Dudesss

Juts got my ICE installed in a 2006 civic VTI.
As the HU is integrated, i decided to cut a whole and put in my Eclipse deck.. so made use with the stock HU.
Got everything installed and all excited, and when i turned the system on, it sounds like, blearghh..

The mids / vocal is too compressed and there is not much life in the music.

No matter how i tuned and EQ the thing, i wasnt satisfied.. any ideas?

Gear:
Mid - Apline Type X splits
processor - Alpine PXA H -700
mid amp - a/d/s p450.2

running passives now.. am thinking of changing to active if that really improves the sound but i doubt it.

HELP!!!

How old are the mids you are using? If they are brand new, then they will probably sound quite hollow for a little while till the suspension sets in. I'll probably get flamed for suggesting this but if the Type X's are brand new, then you will have about 20-40 hrs worth of running in to do... Don't worry about it too much to start with.... I had the same problem...

I got a set of Boston Z6's and they sounded like a cheap pair of cr4p compared to my old splits, then I noticed I was adjusting the EQ after almost every drive for about 2 weeks, and they just seemed to come good after that... Now I love em to bits!!!!!

Give it some time, and if they still don't sound the goods, check your amps settings, then check that the power is up to speed... Another thing to check is the speaker wire... For those splits/amp combo I'd recommend at least 16AWG

If you still are having dramas, check that you are giving the splits enough space to breathe (you'll need at least 7-10 ltrs for a 6" mid to work to its full range, at least 4 ltrs if its high passed at around 80 hz).

Also, if your splits are a major upgrade, you may start to have resonance problems that weren't apparent when you had lesser quality splits installed... Have you sound deadened behind the drivers?

What CDs are you listening to?

quite a few that i used

a) sarah brightman - harem (vocal thin as hell)
b) joss stone - supposedly sould music, but no soul
c) sade - life recording (cant remember album name) (no, cant feel the 'liveness' either
d) tracy chapman - collection (no soul in the music either)

geez 40 hours! i guess the fastest way to get the mids run in is to drive all the way to perth and drive back!

check your phase of alll the drivers mids tweeter left and right.....

then have a good listen when you have confirmed the correct phase to all the speakers.

then play around with making the mids out of phase both sides or trying the tweeters both out of phase....

then change the type x crossover alignment and all the other setting you can select on the x-over (refer to your manual there are some many options i have 4 different midrange phase alignments on my x-overs all sound different).


then after all that...change tweeter position...the do the same things as stated above all over again..



out of everything tweeter position will make the biggest difference, followed by midrange position...then alignments and phasing are always the final steps...then after you are happy then EQ!!!

good luck

take a pic of that a/d/s amp for us please..

im guessing you are running of the type x xover? are all the settings on that correct?
the type x's are a nice speaker.
and you sure the h700 is setup properly?

yeah i think phasing is not a problem as i've checked all of them. the rpocessor also allows me to play in and out of phase and i think the phases are correct.

amp and processor settings are correct too.

Will have a go at the passives and try different settings as you guys suggested.

I think there are 2 culprits in the system. first is speaker positioning. I wanted everything to look stock standard so the tweets are so close to the windscreen that i'm actually wondering if the frequency is reflected by it by the installer assures me that it wont. then the mids are at the doors, which means that now the tweets and mids are not positioned on a straight vertical line (if you knwo what i mean).

Kinda unwilling to go back and have the speakers taken out and repositioned because that means i'll have to spend a hundred bucks or so again just to do that.. problem with having a new car is that I have no idea how to take the panels, seats and those out and i'm afraid to try it myself in case things go wrong. dint have a problem with my old junk i drove last time and i could do all those myself.

any reasonably affordable installers in QLD that i can trust?


then the stock HU may be a problem too. I find that alot of details are unresolved. hence it might make the mids so muddled and thin. but again, changing the HU will mean cutting a big fat hole in the dash, which i'm unwilling to do at the moment.

ICE and new ride just dont go together!



info on my a/d/s amp
http://www.adst.com/products/mobile/ppamp/p450.asp

FYI i'm bridging them @ 4 ohms x 2 at the moment

ryan you didnt read my post

after checking all the wiring from amp to x-over, xover to tweeters and mids...making sure they are all the correct phase..... that is 7 separate locations (4 speaker locations, one amp location and two x-over locations) check them all at each point.

then try using both left and right tweeter out of phase....wiring both tweeters backwards at the pasive x-over. Both sides...then have a listen sometimes this helps.

now ive had a quick look at the honda civic online. the tweeter stock locations look like they are at the base of the windshield and A pillars pointing directly towards the windshield.....If thats the case the result will be horrible. NO staging harsh edgy thin sound....i hate this setup with a passion. I have yet to like this arrangement with SQ sound off cars or just upgraded soundsystems....alll sound extremely bad.

There is a quick fix though. Pull the tweeters out. Place them on top of the tweeter grill where the Apillar and the windshield meet. Then use some blutack and wedge the tweeter in the corner where the Apillar and windshield meet. Aim the tweeters around the innner side of each head rest.....play around with angles until you get a magical result.

ONce the tweeters sound amazing ....and i promise they will sound the best youve ever heard, you have to address the mids. In the stock location they will be muffed and closed offf. If you want the ultimate sound you will have to cut the door and install door pods to allow the mid to radiate. Quite simply the stock door pods make an amazing mid sound aweful. Take the door trim off and listen to the system it will be sooo much better you will not even believe its the same system.

if you do not want to cut into the door trim then you will HAVE to look at a separate midrange unit like a dyn dm140/2 mounted in the kick panel then plus a custom passive or fully active setup.

so now all i can say is that stock locations are all horrible and sound extremely bad. To make a high end speaker sound hi end install is the only way to achieve it.

good luck

this is my last for awhile

woooohOOoooooOOoo

problem solved!
but left a scratch on the dashboard
damn

soooooo.........what did you do??

oh man what a bummer, dont think your alone, i took out my head unit the other day and scratched the clock and other instruments in the centre cluster.

but look on the bright side at least the system sounds good

took the tweets out from the stock location.
when i opened the grill, i noticed that the tweets were facing upwards, 2 inches to the windscreen! no wonder i said the sound in my car was dull.. i have no doubt that there was massive cancellation, where the sound reflected off the screen

took them out and placed them on axis, a bit of EQ and TA and voila!