I got my first subs, dual 12in MTX terminators with the terminator amp as well. Absolutely no clue how to tune these. I have an Alpine 133bt head unit. I don’t know how they’re supposed to sound, so it’s hard to set things right. What settings should I have on the head unit? I don’t know what distortion sounds like, so it’s hard to set gain. I have subs +15 and bass +7 on my head unit right now, with gain almost all the way up and lpf 2/3 open (?).
Tuning subs, complete noob to car audio systems
- Thread starter Ryan cin
- Start date
Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.
RawbDidIt
I'm Awesome
Ok, stop what you're doing. I'm glad you asked for help. Put your head unit down to default settings across the board. Your settings should be done primarily at the amp, with the head unit making fine tunings on the fly.
My preference is to have the LPF for the subs and HPF for the mids set between 80-100 Hz. You'll hear when your mids are working too hard at low frequencies, let the subs soak that up, and take the load off of your mids. Gain should NEVER be at 100%. You will clip, and get terrible sound quality, possibly even fry something. For a properly paired amp and sub, gain is somewhere around 50%, but don't go too far past there if you don't know what you're doing, and if the amp doesn't show you when you're clipping. Best advice: take it to a shop. Tuning by ear is not 100% accurate without years of experience, if you have an oscilloscope, great, watch a YouTube video and use that, but there's no way to teach you how to tune by ear in a forum.
Sent from my SM-N976V using Tapatalk
DerekTheGreat
Forum Regular
In addition to what Rawb said, proper set up also asks what you want out of your system. Do you want overexaggerated, piss the people off next to you and down the street bass or do you want it to be authentic and seamless or close to it? There's a guy on YouTube, Steve Meade, who makes the tool Rawb is talking about. This allows you to set the gain on your amp precisely where it should be by detecting when the amp begins to clip and setting it just below that. This is important because despite what the max RMS rated input is of your drivers, people usually kill speakers by underpowering/clipping them than by feeding more power, clean power that is. This happens because an amp merely tries to do what is commanded of it, but if the demands exceed what the amplifier is capable of doing cleanly, the sine wave passing through the voice coil becomes a square wave, approaching straight DC current or something like that. When this happens, the speaker's cone is held at either the top or bottom of it's xmax (speaker cone travel distance) and that builds heat quickly. This then ends up deforming the voicecoil on the former or both the voicecoil and the voice coil former together which then ends up hanging up and sticking on the pole piece. Ever see a woofer that's stuck in place? Yep, that's it.
Anyway, once you figure out what you want out of your system you can begin dialing things in like how Rawb said. In a car, I go for bass that's got just a bit more kick in the 45-120hz region than what is true to the recording. If starting from scratch and assuming we're just running the speaks off the head unit's amplifier, I listen to the full range speakers running full range signal, make sure all equalizer settings or any tone controls are set to flat or bypassed. Probably a good point to tell you that its best and easier on your system to SUBTRACT frequencies, not to boost them. Even just to do a +2dB attenuation on say 60hz will tax your amplifier quite a bit as opposed to subtracting 2dB from all frequency points above it. If the amplifier doesn't "see" the signal, it doesn't have to push it, so what you subtract gives you a little more headroom and the boost where you want it. However, if all you've got is "Bass, Midrange and Treble" settings this won't work, need a parametric EQ.. Anyway, back to gain settings.. Most car stuff isn't equipped with things which tell you when the signal is starting to clip so I just go by ear, carefully. As you approach and get into the clipping region, the sound will become sandy and crackly on the bottom end. Note the volume level on the head unit at this point and quickly turn it back down. Also note if this volume level just before where the sound starts to distort is acceptable. If it's not loud enough, you either have to contemplate getting a four channel amp and possibly different speakers or to see if using that highpass filter will net satisfactory results, if your head unit even has those features. In your case, I think you're running the amps inside the head unit for the factory speakers. I also assume you're running this gear: TNP212D2KIT MTX Car Subwoofer Enclosure Amp Wiring Pckg | MTX Audio - Serious About Sound®
Looking at the woofer's specs, they're spec'd to run up to 150hz. So depending on how steep you can set your high pass filter (-6 or -12db) I'd be tempted to... Oh.. I just looked up your head unit. First, be sure the output you've hooked your subwoofer's amp to is set to it's subwoofer setting and then set the highpass to 120hz, as it doesn't say how steep the highpass attenuates frequencies above it's setting so 160 would be a bit high for what you've got going on. This will take a lot of load of the tiny amps in your headunit and allow them to play maybe a bit louder but most importantly, cleaner and without as much risk of blowing up. From here, turn the amp on for the subwoofer with the gain around 1/4 from the lowest possible setting. Start listening to a track you know which has a lot of bass, preferably the same one you used to figure out where the car's speakers begin to distort. If it's just