Tune #3

[ckirocz28]

this. dont bother with the little stuff. paint with broad strokes. Funny enough, my car always sounds best whenever i do a "super rough tune" and only use like 7 eq bands lol

Same here, anything finer than 1/3 octave just turns to crap in my car.

[blockrocker]

All right. Here is the final product. This has been flattened to 1/6 and adjusted to a curve I like a lot. It sounds amazing and has actually convinced me to take a break from tuning for a while and just enjoy the system. I really do love it!
Thank you everyone who helped out with suggestions and advice. The "painting in broad strokes" comment really hit home. I took a step back and the tones are much much better this time around. It is definitely possible to tune the soul right out of the stereo. Too fine made everything sound compressed or squeezed (if that makes sense). The 1/6 gave me great results and kept me sane.

I can't say enough good things about this forum. Lots of good advice and support from people who enjoy this hobby as much as I do.

Cheers and Merry Christmas folks!!

[Smitty]

I've been following this thread and want to thank everyone who participated. I just bought my first dsp and will be installing it soon. It was nice to have some pointers before I start. Knowing me, I would have gone insane with tweaking.

[blockrocker]

I've been following this thread and want to thank everyone who participated. I just bought my first dsp and will be installing it soon. It was nice to have some pointers before I start. Knowing me, I would have gone insane with tweaking.

That's awesome to hear. My only advice, rookie to rookie, is to enjoy the time spent doing it and don't feel it needs to get done in one sitting. It can be fatiguing and frustrating at times. As well as, tempting to give up on a tune half way through, because you "have a feeling" it's not going in the direction you want. Take breaks and follow it through - the results are well worth the effort.

I know it's been said, but it is amazing how far a good tune can take a stereo system. Mine still has a ways to go, but the differences from my first few attempts to today's tune, is night and day! Almost embarrassingly so. Not to mention each time I do it, I get faster and more efficient with my time. Today took about 2.5 hours, from start to finish. My first few took 6+. Lol.....good times!

Honestly, it's good fun and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

[Smitty]

I haven't actually "tuned" a car stereo in years. When I did it by ear it took weeks or months. When I got my first RTA it went down to days. I'm bad about not stopping when it's good enough and inevitably make it worse until I go back to one of the earlier setups. Time alignment was in the install back then so that wasn't factor for me when turning dials.

I just started my install and hope to have most of it finished soon. Keep in mind, mine will look like flea market stuff compared to whats on here but I'm going to give it shot.

[jtrosky]

Just to add to the conversation, here is the "custom" curve I've been tuning to. I came up with this curve after a LOT of trial and error as I learn to tune. The sub area falls off early like that because I just have an under-seat sub that doesn't go very low, so I made the curve fit *my* particular sub.

I found that the wide dip that is at it's lowest at 3khz really took out some of the "harshness" in my setup - especially at louder volumes. I haven't updated this curve in a while and I don't follow it *exactly* any more, but it's still pretty close to what I find "optimal" in my car. What really helped in my case what that I extended the mid-bass out further than normal (instead of dropping all of the way down at 200hz, for example). In my car, with my gear, the extra midbass really helped the overall sound.

I think everyone has different preferences and "likes" - this is just what worked best for me, in my car, with my gear and my preferences. I use stock speaker locations (6x9 midbass in doors, 3.5" coaxials in dash and 6.5" coaxials in rear deck). I bandpass and reduce the level of the rear speakers, but I cannot do without them. :-)

[Jdunk54nl]

Take your microphone and measure right in front of the speaker and see if it does the same thing. Then move it farther away until it starts to do the same thing. Finally figure out what is in the way and causing that. You can use towels to attempt to eliminate some stuff that could be reflecting.

I can drop my microphone down to about my lap and a bunch of my issues go away. Center console and how my arm rest overhangs the speaker are my biggest issues. Can't really fix them without doing something more drastic so tune around those frequencies.

[subwoofery]

Just to add to the conversation, here is the "custom" curve I've been tuning to. I came up with this curve after a LOT of trial and error as I learn to tune. The sub area falls off early like that because I just have an under-seat sub that doesn't go very low, so I made the curve fit *my* particular sub.

I found that the wide dip that is at it's lowest at 3khz really took out some of the "harshness" in my setup - especially at louder volumes. I haven't updated this curve in a while and I don't follow it *exactly* any more, but it's still pretty close to what I find "optimal" in my car. What really helped in my case what that I extended the mid-bass out further than normal (instead of dropping all of the way down at 200hz, for example). In my car, with my gear, the extra midbass really helped the overall sound.

I think everyone has different preferences and "likes" - this is just what worked best for me, in my car, with my gear and my preferences. I use stock speaker locations (6x9 midbass in doors, 3.5" coaxials in dash and 6.5" coaxials in rear deck). I bandpass and reduce the level of the rear speakers, but I cannot do without them. :-)

Your sub doesn't go low but does it go loud? Asking coz you can "cheat" by using a shallow lowpass slope...
Try 30Hz @ 6dB/oct, up the gain of your subwoofer and try to blend it with your front stage.
Then try 40Hz @ 6dB/oct slope and blend it again.
You can even try to use the lowpass on your subwoofer's amplifier to further cut frequencies (80Hz or 100Hz lowpass)

If you can up your gain (levels) and not bottom out your subwoofer (or have too much distortion), you'll be rewarded with better sub frequencies

Kelvin

[jtrosky]

Your sub doesn't go low but does it go loud? Asking coz you can "cheat" by using a shallow lowpass slope...
Try 30Hz @ 6dB/oct, up the gain of your subwoofer and try to blend it with your front stage.
Then try 40Hz @ 6dB/oct slope and blend it again.
You can even try to use the lowpass on your subwoofer's amplifier to further cut frequencies (80Hz or 100Hz lowpass)

If you can up your gain (levels) and not bottom out your subwoofer (or have too much distortion), you'll be rewarded with better sub frequencies

Kelvin

You know, that is a very good point. I do have more sub power left "on the table" - so I guess I could boost the sub gain more and then just lower the freqs above 40hz in order to "raise" the freqs below 40hz. I never even thought of that - doh!

Thanks for the input - I'll have to experiment with that a little. Although, the sub only has 125W RMS (JBL BassPro SL powered sub). So I may end up causing other problems if I try to boost it too much. After all, it's enclose it only about 2-3/4" high. :-)

[blockrocker]

Just to add to the conversation, here is the "custom" curve I've been tuning to. I came up with this curve after a LOT of trial and error as I learn to tune. The sub area falls off early like that because I just have an under-seat sub that doesn't go very low, so I made the curve fit *my* particular sub.

Good point. It took a lot of manipulating the curve to get it to sound the way I wanted it to. I've also experimented with a shallow dip in the 900-2500 range before. It sounded good too, but like you said, each setup is different and should be customized to your personal tastes. But man oh man is it satisfying to finally get it where you want it.

I'd love to try your curve sometime, if you'd be willing to share it.