How to Choose good products for your audio system.
01-11-04, 11:48 PM
#1
Keeper of the light
Thread Starter
iTrader: (17)
How to Choose good products for your audio system.
Head unit- Decodes a signal by either reading a cd or pulling it from the air. The processor is the heart of a good head unit. Without proper encoding and decoding the most powerful head unit on the market will be a high output crappy sounding head unit.
Garbage in- Garbage out. The headunit is the source. The source must be pure FIRST and foremost before anything. It is the starting point of your sound. Shoving 5,000 watts of crap into your speakers still sounds like 5,000 watts of crap.
Good headunits have a high channel seperation to avoid crosstalk and a signal to noise ratio above 100 db. Also, a "good" headunit will not have a preamplifier in it. Preamps produce unwanted noise in the signal lines of the RCA outputs similar to "snow" on a tv. Sometimes it is audible, but not always..however it is always there. Preamps also starve the power supply of juice which results in lower processing speeds and crappy sound, overheating, and premature failure. This preamplifier is used to run speakers on low wattage systems that do not use amplifiers for the midrage- the second most important part of a system. Therefore if you "need" a preamp headunit, you don't "need" a "good" headunit, your running the least watts possible, obviously your not serious about this system.
The headunit should drive a minimum of 4 volts, better head units drive up to 8 volts.
On to midrange-
Mids are the second most important part of a system. They set the stage and headroom of your system. Even with the very best amplifiers in the world and a clean headunit, your "load" or final output device cannot perform as well as the signal intends it to. You now have a weak point in the system. Your sound will only be as good as your midrage can produce. If you want thump, you can bang your head on the steering wheel, but nothing can reproduce a sexy sax in the middle of a blues song like a fresh high dollar midrange. You have the ability to do more coming from your source, but cannot "put it into words" because your midrange are substandard and cannot form the headroom and staging needed to make it all happen.
I have heard stereo's with 4 mids and a top dollar headunit EAT subwoofer systems for breakfast in "overall enjoyable listening" More pleasing to listen to, and better sound overall.
External processing-
Keep it as simple as possible. The more you add in line, the more noise you get induced into your music. More ringing, hum, and distortion. A lot of the distortion comes from overdriving the inputs of your preamp or x-over. "less is better" when it comes to what is between your headunit and your amp. Though i am a fan of Audiocontrol processors, even they can induce noise and certainly can overdrive the amp easily with their 8 to 14 volt adjustable outputs. Notice on an Audiocontrol product they give you a "clipping" indicator. Clipping is "overdriving" which is a distortion producer. distortion, which is the deforming of the original signal. It may be ringing, clipped waveform, or otherwise.
Crossovers-
Higher DB per octave slopes = cleaner sound.
Amplifiers-
Amps should have a high input resistance on the rca's. They should have a high signal to noise ratio. They should have a good Efficiency rating. Better than all this, they should have a good dampening factor. Class D amps are usually extremely efficient, but are only good on subwoofers. Amps with built in crossovers are less likely to produce distortion.
- O. L. T.
Garbage in- Garbage out. The headunit is the source. The source must be pure FIRST and foremost before anything. It is the starting point of your sound. Shoving 5,000 watts of crap into your speakers still sounds like 5,000 watts of crap.
Good headunits have a high channel seperation to avoid crosstalk and a signal to noise ratio above 100 db. Also, a "good" headunit will not have a preamplifier in it. Preamps produce unwanted noise in the signal lines of the RCA outputs similar to "snow" on a tv. Sometimes it is audible, but not always..however it is always there. Preamps also starve the power supply of juice which results in lower processing speeds and crappy sound, overheating, and premature failure. This preamplifier is used to run speakers on low wattage systems that do not use amplifiers for the midrage- the second most important part of a system. Therefore if you "need" a preamp headunit, you don't "need" a "good" headunit, your running the least watts possible, obviously your not serious about this system.
The headunit should drive a minimum of 4 volts, better head units drive up to 8 volts.
On to midrange-
Mids are the second most important part of a system. They set the stage and headroom of your system. Even with the very best amplifiers in the world and a clean headunit, your "load" or final output device cannot perform as well as the signal intends it to. You now have a weak point in the system. Your sound will only be as good as your midrage can produce. If you want thump, you can bang your head on the steering wheel, but nothing can reproduce a sexy sax in the middle of a blues song like a fresh high dollar midrange. You have the ability to do more coming from your source, but cannot "put it into words" because your midrange are substandard and cannot form the headroom and staging needed to make it all happen.
I have heard stereo's with 4 mids and a top dollar headunit EAT subwoofer systems for breakfast in "overall enjoyable listening" More pleasing to listen to, and better sound overall.
