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Car audio advice thread

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Jeremy09
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Re: Budget 6.5/ Now car audio advice thread

Postby Jeremy09 » January 6th, 2022, 9:49 am

timelapse wrote:
Jeremy09 wrote:Peeps. Some advice on tuning silk domes.
Tweeter in question here is the arc x2s. They are rated 40rms each, my amp was rated more so i used the setting gain with DMM method to give them rated. I took some time downloaded free rta app(not accurate guess) an eq them pretty nicely on a pink noise track. However on music they still seem pretty harsh to my ear.

A friend of mines told me tweeters are to be set using your ears, is this true? If so what sounds to use to really test the tweeter and drop gain accordingly.
RTA pics?
What frequency you highpassed at?
No rta pics currently. But they had smooth declining bars going up the spectrum. Hpf is a 3.15khz with a 24db slope

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby Rovin » January 6th, 2022, 12:32 pm

small tweets are very efficient, so not because it rated 50 u must gee 50, half can do unless u like plenty highs

if ur hearing is good, no hearing loss or know what u looking for or what sounds good to u by all means do a final tune by ears once nothing is clipping or distorting ...

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby david12 » January 6th, 2022, 1:14 pm

Also imo 3.15khz kinda high, usually if the tweeter is able to be high passed at 2khz I start from there. Just something that I do, but it's been a while since I've messed with an active setup.

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby timelapse » January 6th, 2022, 4:17 pm

You could also just turn the gain down

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby Jeremy09 » January 7th, 2022, 10:29 am

timelapse wrote:You could also just turn the gain down
My gain dial is 1-9 and i dropped it from 3 to on 1 lol. The harsh sound went away but when the volume is turned up to where i set the headunit at for the max clean signal, the clip light on the amp flickers. I emailed jl and they said thats normal because music is transient and those clip lights are inaccurate.

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby timelapse » January 7th, 2022, 10:49 am

Jeremy09 wrote:
timelapse wrote:You could also just turn the gain down
My gain dial is 1-9 and i dropped it from 3 to on 1 lol. The harsh sound went away but when the volume is turned up to where i set the headunit at for the max clean signal, the clip light on the amp flickers. I emailed jl and they said thats normal because music is transient and those clip lights are inaccurate.
Gain on the amp or head unit you talking about?
Set your gains with a voltmeter

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby david12 » January 7th, 2022, 10:52 am

If you don't have a way to accurately check distortion like a SMD DD1 or O scope, you can always do a formula to see what voltage will give what wattage. This should be quite accurate and it'll give you a good reference point. Of course you'll need a multimeter for this. Try half of the rated power and see. This will be better than just turning down the gain and assuming.

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby Jeremy09 » January 7th, 2022, 11:09 am

david12 wrote:If you don't have a way to accurately check distortion like a SMD DD1 or O scope, you can always do a formula to see what voltage will give what wattage at a given resistance. This may not be 100% accurate either but it'll give you a good reference point. Of course you'll need a multimeter for this. Try half of the rated power and see. This will be better than just turning down the gain and assuming.
The headunit has no clipping in my car (80prs,tested) and i tuned my system to 60 of the 62 total vol . The jl amp i got has a clipping indicator. The dial on the gain on the amp has 1-10 on it. And is rated for 80rms on each channel at 4ohm. I used the multimeter method to get 40rms in which the arc tweeters are rated. That carried the dial to 3 on the amp. How ever, after eq on a pink noise track i got nice smooth declining bars on a free rta app. However, when i played music i found that to my ear the tweeter sounded harsh. I reduced the gain to 1 on this dial without changing eq. The harsh sound went away and it sounded good. When i crank the system up now to the vol 60, i clip light flickers on the amp for the tweeter even though its now on 1 on the dial.
I emailed jl and they said that is normal on music to see a bit off a flicker

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby timelapse » January 7th, 2022, 11:22 am

Jeremy09 wrote:
david12 wrote:If you don't have a way to accurately check distortion like a SMD DD1 or O scope, you can always do a formula to see what voltage will give what wattage at a given resistance. This may not be 100% accurate either but it'll give you a good reference point. Of course you'll need a multimeter for this. Try half of the rated power and see. This will be better than just turning down the gain and assuming.
The headunit has no clipping in my car (80prs,tested) and i tuned my system to 60 of the 62 total vol . The jl amp i got has a clipping indicator. The dial on the gain on the amp has 1-10 on it. And is rated for 80rms on each channel at 4ohm. I used the multimeter method to get 40rms in which the arc tweeters are rated. That carried the dial to 3 on the amp. How ever, after eq on a pink noise track i got nice smooth declining bars on a free rta app. However, when i played music i found that to my ear the tweeter sounded harsh. I reduced the gain to 1 on this dial without changing eq. The harsh sound went away and it sounded good. When i crank the system up now to the vol 60, i clip light flickers on the amp for the tweeter even though its now on 1 on the dial.
I emailed jl and they said that is normal on music to see a bit off a flicker
Now I getcha.
Did you actually check the impedence on the tweeter or use what was printed on it?
With the JL c1 tweeters, they were closer to 3 ohms although they should have been 4

