HU on the way. Tuning help needed!

eloplayspolo

Juice75 wrote: »

Hey Kawi - how are you liking that head unit? I'm looking into the X994 as well. My only concern are the iPod controls. The Sony I have now is great for my iPod, but seriously lacks in SQ and tuning.

i went with the kiv 700 over the x994 Because i use an ipod with my head unit more than anything else, so far i am very happy with it and my girlfriend (who hated my old alpine likes the 700 so much she asked for it for xmas), its super easy to use and the tunning features are endless.

EndersShadow

Any update on how your cuz's headunit is doing with his Zune post update?

kawizx9r

Juice75 wrote: »

Hey Kawi - how are you liking that head unit? I'm looking into the X994 as well. My only concern are the iPod controls. The Sony I have now is great for my iPod, but seriously lacks in SQ and tuning.

Well, I bought my x794 mainly for the features stated above (4v preouts/time alignment/etc) however I received a free iPod touch soon after buying it and love it. Now, the iPod is being used 95% of the time I'm in the car and I love the interface :biggrin:

However, keep in mind the KIV's are media-only. Also, the kiv 700 does NOT have a detachable face. Not sure if the 900 does or not but it's something to look into. They do have a nice colorful display, but I don't care about displays.

eloplayspolo wrote: »

i went with the kiv 700 over the x994 Because i use an ipod with my head unit more than anything else, so far i am very happy with it and my girlfriend (who hated my old alpine likes the 700 so much she asked for it for xmas), its super easy to use and the tunning features are endless.

EndersShadow wrote: »

Any update on how your cuz's headunit is doing with his Zune post update?

Haven't talked to him in awhile since I was having some car trouble's etc, been focused on other things but I'll ask him soon to see if anythings changed.

EndersShadow

kawizx9r wrote: »

Haven't talked to him in awhile since I was having some car trouble's etc, been focused on other things but I'll ask him soon to see if anythings changed.

Understand, hope your able to make the Cali Polkie Gathering..

Juice75

eloplayspolo - The KIV-700 looks great, but I ruled it out for two reasons. 1) the face isn't detachable. My wife had two radios stolen when the faceplate wasn't removed. Just don't want to risk it since my truck is outside at night. 2) It doesn't bypass the iPod DACs...at least according to Crutchfield and some other posts I've read.

Kawi - thanks for the update. I think I might go ahead and go for the X994. Having the blue tooth is a definite bonus for me.

Now that's out of the way, I'm also trying to decide whether to keep the Focal 165VR set I just installed, or look around for something else. I'd love to get some SR6500's, but when they do turn up, they are crazy expensive.

kawizx9r

EndersShadow wrote: »

Any update on how your cuz's headunit is doing with his Zune post update?

Well, my cousin says the load times are still slow.

I'd just opt for a hard drive and use the software to create the database for quicker retrieval of music.

Juice75 wrote: »

eloplayspolo - The KIV-700 looks great, but I ruled it out for two reasons. 1) the face isn't detachable. My wife had two radios stolen when the faceplate wasn't removed. Just don't want to risk it since my truck is outside at night. 2) It doesn't bypass the iPod DACs...at least according to Crutchfield and some other posts I've read.

Kawi - thanks for the update. I think I might go ahead and go for the X994. Having the blue tooth is a definite bonus for me.

Now that's out of the way, I'm also trying to decide whether to keep the Focal 165VR set I just installed, or look around for something else. I'd love to get some SR6500's, but when they do turn up, they are crazy expensive.

If you can get your hands on some SR's, DO IT!

I love mine :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

EndersShadow

kawizx9r wrote: »

Well, my cousin says the load times are still slow.

I'd just opt for a hard drive and use the software to create the database for quicker retrieval of music.

Damn, well time heals all wounds, and allows for more firmware and hardware updates...

Doubt I will be doing much purchasing for a bit (still waiting for the sticker shock from the hospital bill).

And if I get "lucky" with another issue like I had I get to have a fun surgery in my future that I am sure wont cost too much... lol

Juice75

Never thought about the SR5250's before. Any idea how they sound compared to the SR6500? Downsizing from a 6 1/2 to a 5 1/4 just seems counter productive. But I guess I could be wrong.

kawizx9r

EndersShadow wrote: »

Damn, well time heals all wounds, and allows for more firmware and hardware updates...

Doubt I will be doing much purchasing for a bit (still waiting for the sticker shock from the hospital bill).

And if I get "lucky" with another issue like I had I get to have a fun surgery in my future that I am sure wont cost too much... lol

Yeah, just thought about that. Well at least you're out of the hospital and doing much better (I hope ).

My cousin left with my external Hitachi hard drive (let him copy some movies) but once he gives it back I'll go ahead and load some music on it and hook it up to my Kenwood and see how it works. I've done this with thumb drives but figured I'd try a larger capacity drive filled with tons of music just to test it. That and I'll just do a simple drag+drop, and see how long it takes to load up on the HU.

