urgent help tuning my amp and car stereo

[hykhleif]

Hello everyone, I kindly ask your help as it seems I can't find a good knowledgeable garage in my area to tune my car system all they want is to sell me stuff, and I ended buying and they don't care about tuning the system and honestly I started to hate the whole system I bought

This is what I bought

1- Sony MEX BT 5100 car stereo

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/car-cd-player-bluetooth/mex-bt5100

2- Crunch Powerzone P 900.4

http://www.supergarsas.lt/caraudio/Stiprintuvai/crunch_p900-4.html

3- Another amp for the sunwoofer

4- JBL component speaker ( 2 in the front and 2 in the back )

5-JBL GT-X1150T Bass Tube Subwoofer - 1150 Watts

http://shopping.indiatimes.com/electronics/car-accessories/jbl-gt-x1150t-bass-tube-subwoofer-1150-watts/10182/p_B1010555

Now I listen to different types of music synthpop, rock, pop, dance music

And I find that the sound is so annoying listening to the system I have, and I tried messing around with the amp and the equaliser of the stereo now I find the sound even worse. What irritates me is the high and mid levels seems so annoying to my ears and if I turn it loud I feel my ears just hear screaming.

I need your help in tuning the whole system, how do I set up the tuning

The back of the crunch amp is so confusing to me since on it all the 4 speakers JBL are connected how shall I set it up, what filters shall I use HPF LPF or FULL and how do I set the screws to what level where to start from. Also when I move the screws I don't know what levels I have reached.

When I tune the amp shall I first set the equaliser of my stereo and then tune the amp?

Please I need your help as I am tired of people trying rip me off and in my city no one is knowledgeable so please bare with me and help me how to set up the system.

In my country we don't have those high professionals and this means I need to depend on my ears in tuning.

[jk13]

Disclaimer: there are better ways to do this, but it sounds like you have no multimeter or access to a DD-1 so here's the absolute basics:

1) Set everything on your head unit flat. Bass 0, Treble 0, fader 0, sub level 0, Eq flat, etc. Tune the amps first.

2) Turn all the knobs on your four channel amp all the way down.

3) Set both front and rear channels to HPF.

4) 60Hz is the minimum for HPF which is probably fine. You could turn it up a bit if they won't play that low when you're done (if they distort or bottom out with bass).

5) Play clean, well recorded music (a few different songs) at about 75-80% of the head unit's max volume.

6) Adjust your front and rear levels up until you hear a tiny bit of distortion, then back it down until it's gone. That's your maximum setting. Don't go above that.

7) Do the same with your sub amp--everything 0, no bass boost ever, LPF at 60-70Hz, start at 0 on the gain and work your way up to your maximum setting. With both amps at your maximum settings listen to the system. If something is too loud turn it down on the amp. Fronts, rear, subs, whatever. DON'T go above your maximum settings you found.

9) Once you are happy with the levels and the system balance you can make MINOR adjustments from the head unit. DON'T use the preset Eq settings, go to custom and only make small changes. Do your best to turn things down rather than up. When you turn frequencies up it will effect how crossovers work and how speakers react in a negative manner. Much safer to use "subtractive" Eq-ing.

If you use some common sense and some patience, doing it this way will teach you more about your system and how it works than plugging in a machine to figure it out for you. Yes, the machine will be more accurate and safer but you won't learn as much--other than how to use the machine. If you have access to the tools I mentioned above there are dozens of threads on this site on how to use them. Search around and educate yourself.

[hazestorm23]

Hello everyone, I kindly ask your help as it seems I can't find a good knowledgeable garage in my area to tune my car system all they want is to sell me stuff, and I ended buying and they don't care about tuning the system and honestly I started to hate the whole system I bought

This is what I bought

1- Sony MEX BT 5100 car stereo

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/car-cd-player-bluetooth/mex-bt5100

2- Crunch Powerzone P 900.4

http://www.supergarsas.lt/caraudio/Stiprintuvai/crunch_p900-4.html

3- Another amp for the sunwoofer

4- JBL component speaker ( 2 in the front and 2 in the back )

5-JBL GT-X1150T Bass Tube Subwoofer - 1150 Watts

http://shopping.indiatimes.com/electronics/car-accessories/jbl-gt-x1150t-bass-tube-subwoofer-1150-watts/10182/p_B1010555

Now I listen to different types of music synthpop, rock, pop, dance music

And I find that the sound is so annoying listening to the system I have, and I tried messing around with the amp and the equaliser of the stereo now I find the sound even worse. What irritates me is the high and mid levels seems so annoying to my ears and if I turn it loud I feel my ears just hear screaming.

