Alpine PXE-08505s feedback

Anyone used one of these Alpine PXE-08505s ? I guess it's pretty new and there's not a lot of user info out there but it fits the bill very nicely for me. I have a dead Bit Ten to replace in a system with comps in front, coaxs in back (Hertz Energy) and a single sub (JL Audio) in the way back. It's an Oem head unit in a Ford Explorer. An RF Punch amp powers the door speakers and a mono Punch powers the sub. I was thinking I could use this Alpine dsp to power the tweeters up front since it has a 25w RMS amp [x8 unbridgeable] built in.
It comes with a blue tooth module and a remote and I can get it for $500. Any thoughts?

it's a good value dsp, mobile tuning.

Following. Interesting the Bluetooth remote settings control.

I have one. I've yet to use it use it but I hooked it up to my HT setup just to play with it. And I really like it super easy to use

I got the app on my Android phone and the pc software installed- a snap in both cases and in both cases they are easy to navigate and make adjustments. Soon as the dsp is installed I'll post about how the BT works.
My car has a usb port and in the past I used a thumbdrive loaded with a bunch of flac files. It worked ok but now I'm thinking of getting some kind of playback device like a fiiO. Sorta hijacking my own thread but if anyone has used one of these with the Alpine or any other dsp I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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Originally Posted by Syncher

I got the app on my Android phone and the pc software installed- a snap in both cases and in both cases they are easy to navigate and make adjustments. Soon as the dsp is installed I'll post about how the BT works.
My car has a usb port and in the past I used a thumbdrive loaded with a bunch of flac files. It worked ok but now I'm thinking of getting some kind of playback device like a fiiO. Sorta hijacking my own thread but if anyone has used one of these with the Alpine or any other dsp I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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I used my fiio x3 as a source unit when I was testing the 0850s on my HT. This is how I'm doing it in my truck when I install it. Using the fiio as a source unit

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Originally Posted by ToNasty

I used my fiio x3 as a source unit when I was testing the 0850s on my HT. This is how I'm doing it in my truck when I install it. Using the fiio as a source unit

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Excellent glad to hear it. How do you have it connected to the dsp? Directly thru a usb port or bt or wifi or even right into one of the dsp inputs?

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Originally Posted by Syncher

Excellent glad to hear it. How do you have it connected to the dsp? Directly thru a usb port or bt or wifi or even right into one of the dsp inputs?

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3.5mm from fiio to the coax input of the dsp

Thanks that's what I was hoping to do if the usb thing doesn't perform.

DSP is getting installed today :D Taking advil now.

I have one of these that's going into my install. Hoping to have it up and running within the next 2 weeks. This will be my first foray into the DSP world. LOL! Wish me luck!

I have a JBL MS-8 on the bench just in case...

Do you mean the 0850s?

Yeah... my bad I botched the title.
Mine is installed. Bluetooth app works- that's about all I can say as of now. The cable for the remote works as long as your car is the size of a Mini Cooper. It can't be more than a few feet long- kinda worthless til I find an extension. I might not even bother since the Android app works fine for all that. Serious tuning will be done with a laptop anyhow. Tomorrow I'll get busy measuring with REW and adjusting. :woohoo:

The PXE works like a champ. I've only used one other dsp so I can't give much of a comparison but via the laptop it's intuitive and it's pretty fast navigating to the different options. I got the crossovers, TA and gains setup so now it's fine tuning. The Android app is a little cumbersome to use for original setup but I think for fine tuning it'll be very useful.

Syncher, are you using any of its onboard power or running external amps only?

I used 2 channels to power the tweeters up front. Seem to work fine so far. There's nowhere to adjust the amp output- I guess they figure 25w is gonna be full up. Not a problem though- in my system they're only around 50-60% via the output gain on the dsp mixer setup. That's just as far as I got today- I'm sure there will be some more small adjustments made on them.

Great! Thanks for the reply! I'm going to power my center 3.5 coax, 2x rear-headliner 3.5 coax, and rear door 6x9s off of the PXE to start. Both front door 6x9s and left/right dash 3.5s will run off of external amp power.

I think a lot of people will be interested in hearing how the amp does for those 6x9s. I'm pretty sure it'll work well for the 3.5 coax's. I re-checked and the tweeters are only at about 35% on my tune so far.

I'll definitely post an update after I have time to tweak it. I'm planning to pull the back seat tomorrow to remove the stock sub and to deaden the back wall. Then I'll figure out how I'm going to lay out my amp rack, which I believe will take up the space where the stock sub resided. I have 2 Alpine PDX-V9s, the PXE-0850S, and wire distribution blocks for both power and ground to lay out. I hope it will all fit! Either going to go with 1/4" ABS or 3/8" starboard (HDPE) to mount the components. Once the seat is back in, there's not way to get to anything, so will have to make sure the amps are set correctly before closing things up.

I'll take some pics as I go along. I don't have any for the speaker upgrades, but maybe I'll take a few shots when I go back in to finish deadening the doors.