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby Jeremy09 » January 7th, 2022, 12:22 pm

timelapse wrote:
Jeremy09 wrote:
david12 wrote:If you don't have a way to accurately check distortion like a SMD DD1 or O scope, you can always do a formula to see what voltage will give what wattage at a given resistance. This may not be 100% accurate either but it'll give you a good reference point. Of course you'll need a multimeter for this. Try half of the rated power and see. This will be better than just turning down the gain and assuming.
The headunit has no clipping in my car (80prs,tested) and i tuned my system to 60 of the 62 total vol . The jl amp i got has a clipping indicator. The dial on the gain on the amp has 1-10 on it. And is rated for 80rms on each channel at 4ohm. I used the multimeter method to get 40rms in which the arc tweeters are rated. That carried the dial to 3 on the amp. How ever, after eq on a pink noise track i got nice smooth declining bars on a free rta app. However, when i played music i found that to my ear the tweeter sounded harsh. I reduced the gain to 1 on this dial without changing eq. The harsh sound went away and it sounded good. When i crank the system up now to the vol 60, i clip light flickers on the amp for the tweeter even though its now on 1 on the dial.
I emailed jl and they said that is normal on music to see a bit off a flicker
Now I getcha.
Did you actually check the impedence on the tweeter or use what was printed on it?
With the JL c1 tweeters, they were closer to 3 ohms although they should have been 4
Same with the arcs. I just hope they don't damage. Seeing the clip light flickering and the gain can't go down any more

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby timelapse » January 7th, 2022, 12:31 pm

Jeremy09 wrote:
timelapse wrote:
Jeremy09 wrote:
david12 wrote:If you don't have a way to accurately check distortion like a SMD DD1 or O scope, you can always do a formula to see what voltage will give what wattage at a given resistance. This may not be 100% accurate either but it'll give you a good reference point. Of course you'll need a multimeter for this. Try half of the rated power and see. This will be better than just turning down the gain and assuming.
The headunit has no clipping in my car (80prs,tested) and i tuned my system to 60 of the 62 total vol . The jl amp i got has a clipping indicator. The dial on the gain on the amp has 1-10 on it. And is rated for 80rms on each channel at 4ohm. I used the multimeter method to get 40rms in which the arc tweeters are rated. That carried the dial to 3 on the amp. How ever, after eq on a pink noise track i got nice smooth declining bars on a free rta app. However, when i played music i found that to my ear the tweeter sounded harsh. I reduced the gain to 1 on this dial without changing eq. The harsh sound went away and it sounded good. When i crank the system up now to the vol 60, i clip light flickers on the amp for the tweeter even though its now on 1 on the dial.
I emailed jl and they said that is normal on music to see a bit off a flicker
Now I getcha.
Did you actually check the impedence on the tweeter or use what was printed on it?
With the JL c1 tweeters, they were closer to 3 ohms although they should have been 4
Same with the arcs. I just hope they don't damage. Seeing the clip light flickering and the gain can't go down any more
try this.
Highpass at 4 k with a 6 db slope

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby rollingstock » January 7th, 2022, 12:39 pm

Clip light flickering is normal. When it remains lit is when to concern yourself

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby Brian Steele » January 7th, 2022, 6:23 pm

The dial on the gain on the amp has 1-10 on it. And is rated for 80rms on each channel at 4ohm. I used the multimeter method to get 40rms in which the arc tweeters are rated.


Note that rating like is with the tweeter filtered with a HP filter. And even then if you run a sine wave at high frequency at that level through many tweeters, they may be damaged or fail completely.

The best way to get the best SPL from a tweeter is to use somethin like REW to check the distortion it's producing at lower frequencies. You'd want to filter at or above where the distortion starts to rise, and at least 12dB/octave.

That harsh sound that you might be hearing when playing music through them might be as a result of the tweeter being overdriven at lower frequencies (though it could also be signs of a tweeter suffering from some pretty bad resonances).

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby Jeremy09 » January 7th, 2022, 6:37 pm

Brian Steele wrote:
The dial on the gain on the amp has 1-10 on it. And is rated for 80rms on each channel at 4ohm. I used the multimeter method to get 40rms in which the arc tweeters are rated.


Note that rating like is with the tweeter filtered with a HP filter. And even then if you run a sine wave at high frequency at that level through many tweeters, they may be damaged or fail completely.

The best way to get the best SPL from a tweeter is to use somethin like REW to check the distortion it's producing at lower frequencies. You'd want to filter at or above where the distortion starts to rise, and at least 12dB/octave.