you, you'll be doing lots of running to the amp and driver's seat to see where things are at. It's only a 250w amp with those subs you've got so I don't know how comfortable I'd be running the gain up higher than 60%, hell, you might not even get that high before it starts to sound funky. Without that tool from SMD it'll be a lot of trial and error. Ideally, you'd probably be better off with a 600w amp for higher SPL's and more headroom as well as better woofer control. Keep in mind that with audio, 100 watts isn't going to produce 10 times the output of 10 watts. Nope, not at all. Law of diminishing returns right there my friend. This is why speaker/system sensitivity is key. All speakers are (should be and should have it listed somewhere in their specs) rated for SPL output in dB using 1 watt at 1 meter. Higher the better, as it takes roughly six times the power to get just an extra 6 to 10dB out of a speaker rated at say 89dB. With 200 watts into that hypothetical system, you might see peaks of 100 to 102dB. With 600 watts? Maybe something around 108-112dB. This actually comes from my own experiments with amplifiers and a set of JBL L150A's. From this I've learned that you can pretty much take whatever the manufacturer's recommended max RMS power is and double it. Those JBL's didn't really come to life until 250 watts were fed into them and now that I'm running 600w into each, it's near concert level loud & pound with hardly any clipping whatsoever.
Anyway, once you figure out what you want out of your system you can begin dialing things in like how Rawb said. In a car, I go for bass that's got just a bit more kick in the 45-120hz region than what is true to the recording. If starting from scratch and assuming we're just running the speaks off the head unit's amplifier, I listen to the full range speakers running full range signal, make sure all equalizer settings or any tone controls are set to flat or bypassed. Probably a good point to tell you that its best and easier on your system to SUBTRACT frequencies, not to boost them. Even just to do a +2dB attenuation on say 60hz will tax your amplifier quite a bit as opposed to subtracting 2dB from all frequency points above it. If the amplifier doesn't "see" the signal, it doesn't have to push it, so what you subtract gives you a little more headroom and the boost where you want it. However, if all you've got is "Bass, Midrange and Treble" settings this won't work, need a parametric EQ.. Anyway, back to gain settings.. Most car stuff isn't equipped with things which tell you when the signal is starting to clip so I just go by ear, carefully. As you approach and get into the clipping region, the sound will become sandy and crackly on the bottom end. Note the volume level on the head unit at this point and quickly turn it back down. Also note if this volume level just before where the sound starts to distort is acceptable. If it's not loud enough, you either have to contemplate getting a four channel amp and possibly different speakers or to see if using that highpass filter will net satisfactory results, if your head unit even has those features. In your case, I think you're running the amps inside the head unit for the factory speakers. I also assume you're running this gear: TNP212D2KIT MTX Car Subwoofer Enclosure Amp Wiring Pckg | MTX Audio - Serious About Sound®
Looking at the woofer's specs, they're spec'd to run up to 150hz. So depending on how steep you can set your high pass filter (-6 or -12db) I'd be tempted to... Oh.. I just looked up your head unit. First, be sure the output you've hooked your subwoofer's amp to is set to it's subwoofer setting and then set the highpass to 120hz, as it doesn't say how steep the highpass attenuates frequencies above it's setting so 160 would be a bit high for what you've got going on. This will take a lot of load of the tiny amps in your headunit and allow them to play maybe a bit louder but most importantly, cleaner and without as much risk of blowing up. From here, turn the amp on for the subwoofer with the gain around 1/4 from the lowest possible setting. Start listening to a track you know which has a lot of bass, preferably the same one you used to figure out where the car's speakers begin to distort. If it's just you, you'll be doing lots of running to the amp and driver's seat to see where things are at. It's only a 250w amp with those subs you've got so I don't know how comfortable I'd be running the gain up higher than 60%, hell, you might not even get that high before it starts to sound funky. Without that tool from SMD it'll be a lot of trial and error. Ideally, you'd probably be better off with a 600w amp for higher SPL's and more headroom as well as better woofer control. Keep in mind that with audio, 100 watts isn't going to produce 10 times the output of 10 watts. Nope, not at all. Law of diminishing returns right there my friend. This is why speaker/system sensitivity is key. All speakers are (should be and should have it listed somewhere in their specs) rated for SPL output in dB using 1 watt at 1 meter. Higher the better, as it takes roughly six times the power to get just an extra 6 to 10dB out of a speaker rated at say 89dB. With 200 watts into that hypothetical system, you might see peaks of 100 to 102dB. With 600 watts? Maybe something around 108-112dB. This actually comes from my own experiments with amplifiers and a set of JBL L150A's. From this I've learned that you can pretty much take whatever the manufacturer's recommended max RMS power is and double it. Those JBL's didn't really come to life until 250 watts were fed into them and now that I'm running 600w into each, it's near concert level loud & pound with hardly any clipping whatsoever.
