High Frequencies

seachange44

Since there are adjustments to make sure that certain low frequencies don't make it to speakers, is there any way to cut off certain high frequencies? My head unit is just trying way too hard to make the sound "clean", while it sounds clean it hurts my ears really bad, even at low volumes. It exaggerates certain aspects of music like anytime there's an 's' sound. It's so bad on CD's that only the radio is listenable, the ironic thing is that it's not listenable at all. Have you all heard what they're playing on the radio these days? You might remember that I was able to eliminate the engine noise, which was a triumph, but the system still sucks, bad. I just want to get it to the point of even being listenable.

P.S. I know what you're thinking, just adjust the sound settings on the head unit, but even if I adjust them to the point of where the sound is completely dull and lifeless, the high frequencies still manage to sneak through. I also don't want to spend anymore money on an outboard EQ, I'd rather stab myself repeatedly.:rolleyes:

Thanks:)

PoweredByDodge

you've got the two EXIII comp sets right?

first -- check to make sure your tweeters are in phase with your woofers.

... to do so, make sure the + on the tweeter is hooked to the + on teh crossover... and the woofer's + is hooked to the crossover's +... if the tweet's + wire is hooked to the xover's - or the woofer's + wire to the xover's -, then they could be out of phase, giving u attenuation of the middle frequencies and nighmarishly harsh highs.

secondly, and more easily, i assume the EXIII crossovers have level adjustment for the tweeters like the momo or DX's did ??

as long as they do - flip the sensitivity switch on the crossover to its lowest point (usualy negative 3, negative 6, or zero... the high will be +3 or + 6).

this will "soften" your tweets drastically and make them basically like half as loud as bright as they'd be with it at the top setting.

set your trebble control on the headunit to "12.5khz" instead of "10khz" if you can do that -- if u can... then it'll shift the trebble adjustment into a band that is more for fine tuning and less for making voices and hiss's and "S's" and **** louder... it'll bring out the dimension in the trebble more than the loudness and harshness the way the 10k setting usually does.

turn your loudness button off (if its on).

engage your BBE if you've got one and try it at its lowest setting.

... as far as electronically cutting out a frequency above like 10k ... its a nightmare... the parts to build such a crossover are what could be called "odd" as they're not common quantized pieces. i went through a similar situation in my 88 when i had the center console with two 6x9's shooting at my and the passenger's face. too much trebble... and harsh (and painful) as hell... set the alpine's trebble center freq to 15k and dialed it back to like negative 4 on the trebble scale... helped a lot... wasn't perfect -- that truck never had anything perfect except the sub response. but it was really really really good.

seachange44

You want me to turn off the loudness?, really?

I really like the loudness thingy. I've always had it in my head that I couldn't live without it. I have an extra set of the tweeters that I didn't use so I'll look at them to see if they have any settings of their own. I'd really like to avoid any settings on the crossover itself because they're in my doors. I don't want to go back to my installers because 1-they're probably sick of me by now, and 2-I don't want to pay them to take off the door panels and all that.

There is no bass, treb, or mid function on the head unit that will fix the problem, the only way to fix the high frequencies will be one of the solutions that you mentioned. What is the BBE? I probably have this function, I just don't know what it does.

Your advice is compelling and wondrous as usual.:cool:

P.S. This is most certainly old news, but did you ever go to the doctor about your ears?

MTXMAN

I used to love loudness as well then i got decent speakers and havn't turned it on since ;D

the last time i used it was when i had 2 pairs of low end pioneer 6.5's, those speakers required it to sound decent. then i got my MM6 comp set and turned the loudness off and just used the basic low-mid-high off of my 5yr old pioneer deck. then i got an amp for the mm6's (older orion 4ch that i'm only using 2 ch's of, 60x4) now i keep the bass down at 4 compared to the 6 i used to keep it at and bumped up the trebel and mid by a notch.

FYI all that loud is is a gain boost. more volume and more bass but more distortion as well. kill it and see how it does ;D

Jstas

That wouldn't be the speaker though, that is attributable to the crossover network.

Before my Kenwood broke, I wasn't using the loud button with the new amplifier. With the new Kenwood, I have to use the loud button on some recordings because i can't get it tuned right. I need to use the 3rd set of pre-amp outs and connect them to the 3rd set of inputs on the amp for the sub. Then I can incorporate a bandpass filter for the rear speakers and fill in the mid range that tends to be missing.

PoweredByDodge

the BBE is a feature of just about every alpine and the top end pioneers... in really dumbed down version its a "variable intensity loudness button that does a little more than just loudness function" -- loudness function being simply to boost everything under like 150 hertz and abover like 7.5k hz and drop everything in between a hair.

when i use just speakers with no subs - i tend to turn the loudness on - and then adjust my bass/trebble / bbe to give me a decent blend of sound.

with subs - i keep it off -- u get too much distortion on the low end to run that **** to subs and still have a sub left at the end of the day that sounds any good.

for what its worth - when i had my crossovers switched to the top setting, it pretty much pained me. did the same hissing on teh "s" and stuff. really just felt like having a high pitched horn inside my head.

dropped em down to the lowest -- was too low for me -- not enough vocals.... the middle was just right -- for me that is ...

notice that this all required me fussing around with teh button for a little while.

this is why i do not condone installing crossovers inside doors or behind panels.

i firmly believe they should be somewhere accessible -- when doing a simple install this accessive place would be
1- tied up under the dash
2- bolted to the face of the kick panel
3- bolted to the face of the door
4- in the glove compartment.

... most people prefer the glove. i found it to be invaluable for accessability --- sure u run like another 5 or 10 feet of wire, but in the long run you end up with accessability that is important.

... i hate pulling door panels off.
... i also hate my door panels cosmetically -- maybe i'll set them on fire.

as far as my ears - i never went to the doctor -- called up my mother's dr... he was like "blah blah blah -- antibiotic -- blah blah"

so i raised the gain on all amps.

the pain is gone, but my quality of hearing is lessening i think.

i'm having problems differentiating / identifying tones lately. things done sound "the same".

right now i'm worried about the weird noise eminating from my truck -- its either in the manifold / cat / or exhaust -- and the exhuast is brand new and it sounds like its comin from the cat so....