External processing-
Keep it as simple as possible. The more you add in line, the more noise you get induced into your music. More ringing, hum, and distortion. A lot of the distortion comes from overdriving the inputs of your preamp or x-over. "less is better" when it comes to what is between your headunit and your amp. Though i am a fan of Audiocontrol processors, even they can induce noise and certainly can overdrive the amp easily with their 8 to 14 volt adjustable outputs. Notice on an Audiocontrol product they give you a "clipping" indicator. Clipping is "overdriving" which is a distortion producer. distortion, which is the deforming of the original signal. It may be ringing, clipped waveform, or otherwise.
Crossovers-
Higher DB per octave slopes = cleaner sound.
Amplifiers-
Amps should have a high input resistance on the rca's. They should have a high signal to noise ratio. They should have a good Efficiency rating. Better than all this, they should have a good dampening factor. Class D amps are usually extremely efficient, but are only good on subwoofers. Amps with built in crossovers are less likely to produce distortion.
- O. L. T.
Last edited by O. L. T.; 01-12-04 at 12:29 AM.
01-12-04, 12:05 AM
#3
Keeper of the light
Thread Starter
iTrader: (17)
Got bored 
Now.. on to tuning tips....
I can make your system sound better in 10 minutes or your money back. The charge is free. If it doesn't work... you get your free back
Go into your trunk and turn everything all the way down. go to your headunit and turn everything halfway.
Anytime you boost a signal it takes twice the power to produce the signal. boosting by +1 on your headunit makes a 3db difference. every 3 db cuts your power in HALF because it takes twice the power to produce that frequency at 3db higher.
With your amps all the way down, and your crossovers at half way on the amp, and your headunit at halfway on everything, turn your headunit up to 3/4 of the way on the volume ****. if you are not running amps on your mids, turn the head unit up until the mids are nearing, but not crossing over to distortion.
Go to the trunk. set your subwoofer crossover on 80 and your mid crossover on 160.
turn your midrange amp up until your mids are at full capacity, without distortion.
Do the same for the subwoofer.
Get into your car and DO NOT turn your bass boost up past halfway nor your treble. If you choose to do so, do not go more than one (+1) or you will have gone 6db thereby cutting your power in half TWICE. You will need to divide your power (watts) by 2 everytime you click +1 on your head unit's adjustments settings. now... why would you do that?
I recommend a setting of +1 on the mids if you usually turn it up farther past that. You should not need to do it on the bass, but you may go up by +1 on the bass if you cannot tune the sub in from the amp.
Now get in your car and put in your favorite music cd. How's that sound?
Now.. on to tuning tips....I can make your system sound better in 10 minutes or your money back. The charge is free. If it doesn't work... you get your free back
Go into your trunk and turn everything all the way down. go to your headunit and turn everything halfway.
Anytime you boost a signal it takes twice the power to produce the signal. boosting by +1 on your headunit makes a 3db difference. every 3 db cuts your power in HALF because it takes twice the power to produce that frequency at 3db higher.
With your amps all the way down, and your crossovers at half way on the amp, and your headunit at halfway on everything, turn your headunit up to 3/4 of the way on the volume ****. if you are not running amps on your mids, turn the head unit up until the mids are nearing, but not crossing over to distortion.
Go to the trunk. set your subwoofer crossover on 80 and your mid crossover on 160.
turn your midrange amp up until your mids are at full capacity, without distortion.
Do the same for the subwoofer.
Get into your car and DO NOT turn your bass boost up past halfway nor your treble. If you choose to do so, do not go more than one (+1) or you will have gone 6db thereby cutting your power in half TWICE. You will need to divide your power (watts) by 2 everytime you click +1 on your head unit's adjustments settings. now... why would you do that?
I recommend a setting of +1 on the mids if you usually turn it up farther past that. You should not need to do it on the bass, but you may go up by +1 on the bass if you cannot tune the sub in from the amp.
Now get in your car and put in your favorite music cd. How's that sound?
01-12-04, 10:01 PM
#5
Keeper of the light
Thread Starter
iTrader: (17)
I love tuning systems. I started this when i was 13 and i'm 27 now. I've had a little practice, though i'm no RTA. Realistically though, an rta is not for street systems. it's very bland and level when using an rta.
01-12-04, 10:28 PM
#6
Moderator - Electronics Forum
RTA is just a guideline and a "level". That's it. Everything changes when you start to get out on the road, then the tuning that you *thought* was really good is fair at best! Just have a passenger tune out the car while driving...that way you don't have to take your hands off the controls!
