Hey all,
My front stage currently consists of a set of Focal 165V2 running through the standard crossover to a JBL GTO75.4 using a eclipse CD4000 hu.
I have noticed the tweeters are stupidly bright at times, and the mids really lack. With this setup would i be able to run active? or would i possibly damage something?
I havent sd the front doors yet, i will be doing that soon
Full Version: Front Stage question
sd the front doors, make sure the speakers are solidly mounted (either a good 18mm or thicker baffle, or directly to the inner door skin if possible), make sure there are no air leaks around where the speaker is mounted, nor any around the door (or as few as possible anyway)
also try the tweeters in the kicks, or deep in the a-pillars and 15-30deg off-axis. DO NOT have them close to your hear (mirror sails) or directed at the windscreen in any way.
also try a carpet dash matt to reduce reflections (if the tweets are not mounted low in the doors of kicks)
if you do all this, and the mids are still lacking, and the tweeters are still too bright, then you might have to look into different speakers.
as for running active, the jbl amp only has crossovers from 32-320Hz. so you wont be able to run active
also try the tweeters in the kicks, or deep in the a-pillars and 15-30deg off-axis. DO NOT have them close to your hear (mirror sails) or directed at the windscreen in any way.
also try a carpet dash matt to reduce reflections (if the tweets are not mounted low in the doors of kicks)
if you do all this, and the mids are still lacking, and the tweeters are still too bright, then you might have to look into different speakers.
as for running active, the jbl amp only has crossovers from 32-320Hz. so you wont be able to run active
you do have some nice and simple tuning features with the cd4000,check your hu settings for the crossovers and PEQ feature.
QUOTE (zion187reigneth @ Oct 10 2008, 10:25 PM) 
you do have some nice and simple tuning features with the cd4000,check your hu settings for the crossovers and PEQ feature.
cheers mate, wil have a play around with it whenever i get the car back
First, make sure your x/over is set at it's neg 6 DB setting (or more if it has it, from memory it's -3, and -6.)
If your midbass is lacking, firstly make sure your doors are deadend properly, and as said above, speakers mounted hard, if you have them just screwed to the plain metal door material, your asking a bit much if your saying they are lacking, you havn't given them a fair chance in the first place!! the door will just absorb what bass there would be on offer. It needs a very solid mount to get the most from the midbass.
if you have basic EQ Settings, reducing your midrange freqs (from 250hz-3khz) may improve midbass, as well as making your midrange sound more natural. Quite often car systems lack in midbass which makes the midrange sound unnaturally bright. I usually start in the 500-800hz range when tuning most systems.
You can mount your tweeters off axis to make them more dull sounding, this is a trick often used by
car stereo shops more because it's easier than because it reduces brightness on cheaper speakers.
the biggest problem with this, is it instantly destroys the high frequency response, as in 12khz - 20khz + while that seems not such a big deal since we struggle to hear above 20khz, its in that range of sound that provides air, space and depth to the sound, and for that reason you would want the tweeters as close to aiming at your ears as possible, the downside of this is that frequencys in the region of 2-4khz and 7-12khz can sometimes be overwhelming. (2-4khz percieved as harshness, and 7-12khz the SSS on peoples words) you need to be careful though not to try and eliminate harshness and the SSS sounds, because sometimes it's simply just how the recording was made, and your speakers are trying to translate acurately what they where given.. if it's not harsh on 8 out of 10 CD's then you probably have nothing wrong with your system at all in that region. it's just how that sound engineer recorded the music.
Juls
If your midbass is lacking, firstly make sure your doors are deadend properly, and as said above, speakers mounted hard, if you have them just screwed to the plain metal door material, your asking a bit much if your saying they are lacking, you havn't given them a fair chance in the first place!! the door will just absorb what bass there would be on offer. It needs a very solid mount to get the most from the midbass.
if you have basic EQ Settings, reducing your midrange freqs (from 250hz-3khz) may improve midbass, as well as making your midrange sound more natural. Quite often car systems lack in midbass which makes the midrange sound unnaturally bright. I usually start in the 500-800hz range when tuning most systems.
You can mount your tweeters off axis to make them more dull sounding, this is a trick often used by
car stereo shops more because it's easier than because it reduces brightness on cheaper speakers.
the biggest problem with this, is it instantly destroys the high frequency response, as in 12khz - 20khz + while that seems not such a big deal since we struggle to hear above 20khz, its in that range of sound that provides air, space and depth to the sound, and for that reason you would want the tweeters as close to aiming at your ears as possible, the downside of this is that frequencys in the region of 2-4khz and 7-12khz can sometimes be overwhelming. (2-4khz percieved as harshness, and 7-12khz the SSS on peoples words) you need to be careful though not to try and eliminate harshness and the SSS sounds, because sometimes it's simply just how the recording was made, and your speakers are trying to translate acurately what they where given.. if it's not harsh on 8 out of 10 CD's then you probably have nothing wrong with your system at all in that region. it's just how that sound engineer recorded the music.
Juls
You can't really run active completely effectively with that system.
For an active system, I'd recommend a change of head unit. It's not too expensive (a Clarion DXZ886USB can do it all for $499rrp) but you really want a head unit that has all the necessary tuning features in built rather then doing it half-arsed via the amps crossovers and gains (which tend to be limited).
Also if you do run active be very careful - the passive crossovers that come with the speakers set what frequencies they play, and this isn't just there to sound pretty...it also protects the tweeters from being pushed too hard, as well as properly level matching them, etc. If you run active and set your crossover too low, you could damage your tweeters quite easilly - and if you muck up the crossovers and gain levels chances are it will sound worse then it does off the stock passives.
Get it active right and can sund twice as good as stock passives, but get it wrong and it can sound more then twice as bad.
For an active system, I'd recommend a change of head unit. It's not too expensive (a Clarion DXZ886USB can do it all for $499rrp) but you really want a head unit that has all the necessary tuning features in built rather then doing it half-arsed via the amps crossovers and gains (which tend to be limited).
Also if you do run active be very careful - the passive crossovers that come with the speakers set what frequencies they play, and this isn't just there to sound pretty...it also protects the tweeters from being pushed too hard, as well as properly level matching them, etc. If you run active and set your crossover too low, you could damage your tweeters quite easilly - and if you muck up the crossovers and gain levels chances are it will sound worse then it does off the stock passives.
Get it active right and can sund twice as good as stock passives, but get it wrong and it can sound more then twice as bad.
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