Juice75 wrote: »

Never thought about the SR5250's before. Any idea how they sound compared to the SR6500? Downsizing from a 6 1/2 to a 5 1/4 just seems counter productive. But I guess I could be wrong.

I'd start a separate thread on that, however I think it's been answered before.

I wouldn't say it's so much of a downsize, I mean you don't have any SR6500's to begin with that and you should know how hard they are to come by! With that said, go to Fry's and pick up a pair of SR5250's. Haven't heard them myself, but I bet they're no slouch....even compared to the 6500's.

-Freddy

PS My 6500's are staying in my car for good, I love'm that much :biggrin:

MacLeod

Juice75 wrote: »

Never thought about the SR5250's before. Any idea how they sound compared to the SR6500? Downsizing from a 6 1/2 to a 5 1/4 just seems counter productive. But I guess I could be wrong.

The SR5250's are an excelent choice. I ran them in the 07 competition season as well as last year (although I didnt do a lot of shows last year) and always had good results and I intend to run them in the '11 season.

The 6's have much better midbass response so if youre not going to run a sub, you'll want to stick with the 6.

The 5's have superb tonallity and detail and from 100 Hz and up, actually sound better than the 6 IMO. They'll play down to 50 Hz with ease but not any lower with any authority but if you're going to run a good sub, you can get better overall SQ with the 5.

eloplayspolo

Juice75 wrote: »

eloplayspolo - The KIV-700 looks great, but I ruled it out for two reasons. 1) the face isn't detachable. My wife had two radios stolen when the faceplate wasn't removed. Just don't want to risk it since my truck is outside at night. 2) It doesn't bypass the iPod DACs...at least according to Crutchfield and some other posts I've read.

There is literally an option called DAC and you can choose Pass Thru or Bypass
Honestly, crutchfield knew very little about the units, i had to call kenwood and speak to a senior tech.

I always forget that it doesn't have the detachable face - luckily i live in an area where its very very very very rare that a car is broken into, where i work is another story, but i always park where i can see my car from he office window.

http://www.cityrating.com/citycrime.asp?city=Fountain+Valley&state=CA

LOL where i work - check out the car theft!
http://www.cityrating.com/citycrime.asp?city=Santa+Ana&state=CA

kawizx9r

My girlfriend got me my Polk MM1204 sub today.

Just got done installing it, and even at low volumes the bass is much deeper than my MTX :biggrin:

Hate breaking subs in though, this is the third sub in 4 months! But I'm keeping this one. Got a .9cu ft sealed box for the 12" and it barely fits in my trunk, kind of makes me feel better about passing on the SR sub. Plus I wouldn't have been able to use it unless I bought a new amp.

kawizx9r

Here it is installed :biggrin:





Anyone interested in an MTX TR5500 10" sub? It's like a month and a half old :eek:

mole'

looks good man

kawizx9r

Thanks bro, got some extra crap now sitting in the closet.

The Alpine's and small Kenwood amp I let my cousin have, still have 2 extra subs though as well as a headunit (plus the Chrysler stock radio that you wanted).

Not to mention some Paradigm home speakers!

MacLeod

Hide them wires boy! Build ya an amp rack to lay down there next to the sub box.

kawizx9r

MacLeod wrote: »

Hide them wires boy! Build ya an amp rack to lay down there next to the sub box.

Not yet but I will!

Just don't have the time to do so, but in the meantime the amps are mounted to the floor board and wherever a wire has play in it, it's been remedied by zipties. Everything's secure and doesn't move at all

But I will! Would love to hide it by making it look like a small shelf, but then I'd have to worry about cooling so that'd require a bit more custom work...hmmm

Juice75

Looking good Kawi! Are you using the XO and time alignment on the head unit or the amp? If the amp does it well, I might consider picking one up for some extra processing to replace my Alpine PDX-5.

kawizx9r

Juice75 wrote: »

Looking good Kawi! Are you using the XO and time alignment on the head unit or the amp? If the amp does it well, I might consider picking one up for some extra processing to replace my Alpine PDX-5.

Thanks :biggrin:

I'm currently using the T.A. on my HU and have yet to go active XO.

I love that the amp has T.A. for each channel, as well as an active XO and other DSP settings but I've yet to use them simply because I've been focusing on my cars performance. I'm thinking instead of using the amps T.A. (and since my SR6500's are bi-amped), that I'll run a set of RCA's from my HU's rear channel output into the 'B' channel in my amp. This way I can fine tune my T.A. for EACH individual speaker from the driver's seat as opposed to having to go back and forth to my trunk. The way I've got it now is 1 set of RCA's (FRONT L/R out) from the HU to the amps A input (with INPUT mode set to A+B) which sends that signal to both the A and B channels on the amp.

