Erin's 2006 Civic Sedan

[chad]

I'll also add this:
You don't have to have an RTA to adjust the subwoofer delay. It's helpful because it takes a lot of guesswork out of the equation. But, simply, you can play a test tone at the crossover frequency and adjust delay until you have the highest SPL by ear. Listen for the bass to be up front. You'll likely find an area within about 45 degrees that seems to be in phase. To help really narrow it down, go outside of the passband to your midbass by one tone (ie; if you cross your subs/midbass at 60hz, go up to 80hz) and repeat the steps to fine tune the delay. You should now have your sub DIALED.

FWIW, I can now make my dash mat move at the front of my dash. Before when it was less in phase, it couldn't do that.

Old skool method from the 70's or even possibly earlier. Null it out as opposed to finding the highest SPL. Works better for humans over the years. If I moved a knob and said "is that louder" you would say yes, but I could be turning the dash light dimmer. But as you reach that null it gets progressively jacked up and you will immediately hear it if you go too far... Just easier to pinpoint.

Let's say I have 2 channels of EQ or two channel strips. If I want to hear if they are dead-nuts matched I will flip the polarity of one and sum them.. Switching back and forth to see if they "sound the same" will yield a much higher error rate than completely nulling them out when summed.

[erinh]

Totally understand. I actually wrote the RTA method tutorial like that. Went for the most out of phase and the just flip the sub polarity.

[chad]

More effective than Sex Panther.

[keep_hope_alive]

Hammer--->Nailhead.

WAY too many people go at the EQ like a a window licker in a glass factory. The goal, flat, or a certain target EQ... Yeah they end up getting it, or damn close, but it sounds like hammered dogshit... No life, no realism, nothing CLOSE to what it is capable of because the thing is just fighting itself. And they keep going, and going then adding more EQ, more processing when in reality, just backing up to the starting point and thinking about it yields better results... Less is more.

And really, it's really not their fault, it's human nature... People get it in, set it up to "something" to get audio, then they go nuts, forgetting that "something" may not be right and they are literally polishing a turd that should not be a turd.

I try to use as little EQ as possible, even on a channel strip.. I'll move a microphone anywhere it will not get destroyed to get to as minimal EQ as possible unless I'm using the EQ as an effect, etc.

most people attack problems with a simple EQ because that is all they know. it's threads and forums like this that give average joes a chance to understand what is actually going on and what tools to use. the car audio community is a better place thanks to people like Erin who share what they know/learn.

[chad]

One should have to pass a test to be able to have more than a 5 band parametric with 6dB of cut.... Later you can have your 12dB badge, then later a 3dB boost badge should you desire it.

[claydo]

Sometimes re - reading a post makes you edit.....lol.

[Hillbilly SQ]

One should have to pass a test to be able to have more than a 5 band parametric with 6dB of cut.... Later you can have your 12dB badge, then later a 3dB boost badge should you desire it.

You mean to say boosting every band as far as it will go to make things louder is the wrong way to go about it? BLASPHEMY!!!

[imjustjason]

More effective than Sex Panther.

60% of the time it works every time.

[erinh]

Well, it should come as no real surprise that the CDE-HD149BT didn't last long. I got the sucker in, and while it functioned as I expected, I hated... HATED... the LCD. It was just too washed out. Not in the sense of sunlight. That wasn't the issue. It just simply didn't look good. You've probably seen my rant elsewhere. I wanted to attempt to mod this thing to get it to look aesthetically up to par with something I could live with so I began researching my options and found an OLED screen that would fit the bill. I talked to [MENTION=126]Kevin K[/MENTION] about using this screen in place of the LCD:
http://www.buy-display.com/media/cat...-display_1.jpg



We decided that it should work, based on the 149bt service manual and OLED screen tech sheet. So, I ordered it up. Took nearly a month to receive. I also ordered up a separate faceplate to remote out for control. However, by that time, I was already starting to regret the decision of the single din and not looking forward to trying to make it look like something I could live with. But, financially it's what I was left with doing. Around the same time, I was given the opportunity to work OT. So, I said "sure", and worked a couple weekends and this past Holiday. Sucked, but I did that to get money to get what I really wanted... this:
http://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/ine-w957hd


The deck has a few bells and whistles... most of which I don't care about. The one key thing for me is it outputs digital signal from any source. CD, iPod, radio... you name it. You simply enable the optical output and it actually disables the headunit volume. Which then means you have to control the volume via your DSP's volume. The Helix remote can be purchased for $60 and it does volume and other things. All I need is volume and one can be made with a simple mini-din cable and a 10k pot. I then began the search for a good volume pot where I discovered not all pots are created equal. I read online about the various options such as cheap Panasonic, ALPS, and the higher end ones such as the ALPS Blue Velvet and then the expensive options such as Noble, TKD, GoldPoint, DACT, etc. All I need is a good logarithmic pot and I found evidence via some googling that even the "logarithmic" pots aren't entirely logarithmic. The ALPS RK27 line (blue velvet line) are almost entirely logarithmic with about 40-something 'steps' on the pot, allowing a more fluid volume control as opposed to one with 20-something steps and a faster ramp up to loud. So, I ordered up the ALPS RK27(xxxxxxx) model from an eBay vendor in 5kohm flavor (since all the 10kohm are dual-gang).

Of course, I needed a volume knob for this thing. And I checked digikey, eBay, etc. Could never find one I really liked, though. I then got the idea to try to retro-fit an alpine 7990 knob. I contacted pacparts and they were able to source me a 7990 volume knob as well as the rubber knob ring. Not cheap, but man, it's sweet. I got the parts in yesterday. I had to drill out the 7990 volume knob and then chop off about 4mm on the ALPS shaft to get it to fit right. But, all said and done, it looks awesome.

The volume knob will go on the console as will a hard-wired alpine remote which will run in to the headunit's SWI jack; no latency of IR. I plan to install this stuff this weekend. Hopefully. When it's done the idea is the console will have all the buttons needed for basic controls as well as a slick volume knob. I purchased a few 3mm blue LED's for some lighting and I'm considering tying one to the underside of the volume knob, wired off the illumination switch, so it illuminates the knob when the headlights are engaged.


Here's a few random pictures...

[Kevin K]

I was looking forward to the other unit with lcd mods and seeing how all that was gonna look and work out....but this change should be nice as well. Look forward to seeing and hearing it once all complete.