I need your help in tuning the whole system, how do I set up the tuning

The back of the crunch amp is so confusing to me since on it all the 4 speakers JBL are connected how shall I set it up, what filters shall I use HPF LPF or FULL and how do I set the screws to what level where to start from. Also when I move the screws I don't know what levels I have reached.

When I tune the amp shall I first set the equaliser of my stereo and then tune the amp?

Please I need your help as I am tired of people trying rip me off and in my city no one is knowledgeable so please bare with me and help me how to set up the system.

In my country we don't have those high professionals and this means I need to depend on my ears in tuning.

The only decent thing they sold you was that head unit. You can't return this stuff? And what brands are sold in your country

[hykhleif]

I have a question if I increase the HPF over 60HZ what does that do the 4 speakers that are connected to the doors will I hear more bass or treble in the speakers, please forgive me for this stupid question this is so confusing for me. On my amp I set chose as suggested to me HPF for the four speakers, but why should I not select full range or LPF for the 4 speakers.

another question what happens if I set the gain very low way before I hear distortion, will that affect sound quality or it only affects volume loudness

[jk13]

HPF=high pass filter. It means the speakers won't play much below that point (60Hz). Raising it makes the point that you take away bass from them higher. It does not get you more highs, only less lows.

Set the gains like I mentioned. If you don't want it as loud don't turn the volume up as much. There is no sound quality advantage to leaving them lower than that. You will lose volume, possibly some background noise or hiss from a cheap amp/wire/head unit combo, but not get higher SQ. Also if you have some music that is recorded at a lower level it will cause problems being able to listen to it at your desired level.

More power gives you more control over a speaker. Dynamics will be better, like a punchy snare or cymbal hit will be crisper and more defined. If you didn't want more power you could have left them running off the head unit and not had to figure this all out.

[hykhleif]

HPF=high pass filter. It means the speakers won't play much below that point (60Hz). Raising it makes the point that you take away bass from them higher. It does not get you more highs, only less lows.

Set the gains like I mentioned. If you don't want it as loud don't turn the volume up as much. There is no sound quality advantage to leaving them lower than that. You will lose volume, possibly some background noise or hiss from a cheap amp/wire/head unit combo, but not get higher SQ. Also if you have some music that is recorded at a lower level it will cause problems being able to listen to it at your desired level.

More power gives you more control over a speaker. Dynamics will be better, like a punchy snare or cymbal hit will be crisper and more defined. If you didn't want more power you could have left them running off the head unit and not had to figure this all out.

so then keeping the HPF set at 60 HZ is the best recommendation as I don't want to rake away bass from the speakers.

So from all I understand is the only think you do on an amp is set gain correctly and play with the bass level and keep HPF set at 60%

[jk13]

Do not "play with bass level".

Otherwise yes. Set crossover--start at 60Hz.

Set gain.

If the speakers will not play that low without bottoming or distorting you can raise it up from 60Hz. It will have as much to do with how and where they are mounted as it will the speakers themselves.

That's all the settings you need to adjust on an amp in this case.

[hykhleif]

Do not "play with bass level".

Otherwise yes. Set crossover--start at 60Hz.

Set gain.

If the speakers will not play that low without bottoming or distorting you can raise it up from 60Hz. It will have as much to do with how and where they are mounted as it will the speakers themselves.

That's all the settings you need to adjust on an amp in this case.

jk13 I know people started to get annoyed from my newbie questions, but I hope people understand that it feels like lost in a pool of info and the net in such cases can be very overwhelming

JK13 you mentioned not to play with the base level in the amp why? Do u mean until I finish setting the gain then I can play with the bass level.

Another question u said (crossover--start at 60Hz) u mean the HPF or something else.

Setting the HPF at 60hz if the speakers don't distort is that then the best to keep it at?

[Taylor Campbell]

Here are a few suggestions from me. I have only been playing with car audio for about 2 years so if someone else tells you different they probably know more then me. haha

1. You can treat your high pass filter and low pass filters as your crossover. Your high pass filter filters out everything below a set frequency(usually meant for mids and highs). Your low pass filters out every thing above a set frequency(usually meant for subs). If your speakers aren't distorting it is fine to leave your low high pass filter set at 60hz. If you set it higher you will get less bass from your speakers. I have my low pass filter on my sub set for 120hz. That way there is a tad of overlap and no frequencies are left out. This is just my opinion though.

2. What I think he means about the bass, is that whatever your bass was set at when you set your gains is where it should stay. For example, if your bass is at zero when you set your gains and you set it +15, at your max volume you are going to clip like crazy. The only time you should consider raising the bass is when you are listening at low levels. Even then, make sure to set it back to zero so you don't forget and accidentally clip your speakers/sub.

Good luck and hope this helps!