In the meantime, I'm letting my sub break in before doing anymore tuning/tweaking as well as putting together some plans to make an amp rack. The setup looks clean, but I want to hide my wires completely.

kawizx9r

Little update since it's been awhile...

My Polk MM is going to take awhile until it breaks in. In the meantime, I ran another set of RCA's from the rear output of my headunit to the B input of my 4-channel amp. I am now running my components via active XO thanks to my amp.

Now, for some reason the TA isn't doing as much as it was before. The way my setup is now, I have TA settings for each individual driver (tweeters are known as FRONTS and woofers are known as REARS through my HU's TA settings) and I figured I'd recreate what I had to get that image/soundstage again before I went active XO/separate TA per driver.

I'll try again by fading out the tweeters alone and adjusting TA on the woofers. It didn't work out too well when I faded out the woofers and tried adjusting the tweeters alone...3.4k hz and up is really hard to use to create an image/etc.

Will say though, there's alot more clarity in everything I put through it since going active. I'm really digging it :biggrin:

kawizx9r

Damn, it's sounding alot better. Tweaking it each and everyday and love every minute of how my system sounds :biggrin:

kawizx9r

So, I think I've gone through 5 car amps in the past 6 months now?

Today I picked up a used JL Audio Slash series amp (500/1v2) because the 360.2 just wasn't cutting it for me with my Polk sub. Well it's all hooked up and damn does it sound good!

Only thing is, one of the fins on the heatstink is broken. Bought it used but for less than the guy was originally asking. Still, I'm very happy with it! More tuning to be done still.

kawizx9r

DSkip wrote: »

How is it faring when compared to the home setup? After listening to the LSi7's with some power behind them, I was pleasantly surprised to be getting very similar results with my SR5250's, both tonally and SQ-wise.

You know what, I think I'd love the 5250's midrange drivers because I think their tone would be close to that of LSi7's (as opposed to my 6500's). I used to own a pair and had them hooked up to a fully modified (MIT multicaps, holco resistors, etc) NYAL Moscode tube hybrid and although my car setup doesn't sound as good, it's getting damn close!

Don't get me wrong, I love the 6500's but I want a little more midrange rather than mid-bass. 3-way setup in the future? :eek:

Still, I've got more tuning to do as well as deadening the doors. My SQ is suffering because I haven't applied dynamat to anything....yet.

kawizx9r

DSkip wrote: »

I have no sound deadening at this point. My tweeters are still running off head unit power (the fact that I can do that is another reason why I love my Pio 860), and I've got less power going to the mids/sub than I'd prefer. In the end though, I feel like my product is a very respectable 2ch representation. A lot of room for improvement, but I don't feel like allocating the funds for that anytime soon.

Same here regarding funds. I just thought I'd hit the expensive stuff before tweaking things IE dynamat.

DSkip wrote: »

The LSi7 and 5250 could be mistaken for one another if each were set up properly. The main differences I noticed was that the presentation was closer to me with the 5250s. I actually preferred the imaging in my car over the LSi7. There seems to be a lot more play with height queues with the 5250's. The soundstage was obviously wider with the LSi's. I was a bit disappointed in the low end the LSi7 produces, but I've gotten used to that SR 10" coupled with the 5250's.

I've never heard 5250's but the more and more I read about them, the more I want to listen to a pair. Midrange this midrange that, I'm curious as to how they'll sound if I added a pair with my 6500's and Vifa tweets.

As for those LSi7's, mine put out plenty of bass to rattle windows and make the remote vibrate and fall off the coffee table when I had them. Then again, I had a tube pre and Denon player, upgraded power cords and MIT Shotgun interconnects. Damn it sounded good! Even better when I paired the setup with a MicroPro sub. Here's a pic of that old setup -

DSkip wrote: »

I think its funny we are heading in two different directions now. Congrats on the new amp.

Lol no **** and thanks :biggrin:

But like you said, I too felt I was underpowering my subwoofer which is why I decided to upgrade my amp.

kawizx9r

Here's a closeup shot of the amp that was powering the LSi7's -



Can you tell that I love taking pics? Think every thread I've created has a few pics I've added myself lol

kawizx9r

DSkip wrote: »

Whatever that Cherry piece is (pre, maybe?), it sure is sexy. Your Wii cracks me up. It just seems so out of place with all that gear lol. I look forward to pairing the LSi's with a nice sub. I used the cheapo RM6750 packaged sub and it seemed to make an improvement in the presentation.

Don't hold your breath on those 5250's getting packed up and sent your way anytime soon either...

Yeah, that was it.

It had some RCA Cleartop side getter 12AU7's and Telefunken ribbed 12AX7's which really made it sing!

I should send you those tweeter mounts already now that things aren't as hectic so you have my address. Afterall, you'll need it for when you decide you don't need those SR's anymore

We've both converted!

