Need advice on head unit settings

[chewychewbacca]

Hi guys, I upgraded to a Pioneer DEH-6300UB deck and added a powered sub, placed in the back. I am new to car audio and would like some advice on if I am doing this right for the optimal sound. I am still using the factory speakers. With this upgrade, I wanted to take the strain off the speakers using a subwoofer.

With that in mind, my head unit right now is cutting off anything below 125Hz and sending it to the subwoofer. I can change it to 50, 63, 80, 100 or 125 Hz. Is 125Hz and below a good range to send to the sub or is there a better zone?

The High Pass Filter setting is set to 125 Hz as well, to send anything above that to my factory speakers and cut off anything below.

Is this a good way of getting better sound quality? Should I set this lower to complement the bass or will I get better sound only sending greater than 125Hz to the speakers?

The last thing is on my powered subwoofer itself, should I set the Crossover Frequency to the highest (200Hz) so I control through the deck? This is weird because the deck goes only up to 125Hz. I am not sure at all what to set this to so I set it to the highest.

And the other knob I am not sure about on the powered sub is the Level. Currently I have my Head Unit Subwoofer level setting at 0, and I'm adjusting the level through the sub. Is there a better way to do this? Should I set it really high and then bring down the level on the HU?

Any advice you guys could give me would be very appreciated. I know that all this stuff can be subjective but I am very new to car audio and don't have a solid starting point for me to tune the system. I think EQing will have to come when I have more experience and more of a ear for this, I just have it on a preset / flat currently.

[sqcomp]

Food for thought, around the 160 Hz region you start getting into very noticable mid bass. I've actually got my midranges playing down to 160...but that's because I've got a solid mid bass and sub woofer.

There are other variables is your questions. You're going to be missing a LOT of lower midrange and below using the factory speakers. Obviously that's why you have the powered woofer.

I wouldn't mess with the level outs on the deck right now. Maybe later. Those are basically digital gains that I can guarantee on that model clip at the upper end of the Voltage output. One mode of thought is to send fire down the lines to the amplifier and choke the signal there. The issue keep coming back to that you're using the stock speakers straight from the deck. I wouldn't up the digital gain in this instance...you just don't have the control you need to properly execute that little move.

I would cross the SUBWOOFER at 65 Hz and below. That's mainly so we don't get localized sound. If one doesn't care about that, yeah, do it at 125 Hz. The lower the better. It is a sub woofer after all.

At 125 Hz you're asking the woofer to play mid bass. Higher than 250 Hz is midrage. I wouldn't take it up that high. The woofer may tend to "ring" at certain frequencies if crossed that high.

The issue is that the stock speakers are playing a signal that they can't produce properly.

[RawrDaddy]

From experience and from what ive heard
its best to keep your sub level relatively low on the actual sub - and Adjust the sub through the HU

Also 200 hz is WAY too high for a sub.

i have a Bazooka Powered Sub and mine goes up to 120 hz, but i have it position ~/- 100hz. my car speakers arent filtered though.

to still get some "good" bass out of the front speakers - id set the high pass to 120 (which was def a sweet spot for my Pioneer deh-5800mp).but also depends on your overall stage inside the car. if the sub fills the car quite nicely - something around 50hz for the car speakers should sound okay.

im sure sqcomp and derick will give you LOUDS more info and prob some better settings

but so far - these are what ive found to sound pretty good in my stock yarii.


edit : ^ and sqcomp beat me to a reply. :cheese:

[chewychewbacca]

So from what I am understanding, based on sqcomp, the factory speakers are crap?

Been playing with settings to get the sound to sound good to my ears, and I ended up LPFing at 100Hz and HPF at 100Hz. I had it HPF'ed at 80Hz and LPF'ed at 80Hz before but the speakers just started sounding pretty bad at high volumes, probably because the factory speakers suck.

Now that i've read sqcomps post and understood a bit more about where on the freq range subs should be reproducing sound, I think I should plan on getting some of the speakers replaced? So basically a sub ideally wants to be 65Hz and below, with speakers taking care of the rest.

For now I think it sounds good at a 100Hz crossover point with my current setup, may tweak it again tonight.

I intended on getting a sub to fill in the bass because the factory speakers were okay to me, just sounded bad at higher volumes.

So I am assuming the last step to making my sound better would be to replace all the speakers?

Thanks a ton for the info guys as I had no idea how the factory speakers actually operated and I'm a general noob to car audio, just wanted some better sound while cruising. New headunit definitely made my speakers sound better but I guess you can only push so much into a factory speaker.

Trying to squeeze as much sound quality out as I can without breaking the bank (not much of a bank lol), definitely will have to look into sound deadening in the future, particularly the major points Derrick has pointed out.

[RawrDaddy]

Originally Posted by chewychewbacca

So from what I am understanding, based on sqcomp, the factory speakers are crap?


I intended on getting a sub to fill in the bass because the factory speakers were okay to me, just sounded bad at higher volumes.

youll definitely gain even more of an improvement with replacing the speakers.
but assuming from that statement - you want good soudn quality at the higher volumes - aka your calling for an amp.

you would have heard a large improvement with an amp and the OEM HU.
(most aftermarket HU's push more powers to the speakers..("aswell as process sound better") - hence why usually aftermarket HU's sound better than factory. amps are used to push more power)

most aftermarket speakers will need an amp anyway to actually be powered efficiently. even at the lowest continuous power needs - most speakers will need atleast 50 watts. your head unit MAXES at 50 watts altogether.

aka - i would first invest in an amp - power the stock speakers. if you want better quality than the stock speakers - you upgrade from there.
i am in no way saying - the stock speakers are great though. they can suffice when properly set though. i never get any distortion or clipping.

