Hey guys, this is my first post on these boards so wanted to start off by saying hi. Im new to evos this is my first awd vehicle, the evos my daily driver and my rsx is my track car.

So being my daily driver I went ahead and started on the sound. I have an alpine cda-9886, polk db651's. Today I just added one alpine type r 12inch 4ohm in a vented box with an alpine mpr-1000 amp, wired up with 4awg wiring.

Dunno if thats a good system or not, its what I could get my hands on with circuit city going under and ect ect...

Point of this post is I could really use some help tuning it. Tuning it to sound good, not for spl or any other competition stuff right now. I listen to pretty much everything and anything, but mostly rap, and rock. Sorry if this post is in the wrong section or something I think it would go here. But yeah any help tuning it would be great, moreso the amp tuning right now i have the hu set at bass -4, 80hz, treble -3 17.5khz, hpf 80hz. The amp is still on factory settings, i havent had the courage to play with it yet . So any help would be appreciated, the amp has gain, eq, and lpf. Thanks

06 Evo MR
Stock

 

Well, here's my recommendations....if you don't have one, go by radio shack and get a digital dB meter (it really helps get things pretty dialed in if you don't have a seperate EQ and aren't using imprint). Set the max volume you would like to see on the headunit (doesn't really matter where you set this as you are only running an amp for the sub). Download some pink noise tones and tune for 75db on your main speakers (hopefully the receiver will allow some sort of gain for each individual speaker)....make sure the 4 polks all measure around 75db on the meter. It is okay if it jumps up or down by a few db's. For the sub, it will be harder (the db meter from radio shack isn't very efficient below 50hz I believe). Give the sub a bit of a bump...if you tune the mains to 75db, try the sub at 80db and see if that is enough bass. Also, for crossover points, I personally like crossovers of the main speakers at 80hz and crossover of the sub at 100hz. For the sub, either cross in the headunit or on the amp....not both. If the amp has a low pass filter, use it. By setting crossovers first and then balancing levels I think you'll have a pretty good setup....if the receiver has time alignment, grab a tape measure and measure the distance from each speaker to your ear....you might look weird doing it, but it will help the soundstage...haha! Hope this helps...might be clear as mud.

 

Ummm i wont lie I dont fully understand sound stuff, so alot of what you said is a lil over my head. My speakers seemed tuned alright, its more the sub im looking to tune, right now on factory settings it doesnt seem that loud, even though im pretty sure it can get LOUD with the setup. What did you mean by "For the sub, either cross in the headunit or on the amp....not both."(not sure how to quote on forums...) And no sadly it doenst have any sort of time alignment, but i thought thats what the imprint stuff was for assuming i would go out and buy the rest of that gear...

 

I use imprint and it is worth the money (although I only paid 100 for the KTX-100EQ)...It really improves the soundstage and takes out a lot of the initial guessing. If you plan on doing that, turn off any internal crossover on the amp if it has one. If you are not planning on using the imprint system, locate the crossover on the amp or the sub crossover in the headunit and adjust it to 100hz. By doing this, your sub will only get signals below 100hz which is what subs are designed for. Also, see if your amp has a low pass filter and if it does, make sure it is turned on. This will isolate and allow only the low frequencies to reach your sub.

 

BTW...if you don't feel there is enough bass from the sub, by all means, up the gain...just don't overdo it. Really, it is your system and only you can decide what sounds best to you.

 

Thanks alot for all the help, the amp does have an lpf and an eq setting, dunno what the eq setting does, ill have to find the manual and read up unless someone can help me out on those. I'll turn the gain up a lil, is there any like warning to damaging a sub if i do so?

 

More damage is done by underpowering a sub rather than overpowering. If you add too much gain, you will get some distortion because the amp is working too hard....and if pushed too far, the amp may fry. My recommendation is to not use the sub EQ on the headunit and learn how to use the EQ adjustment on the amp and try to set that somewhere around 100. As for gain, if you don't want to get crazy with matching dB levels, just keep adding gain until it overpowers the rest of the system.....then turn it back a bit until it seems to balance well.

 

Oh thats interesting was unaware that underpowering would burn it up, but makes just as much sense. Correct me if im wrong but 1000watt amp on one 12 would probably not underpower it? I was concerned that turning up the gain would increase the power to the sub and burn it up.

 

a 1000 watt amp should be fine for that speaker....I just wouldn't bump gain too high (mainly because it will overpower the rest of your speakers and all you will hear is bass)