Percy
Percy
Trending Topics
01-13-04, 08:08 AM
#8
Moderator - Electronics Forum
OLT,
I do believe we're thinking of two different things here. You're mentioning clipping and noise floor. What I'm thinking is spectral response throughout the system. When you're tuning out in a quiet (or relatively) garage, your system doesn't have to contend with any other external factors such as windnoise, tirenoise, etc. Once when you induce tirenoise or windnoise, they change the perceived spectral response of the system since it's competing with these factors. Midbass gets weaker (perceived) as you're traveling on the road, plus it's different when it's blacktop or concrete. That's why Lexus put in an ASL (auto sound leveling) feature to help compensate for these factors. Basically a midbass/bass boost when encountering road noise.
RTA should be a baseline in which to start off with in terms of spectral balance. That's what I meant by "level" and not by the amps or processors gain adjustment.
Percy
I do believe we're thinking of two different things here. You're mentioning clipping and noise floor. What I'm thinking is spectral response throughout the system. When you're tuning out in a quiet (or relatively) garage, your system doesn't have to contend with any other external factors such as windnoise, tirenoise, etc. Once when you induce tirenoise or windnoise, they change the perceived spectral response of the system since it's competing with these factors. Midbass gets weaker (perceived) as you're traveling on the road, plus it's different when it's blacktop or concrete. That's why Lexus put in an ASL (auto sound leveling) feature to help compensate for these factors. Basically a midbass/bass boost when encountering road noise.
RTA should be a baseline in which to start off with in terms of spectral balance. That's what I meant by "level" and not by the amps or processors gain adjustment.
Percy
Last edited by Percy; 01-13-04 at 08:09 AM.
01-13-04, 03:50 PM
#9
Keeper of the light
Thread Starter
iTrader: (17)
I hear ya Percy. My tuning tips aren't for final tuning, they are just a guide for avoiding overboost, distortion, and unbalanced matching between the head, mid amp, and sub. Whereas you are speaking more of SQ tuning, which is an individual operation you can't put into a formula due to the endless factors involved.
Basically I am tuning equiptment, whereas you are tuning the sound. Totally different of course.
Basically I am tuning equiptment, whereas you are tuning the sound. Totally different of course.
01-13-04, 11:44 PM
#10
Keeper of the light
Thread Starter
iTrader: (17)
Since we are speaking of tuning, here's some more info for the masses.
EQ's -
Truely great EQ's do not boost at ALL. They do not even give you the option to boost into + numbers. They start at 0 and go negative. Some have built in crossovers, and slopes should be 24db per octave.
While tuning your system, it is likely that you have something in your car that goes into + numbers that you tune with. Treat it as if it does not have these numbers. In your mind envision your unit having only 0 (halfway) and negative numbers. To achieve the most power while still getting the proper sound curve you desire, (as your ears do not want a flat signal) where you would normally boost the treble, try cutting the midrange spectrum, and bass if needed.
Your only goal is to get the tweet above the rest in this situation. You don't want to boost or it will cost you lot's of valuable power. So instead we do the reverse. rather than boost the tweet, we cut the mids and bass. Works like a reverse mirror effect.
By cutting the strong points in the sound we boost the weak, see? However since we did not boost we did not use reserve power to cover the boost. Infact, we actually SAVED power by cutting area's where boost was too high! This will allow your speakers and amps to allocate more wattage to the speaker overall and have more power onhand to control the cone.
More cone control = less distortion = higher output volume capability!
EQ's -
Truely great EQ's do not boost at ALL. They do not even give you the option to boost into + numbers. They start at 0 and go negative. Some have built in crossovers, and slopes should be 24db per octave.
While tuning your system, it is likely that you have something in your car that goes into + numbers that you tune with. Treat it as if it does not have these numbers. In your mind envision your unit having only 0 (halfway) and negative numbers. To achieve the most power while still getting the proper sound curve you desire, (as your ears do not want a flat signal) where you would normally boost the treble, try cutting the midrange spectrum, and bass if needed.
Your only goal is to get the tweet above the rest in this situation. You don't want to boost or it will cost you lot's of valuable power. So instead we do the reverse. rather than boost the tweet, we cut the mids and bass. Works like a reverse mirror effect.
By cutting the strong points in the sound we boost the weak, see? However since we did not boost we did not use reserve power to cover the boost. Infact, we actually SAVED power by cutting area's where boost was too high! This will allow your speakers and amps to allocate more wattage to the speaker overall and have more power onhand to control the cone.
More cone control = less distortion = higher output volume capability!
Last edited by O. L. T.; 01-13-04 at 11:47 PM.
03-15-06, 05:06 AM
#13
Pole Position
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Virginia
Posts: 232
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by 933005spd
So I should go get one of those Kraco amplified equalizers based on your write up?
.
.
if you can't find the Kraco one, I hear Pyramid product is awesome as well