[chewychewbacca]

thanks for the info and for clearing some things up for me.

[sqcomp]

Yeah...I'll second RD's idea.

The idea of installing an amplifier and THEN new speakers. Don't rely on the head unit to provide power to the speakers. When the source claims oh, 50 Watts, know that this is at a clipped, non-listen able level. Think about it. The deck is only so big. on small circuit board in the deck is the amplifier. I have a 4 x 75 Watt four channel...it's 8" x 16" x 2". If that says anything to you about not relying on the source for driving speakers...

[sickpuppy1]

I have to agree with this method also. I added a Pioneer 5200HD first and then a pioneer GM3400T amp for the front speakers only (I dont use the rears) and then the Polk Audio SR6500 component speakers for the doors. Turned out really nice. I could have doubled the power to those speakers as they will handle 125 watts RMS, but this system is WAY FRICKIN LOUD now!!! I was silly enough to listen at close to max volume (after a week or so of break in period) and made my ears ring......stupid.I wonder what ANOTHER 60 watts would do......... And about 2 weeks ago added a JBL 8" sub and amp for the trunk. Very nice balance overall.

Anyways, doing it in this order lets you know what you need to meet your sound requirements. Every component and mfg has characteristics to their sound and you can taylor the system this way. It also shows weaknesses in the car. By that I mean, we know the Yaris is kinda noisy at highway speeds. My audio is bass heavy at rest, but at highway speeds half the bass is gone. Now I will start a plan for deadening and quieting the rest of the car.

[chewychewbacca]

So how do I add another amp for my speakers? Run another power cable or do you guys suggest another way? How do you guys do it if you guys have an amp already for the subs? Also, my deck only has 2 preouts, one for Front speakers and one for subs or the rears.

Having trouble visualizing how I'm going to wire in my mind. Anyone have some possible ways to do it considering my situation?

[sickpuppy1]

Since I'm using relatively low power amps, I ran 4 guage wire from my battery to a terminal block under the front passenger seat(where the front speaker amp is) from the block I power the front amp and another 8 guage to the trunk for my sub amp. I am using the rear/sub rca output for my sub and have the rear speakers powered by the regular HU speaker output ( so the rear speakers have no additional amp power)
For normal listening, I dont use the rears anyway. They are fill sound only if I have a backseat passenger, which is pretty much never.

[RawrDaddy]

Originally Posted by sickpuppy1

Since I'm using relatively low power amps, I ran 4 guage wire from my battery to a terminal block under the front passenger seat(where the front speaker amp is) from the block I power the front amp and another 8 guage to the trunk for my sub amp. I am using the rear/sub rca output for my sub and have the rear speakers powered by the regular HU speaker output ( so the rear speakers have no additional amp power)
For normal listening, I dont use the rears anyway. They are fill sound only if I have a backseat passenger, which is pretty much never.

^ Sounds about the perfect way.

unless you wanna run multiple wires to the battery >_>

[sickpuppy1]

True, which I didnt want to do......more stuff through the firewall is a pain to me. Plus it clutters up the area around the battery.

[sqcomp]

Think distribution block... one wire from the battery... it'll split off out to the amplifiers.

If you're working with two pre-outs and you have three amps, most of the time amplifiers have thier own pre-outs that allow you to "chain" amplifier's signals.

[sickpuppy1]

Thats what I did,(think I called it a terminal block) very easy, tidy. 4guage to the amps and 8 to 2 amps

[chewychewbacca]

Thanks again for the detailed info guys. I will probably get a 2 channel to power the fronts and replace those then and just run the rears off of the head unit, since yeah, its rare that I have people sitting in the back.

[sickpuppy1]

It takes a little getting used to no sound from the rear. Then it seems more like driving in a headphone since the sound is focused in front and to the sides,

[sqcomp]

How about this:

The best systems will give the illusion of the stage being well in front of the listeners (even apparently exceeding the front boundary of the vehicle). This is considered ideal as it approximates the experience of listening to a live concert.

Stage Width refers to the distance between the left and right boundaries of the sound stage. Better systems will create a wide sound stage for both listeners. Exceptional sound systems will have sound stages that seem to exceed the physical boundaries of the vehicle interior.

Systems with good stage height properties will produce a stable sound stage at horizon level with a natural sense of vertical space above that point. Instruments and voices should sound complete and whole at that height with no portion of them coming from below the sound stage floor.

The illusion that some instruments or voices are in front of others is referred to as stage depth. The sound system should reproduce the instruments so that the instruments appear to be in front of or behind other instruments as well as to the left or right of them.

[derickveliz2]

Originally Posted by sqcomp

How about this:

The best systems will give the illusion of the stage being well in front of the listeners (even apparently exceeding the front boundary of the vehicle). This is considered ideal as it approximates the experience of listening to a live concert.

Stage Width refers to the distance between the left and right boundaries of the sound stage. Better systems will create a wide sound stage for both listeners. Exceptional sound systems will have sound stages that seem to exceed the physical boundaries of the vehicle interior.

Systems with good stage height properties will produce a stable sound stage at horizon level with a natural sense of vertical space above that point. Instruments and voices should sound complete and whole at that height with no portion of them coming from below the sound stage floor.

The illusion that some instruments or voices are in front of others is referred to as stage depth. The sound system should reproduce the instruments so that the instruments appear to be in front of or behind other instruments as well as to the left or right of them.

+2


D.