I've had some time to play around with this thing and I've found it to be very responsive. It's got solid software working for it- no strange behavior at all. A minor nit is that if you link any speaker to it's partner all speaker pairs link up. So basically the link feature is good for setting crossovers then you don't use it anymore.
I can't figure out why they only have a 3 foot cable for the in-dash remote. It's completely useless at that length unless you have a wee little tiny car. So if you use an external playback source like a Fiio or your cell phone you have to control the volume on that piece of hardware. Or you can buy an extension cable, which is Y'd off the usb cable. Again... why. Anyhow- if you want to get an extension it appears to be the same connector that a lot of back-up cameras use. I'm not sure that will work since the connector/cable is not mentioned anywhere in the Alpine universe but I ordered one and will be the guinea pig.

Syncher,

Still liking the unit? I'm getting close to installing my amps and DSP.

I do still like it but am experiencing some strange behavior that might be operator error or something not working properly with the bluetooth in the dsp or Fiio9. I got it to work a couple of times previously but last time I worked on the car it wouldn't connect. Next time I troubleshoot I'll test the coax out too. Better quality that way anyhow.
I also haven't seen where to mute all but one speaker, which is nice to be able to do when tuning. There's a cumbersome workaround (lower the output of every other channel one at a time) but they really need to add that. I haven't had tons of time to tune so I'm a long ways from finished.

Did you get the BT issue figured out?

Sorry I just haven't had any time- tough week :(

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Originally Posted by Syncher

Sorry I just haven't had any time- tough week :(

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Totally understand. No worries! I'm close to installing mine very soon.

I have 1. But the 1 thing I dont understand is why theres 3 power and ground wires

There are videos on connecting Alpine PXE 0805 !

Its so they didn't have to create a separate terminal for the power and ground. They provide 3x 18 gauge wires to accommodate a larger gauge power wire either from your battery or your distribution block. I plan on running an 8 gauge power wire to the unit. Yes, I'll have to solder all 3 wires together than to the 8 gauge with a good quality connector. Same thing for the ground.

Played around a bit with phone and Fiio bluetooth playback. Good news is bt works fine- both devices will connect quickly. Only one bt device can be connected to the dsp at a time so no real time tuning with Fiio via bt. For some reason my wired remote does not work :(

Syncher,

Is there a setting that needs to be turned on in options or set-up for the wired controller to work??

I'd contact Alpine USA support for assistance.

That's great news that the BT is working well!

Chris

No setting or option listed in the manual. Here is the only and somewhat vague instructions for connecting the wired controller:
Before using wired controller, connect the wired controller to the main machine and ensure that software or app isn’t connected. Connect PXE-0850S wired controller to PXE-0850S machine and power on properly.
So there's a main machine and the dsp machine :ohwell: There's only one way to connect the wired controller to the dsp so that isn't the problem. I always turn the power on with the controller plugged in and with no software running, and no laptop via usb or bt device connected. The manual then goes on to describe the various functions the controller does. Unfortunately, mine never changes from the powered-on screen to the functions screen- it should do that automatically.

Edit: usb cable was plugged in backwards. The installation manual states that it only goes one direction but the user manual doesn't. So all is well :)

Glad you figured it out! I'll remember this when I install mine. Thanks!

One other thing to watch for when you're tuning- the output of the head unit doesn't match the Fiio (I suspect it won't match a cell phone either). That just means we need to adjust the gains for the bt device as well as the head unit in the mixer section of the dsp software. I tried using the same gain settings for the high level input and bt they're not close.

Well, have the unit installed. I notice there is a difference in output when running through the controller versus the blue-tooth/smartphone application. The controller volume goes up to 66 but only 60 in the app. Really strange. Once I close the app, it will say 60 as max volume on the controller, from which I can then turn back up to 66. Odd...

Another oddity is when hooked via blue-tooth, if you're not careful, the volume will come through at max volume and can only be adjusted through the app or the controller if the app isn't opened. Adjusting the volume on the OEM source WILL NOT decrease the volume. This scared the heck out of me the other day when my phone began playing a song via PowerAmp.

Also, it would be nice to have the ability to EQ on the input side, not just the output.

Overall, the unit is pretty solid and I'm having no problems understanding how to control everything through both the blue-tooth application and PC software.

UPDATE!

Been using the PXE-0850S for about 9 months now. I can honestly say the thing works! I've had no issues running either digital (toslink) or aux (RCAs). The unit is easy to adjust on the fly using the Android app, connects to bluetooth quickly, and doesn't have any issues with noise!

Whoever is on the fence, this is a good DSP. It does lack some of the features like input EQ and variable phase (only 180 or normal), center and rear processing, that the Helix devices have, but for the money, it's a good way to enter into the world of DSP tuning!

I will say this, the onboard power is not that strong and should only be used with stock speakers or efficient tweeters. That being said, I like my purchase!

there should be enough channels to loop an output to an input, effectively giving you "input" eq :)

however this only works for analog interfaces.