That harsh sound that you might be hearing when playing music through them might be as a result of the tweeter being overdriven at lower frequencies (though it could also be signs of a tweeter suffering from some pretty bad resonances).
Makes sense. I have them crossed at 3.15khz with a 24db slope. The fs on the tweeter on arc site is 1400hz

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby timelapse » January 7th, 2022, 6:44 pm

That , and silk tweeters are more sensitive

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby Brian Steele » January 7th, 2022, 8:51 pm

Another thing that can cause harshness is if the tweeter uses ferrofluid and the ferrofluid needs to be replaced. It basically stops the tweeter coil from moving, which leads to distortion at lower frequencies. Some tweeters allow removal of the dome and coil, making it easier to replace the ferrofluid. Others, well, might be time to buy new tweeters... :-)

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby david12 » January 7th, 2022, 10:55 pm

Wonder if I need to do tha for my NB1 boy

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby Jeremy09 » January 10th, 2022, 9:14 am

Digging up with the faitals again this weekend. Alyh right yes, my resilient sounds speakers way better,so much more pleasing to the ear. But hear this, is it normal for pro audio speakers to give a subtle crackle or scratch that is noticeable at louder volumes? The noise doesn't get louder as volume raises,u just kinda hear it if you really close to the speaker, mids sound perfect fine (lika ole mic) speaker isn't blown, tap test, multimeter and smell test was done lol

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby timelapse » January 11th, 2022, 7:09 am

Jeremy09 wrote:Digging up with the faitals again this weekend. Alyh right yes, my resilient sounds speakers way better,so much more pleasing to the ear. But hear this, is it normal for pro audio speakers to give a subtle crackle or scratch that is noticeable at louder volumes? The noise doesn't get louder as volume raises,u just kinda hear it if you really close to the speaker, mids sound perfect fine (lika ole mic) speaker isn't blown, tap test, multimeter and smell test was done lol
Subtle crackle might indicate a misaligned coil

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby Brian Steele » January 11th, 2022, 9:45 pm

timelapse wrote:Subtle crackle might indicate a misaligned coil


or a damaged one.

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Re: Budget 6.5/ Now car audio advice thread

Postby *KRONIK* » January 11th, 2022, 10:29 pm

kavaninho wrote:
david12 wrote:Thanks Rovin


Any experiences with them or other recommendations? Was watching the Arc or IDQs


To me these are better subs. Even the 8W3 from JL.
Bro

Check PM

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby Rovin » January 12th, 2022, 11:13 am

OP i see u selling a new rf 500.4 , lemme guess : not enuff powah ? ...

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby Jeremy09 » January 12th, 2022, 12:30 pm

Rovin wrote:OP i see u selling a new rf 500.4 , lemme guess : not enuff powah ? ...
Ohhh guhhhh,thats not mines lol...

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby Rovin » January 12th, 2022, 12:40 pm

oho my bad i tort u like to buy\try new stuff ...

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby kamakazi » January 14th, 2022, 3:50 pm

I need recommendations for the cheapest combination of parts to add bass to a van cabin

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby nick639v2 » January 14th, 2022, 4:05 pm

kamakazi wrote:I need recommendations for the cheapest combination of parts to add bass to a van cabin


Good 6.5s your door. And proper sound deadening to suit. You’d be surprised how well it could turn out even off deck power

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby david12 » January 14th, 2022, 4:49 pm

kamakazi wrote:I need recommendations for the cheapest combination of parts to add bass to a van cabin
Like Nick said proper deadning is a good start. It will decrease the loss of acoustic energy to vibration and maybe some budget 6.5s, a comp and coax set. Your choice if you want to go with an amp or not.

A buddy has some lightly used RFs if you're interested.

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby kamakazi » January 14th, 2022, 9:21 pm

I think of sound dampening as an incremental step. Can it make up for not having a sub...I can't say, but am inclined to say no.
I'm my case I was thinking 8"sub (or if I can find smaller) in a sealed box... Or one of those underseat powered subwoofer.

Does anyone sell subwoofers smaller than 8"

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby nick639v2 » January 14th, 2022, 9:35 pm

kamakazi wrote:I think of sound dampening as an incremental step. Can it make up for not having a sub...I can't say, but am inclined to say no.
I'm my case I was thinking 8"sub (or if I can find smaller) in a sealed box... Or one of those underseat powered subwoofer.

Does anyone sell subwoofers smaller than 8"


Also had that thought of it being an incremental step until I saw nerve’s videos, I followed suit in my last pickup and I ended up with with jbl stadium components playing and shaking my rear view.

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Re: Car audio advice thread

Postby david12 » January 14th, 2022, 9:50 pm

kamakazi wrote:I think of sound dampening as an incremental step. Can it make up for not having a sub...I can't say, but am inclined to say no.
I'm my case I was thinking 8"sub (or if I can find smaller) in a sealed box... Or one of those underseat powered subwoofer.

Does anyone sell subwoofers smaller than 8"
You should've specified. Currently I having some fun with some Punches, comps and coax. Just pure midbass and you'd be very surprised. But if you want a sub I'll give my opinion. Those under seat subs are a waste of time. The only way I'll advise it is if you have a completely factory system and you want a very subtle extra kick.

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