Thanks for the help. Think I have everything where I want it, and I’ll lower the 3 band eq so it stays proportional. As for what I want, I’m not really sure. I like “feeling” the song but it’d be pretty cool to be able to piss people off of I wanted. So from my understanding the amp isn’t capable of producing the full power of the speakers, and that’s what will wreck the subs, when I demand too much power from the amp? The first 1/4 turn on the gain has a much more pronounced effect on the bass than the last 3/4, and the remote adjust knob is the same way. Is that because the amp is starting to level off how much power it can produce? Again thanks for the help. Appreciate it.
AK49BWL
GMT400 Forever!
The knobs do that because they don't use linear potentiometers in most amps. You almost always have a much finer adjustment range for about the first 1/4-1/3 turn, then for the rest of the range, not as much adjustment.
DerekTheGreat
Forum Regular
If you really want to piss people off, you're going to need better gear. At the very least, just a better amp to drive those subs.
Since you've only got a three band "equalizer" it's going to sound pretty weird if you say, leave the bass at 0 and attenuate the mid & treble settings down to say -2. There will be " U " like humps in what's actually been attenuated. The owner's manual of your stereo does a better job of explaining that than I am. However, it might sound better like that to your ears anyway. Play around and figure out what you like best, but try and refrain from taking the bass above 0 for the speaks. The sub, you'll adjust with the gain knob.
As for the remote adjust knob, I'd set that at zero while you're playing with the subwoofer amplifier's gain settings. Take it your head unit doesn't have a subwoofer level control? If it does, I'd do away with that knob altogether. Another thing to keep in mind is that once set up properly, you are using 100% of the amplifier's available power despite wherever the gain knob ends up being. This is also why you don't notice much of a difference in tuning beyond a certain point. Like I said before, it's only a 250w RMS amp with your current set up. If you want it to be louder (higher SPL's), you're going to need to replace your current amp with one that is triple or at the very least, double the RMS watt rating. The current amp is probably both exhausted and properly tuned by about half it's gain setting. Any more than that coupled with a "booty bass" track will probably push that poor soul into cooking the voice coils of your subs.
Since you've only got a three band "equalizer" it's going to sound pretty weird if you say, leave the bass at 0 and attenuate the mid & treble settings down to say -2. There will be " U " like humps in what's actually been attenuated. The owner's manual of your stereo does a better job of explaining that than I am. However, it might sound better like that to your ears anyway. Play around and figure out what you like best, but try and refrain from taking the bass above 0 for the speaks. The sub, you'll adjust with the gain knob.
As for the remote adjust knob, I'd set that at zero while you're playing with the subwoofer amplifier's gain settings. Take it your head unit doesn't have a subwoofer level control? If it does, I'd do away with that knob altogether. Another thing to keep in mind is that once set up properly, you are using 100% of the amplifier's available power despite wherever the gain knob ends up being. This is also why you don't notice much of a difference in tuning beyond a certain point. Like I said before, it's only a 250w RMS amp with your current set up. If you want it to be louder (higher SPL's), you're going to need to replace your current amp with one that is triple or at the very least, double the RMS watt rating. The current amp is probably both exhausted and properly tuned by about half it's gain setting. Any more than that coupled with a "booty bass" track will probably push that poor soul into cooking the voice coils of your subs.
Similar threads
