and cleanly reproduce music in the 25-55hz range. Deaden the crap out of your doors and you will get more midbass. Use an amp and quality component set for best results. I love my Boston Pros, and they give you the option of mounting coaxially and also come with 5x7 adapter plates. Very simple to install.

I run my mids from about 63 hz to 3400 hz, and then run my tweets from 3400 up.


The width adjustment is for a particular frequency boost. If you boost a particular frequency, you can either make it narrow which will just boost that frequency without boosting much above and below it, or you can make it wide, which will boost more of the surrounding frequencies. Spend a lot of time playing with it until you get the sound you want. Boosting certain frequencies is best used to compensate for lack of presence of that particular frequency in your particular vehicle, so there is not a "best" setting that applies to all vehicles.

Tuning is complicated and takes time and a good ear. Start with everything flat and make small adjustments one at a time and see what sounds best to you, since you're the one who needs to be happy with it.

 

[filleyboy]

The frequencies of my head unit for bass are: 60Hz, 80Hz, 100Hz, 120Hz and the Treble are: 7.5kHz, 10.0kHz, 12.5kHz, 15.0kHz. What do these mean because they are no where close to the 3400 you were speaking of. What would keep excessive bass from going to my door speakers? And which setting would increase the treble? Is the higher the bass Hz, the less bass the speakers will put out? And is it the vice-versa for treble?

 

[jluv]

The frequencies of my head unit for bass are: 60Hz, 80Hz, 100Hz, 120Hz and the Treble are: 7.5kHz, 10.0kHz, 12.5kHz, 15.0kHz. What do these mean because they are no where close to the 3400 you were speaking of. What would keep excessive bass from going to my door speakers? And which setting would increase the treble? Is the higher the bass Hz, the less bass the speakers will put out? And is it the vice-versa for treble?

The lower the number in hz, the lower the frequency. Bass is low frequency. Treble is high frequency.

The numbers you listed above are the frequencies that you can boost. Since you aren't running a sub, you may try to boost 60hz or 70hz to get as much bass as you can. Your speakers may not like it though. Keep in mind that a lot of real bass in songs is between 30 and 60 hz. Your door speakers, even aftermarket, just aren't going to play very well that low. That's why you need at least some kind of sub.

For treble, just try boosting each frequency to see how it sounds for you. The higher the number, the higher the pitch you will be boosting. 15k hz is going to be your "tss tss tss" sound, like cymbals or smashing glass, for example. 7.5k hz is probably more like female vocals, or electric guitar riffs. Then you have everything in between. You just need to play with it to see what sounds good to you. There's honestly a good chance that if everything else is stock, that you may not even notice a difference.

I can't stress enough to you how much better your results will be by adding a sub. If you don't want tons of bass, you could just add a single 8 or 10 with 100-200 watts. At least you will hear all of your music.

 

[filleyboy]

I actually have a sub and amp that I pulled out of my truck when I just traded it in on this Explorer a week ago. I wasn't going to put it in, but I'm really considering it now. It puts out pretty good bass, nothing that you can feel or hear very well outside, but on the inside most music sounds good with it and then some songs(on a burned disk) sound horrible on it. It's a 10" Rockford Fosgate Punch Stage 2 with a Profile 200W Mono amp. I probably need to play around with all the settings on the amp too, as some levels of bass it seemed that it could not play very well. It has things to adjust the Gain, Phase, Subsonic, and Low Pass. It also has a bass boost switch. I'm not really sure what the Phase and Subsonic does, I know what gain does, and I believe Low Pass only allows frequency's up to the setting that I have. So if it is on 90, it will only play everything below that right?

 

[jluv]

I actually have a sub and amp that I pulled out of my truck when I just traded it in on this Explorer a week ago. I wasn't going to put it in, but I'm really considering it now. It puts out pretty good bass, nothing that you can feel or hear very well outside, but on the inside most music sounds good with it and then some songs(on a burned disk) sound horrible on it. It's a 10" Rockford Fosgate Punch Stage 2 with a Profile 200W Mono amp. I probably need to play around with all the settings on the amp too, as some levels of bass it seemed that it could not play very well. It has things to adjust the Gain, Phase, Subsonic, and Low Pass. It also has a bass boost switch. I'm not really sure what the Phase and Subsonic does, I know what gain does, and I believe Low Pass only allows frequency's up to the setting that I have. So if it is on 90, it will only play everything below that right?

Yes, the low pass filter will let low frequencies pass up to the selected frequency. You would probably be fine setting it at 80 and below. The subsonic filter blocks out very low frequencies. This is useful with ported enclosures, to try to block frequencies lower than what the box is tuned for. A sub in a ported box that is tuned to 32 hz, for example, could start to sound like crap at lower frequencies,a nd can even damage the sub if pushed too hard too low. In a sealed enclosure, the cone stays more controlled at lower frequencies, so you shouldn't really need to use the subsonic filter.

With phase, just try it each way and see if one sounds better than the other. If you are using the crossover (filter) on your amp, don't use one on your head unit (if it has one). Or vice versa. No need to process the signal twice.

Keep your gains at a reasonable level to avoid clipping/distortion. Gain is not the same as volume.