Next thing you know, you're asking for advice on a preamp (tube or SS) and posting wanted ad's for some decent interconnects. What next, lead-shot filled speaker stands? Just you wait

arun1963

I heard the LSi 7's a month ago along with the LSi 25's. In any car, the cabin gain would give you a big bump in the sub-mid bass range. The midrange, imaging, tonality and low end extension was better in my car. The 7's were demo'd in a 12x15 sealed room and w/o a sub they lacked the low end presence and extension. Heard them with a sub and things were much better, but the car was still better.

Then I listened to the 25's running off a Jolida cd source and Chord pre+power amp putting out 600w to the 4 ohm 25's. I have never heard sound like this. One reads so much about extra power giving extra headroom and one always asumed that meant 'at higher volume'. However tons of clean power means, even at low listening levels, the sound has a ton more of details. CD's that I've found very transparent and revealing in the car suddenly had many more dimensions.

The big 5250 vs 6500 debate:

So much is written about these speakers, 6500's have better mid bass, 5250 better mid range etc. Yes both statements are right. But the underlying fact is, " you can get great mid range response out of the 6500 by balancing the sub/mid bass, while the 5250 will give you great mid range but will always have a weaker interface between mid and sub." So take your pick.

The weakest part of the 6500 is not its mid range, but the brassiness in the upper mids, lower highs. It's a real b**** to tune out. But, this is being very finicky.

It's easy to balance out the sub an mid bass on the 6500 by cutting everything in ratio from 30-200hz. This will give you a really snappy mid bass, great sub-mid bass blend and hence great midrange possibilities. Having tuned both sets, would I swap the 5250 over the 6500?............ummmmmm.

Oh and Kawizx9r: The addition of the sub made your 7's magical. Not the tube amp or the fancy cables.....just saying

kawizx9r

arun1963 wrote: »

I heard the LSi 7's a month ago along with the LSi 25's. In any car, the cabin gain would give you a big bump in the sub-mid bass range. The midrange, imaging, tonality and low end extension was better in my car. The 7's were demo'd in a 12x15 sealed room and w/o a sub they lacked the low end presence and extension. Heard them with a sub and things were much better, but the car was still better.

Then I listened to the 25's running off a Jolida cd source and Chord pre+power amp putting out 600w to the 4 ohm 25's. I have never heard sound like this. One reads so much about extra power giving extra headroom and one always asumed that meant 'at higher volume'. However tons of clean power means, even at low listening levels, the sound has a ton more of details. CD's that I've found very transparent and revealing in the car suddenly had many more dimensions.

Lacked low end presence on the LSi7's huh?

The comment I made was without my subwoofer since I received that a few months after my 7's. I've never had a problem with bass (from the 7s w/o a sub), and this is coming from someone that had a 12" HSU sub digging into 18hz prior to the micropro

As for that extra power/headroom, it's exactly why I got the JL Audio amp for my Polk sub. The 360 just wasn't pushing it, but with the 500 it's sooooo much better/cleaner/dynamic. It doesn't surprise me though, it's the same as HT/2CH at home.

I still need alot more tuning done as well as some more high-quality audio to really achieve that 'better' sound. Up until now, my best sounding setup (that I've personally owned) was with a pair of Magnepan speakers. Let's see if I can get there with my current setup

arun1963 wrote: »

The big 5250 vs 6500 debate:

So much is written about these speakers, 6500's have better mid bass, 5250 better mid range etc. Yes both statements are right. But the underlying fact is, " you can get great mid range response out of the 6500 by balancing the sub/mid bass, while the 5250 will give you great mid range but will always have a weaker interface between mid and sub." So take your pick.

The weakest part of the 6500 is not its mid range, but the brassiness in the upper mids, lower highs. It's a real b**** to tune out. But, this is being very finicky.

It's easy to balance out the sub an mid bass on the 6500 by cutting everything in ratio from 30-200hz. This will give you a really snappy mid bass, great sub-mid bass blend and hence great midrange possibilities. Having tuned both sets, would I swap the 5250 over the 6500?............ummmmmm.

That's just it, I need to do some more tweaking! Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy with the 6500's but I was thinking down the road......5250's midrange driver paired with my 6500 midbass driver (and Vifa tweeter) for a 3-way setup up front?

arun1963 wrote: »

Oh and Kawizx9r: The addition of the sub made your 7's magical. Not the tube amp or the fancy cables.....just saying

Hey now, like I said it was w/o a sub. And those fancy cables are my favorite interconnects I've used for 2-CH :biggrin:

kawizx9r

Hmmm....I should run some AQ Sidewinders as my interconnects in my car audio.

We'll see

Juice75

Hey Kawi - you still loving that Kenwood X4R? I haven't replaced my PDX-5 yet, but I'm getting really close to ready. If the Kenwood has been good to you, I might pick one up.