Finishing my system...is it possible?

exalted512

a wise man once said...

exalted512 wrote:

scrape away some paint under the carpet, take the ground and shoot at least 3 screws in the terminal down to the car. You want to make it as short as possible, but not to the point where youre making it hard on yourself to get it really short.

-Cody

audiobliss

Help!! I can't find where to connect the REM wire to the back of my HU! I see one connector on the back on the left side that resembles a headphone jack, but the manual says it's for the optional wired remote.

Where/how do I connect the REM wire?!

MacLeod

The remote wire is either blue/white or blue.

audiobliss

Yeah, it's blue...it came with the JL wiring kit. But where does it hook to the HU?

MacLeod

To the blue wire coming out of the HU.

I forgot, you are running an aftermarket HU right? If so, it almost certainly has either a blue or blue/white wire coming out of the back. One will be the power antenae and the other will be the remote.

If youre running the stock HU, you can run a wire to a fuse in the fuse block that comes on with the ignition like the fuse for the radio.

audiobliss

Ok, now I'm in a terrible mood. All this junk is jut CRAP!! That's all anything made today is, just CRAP!

So I have the amp and distro block mounted, the speaker cables run and everything, and I'm hooking it all up to the amp. Without too much difficulty I get the power and speaker cables and REM connected. Now it's time to connect the IC's. So, I put this one on, and this one on. That's fine. Now I put this one on....whups, that's really tight and it stopped halfway, so I back it out and it takes the amps RCA connector out with it!!!! #****&

So, then Dad takes this little tool and gently makes the JL RCA connector wider...POP! Well, broke off one of those pieces. I tighten a bit since now it's too loose on the RCA jack, and it's 'OK'. Then I connect the last IC to the last jack and same deal. So Dad makes it wider, breaks it, I tighten, same story. That's 'OK'.

So why in the world did the most expensive car audio's company's IC's do that?!?! I know they're overpriced, but I at least thought they were good!! And why in the world did the Memphis amp's jacks do that?!?!

IT'S ALL JUNK!! I WANNA JUST BURN THE JEEP DOWN!

exalted512

lolz

audiobliss

exalted512 wrote:

lolz

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

"I'm gonna drive down there and slap you" - a foolish man once said.

audiobliss

...I'm at the point where I'd enjoy taking an axe to the amp...

I mean, I went to, "Man, this isn't so bad! I might could actually do it for some money on the side!" to "#(*$#!@ I'm gonna burn it all down and then pay someone to do it; I'm never touching a car again!" in a matter of minutes.

MacLeod

Trust me. Thats the way ALL installs go. They NEVER go as planned.

Take that EQ I tried to install a couple months ago. All I had to do was slide my RCA's down behind the dash and out. Simple huh? Well one of them got wedged between something behind the dash and wouldnt come out. So I had to rip it out. And then go buy new RCA's. Ive never done an install that didnt involve temper tantrums and me running around the truck screaming obscenities!

As for the amp's RCA plug coming out, it definitely shouldnt do that. Its supposed to be soldered and connected to the inards of the amp. And as for breaking one of the fins off, I did that to my JL cables and it worked fine. You just have to be gentle with them. This is very thin metal we're talking about here.

Either way, sonds like youve been properly initiated to car audio installation! Congrats on popping your cherry!

audiobliss

I guess I've calmed down a bit now. It seems to be working out just fine.

By supper time we had the mids rewired and installed and the HU hooked up, so I put the battery back in and did a test run and, after I remembered to put the fues in, everything worked beautifully.

After supper we started working on the tweeters. We have the angle mounts mounted to the door panels with the wiring in place. Tomorrow we just have to wire and pop in the tweeters, put on the door-mounted arm-rests, put the seats back in, then remount the HU and put the dash back together. Then it's tweaking time!! I think we'll be done by lunch time. I hope. I've got to get to studying!

Now here comes a question...how should I setup my crossovers? I didn't wire in the passive ones, and I have a fairly nice one on the amp and then the extensive one in the HU. Which should I use? Both? Set where/how?

The amp can be set at 60 - 600Hz or 600 - 6kHz, at 12 or 18db/octave. Then I can do tons of stuff with the HU.

MacLeod

Id use the ones on the HU. Theyre usually better.

Set the sub to low pass at 80 Hz, the mid to low pass at 80 Hz and the tweeters wherever theyre crossed over at in their spec sheet. Dont want to play around with the tweets as you can easily blow them.

Thats a good starting point and you can fine tune it from there as you listen to it more.

Dont forget to play around with slopes as well. You dont have to have the cutoff frequency exactly at the point where the other speaker left off either.

For instance, my sub is cutoff at 40 Hz with a 24 db slope but my mids are cutoff at 100 Hz but at a 6 db slope. It seems like there would be a big gap in the response, but its the best sounding curve Ive got yet and its yielded my highest SQ scores as well.

audiobliss

Thanks, Mac. I can see that there'd always be something unforseen to go wrong.

This really has been a great experience. I mean, I'm using really REALLY crappy speaker wire, they're just barely long enough to get to the amp since I stupidly cut them too short, and you can see all the wire for a ways, but it's been tons of fun and a real eye-opener.

I mean, I was expecting to get into all this and think, "Man, this is tough stuff!!" Instead, I took out the seats and the molding, pulled up the carpet, took apart the dash and took out the HU (something I was too scared to do before), drill holes in things :eek:, and ended up saying, "Hey, this isn't magic afterall! It's pretty cool!"

I'm really glad I decided to do it. Of course, I'm sure I won't be looking forward to doing the SAME THING AGAIN when I have to install a sub amp, but hey...maybe I'll do it myself again.

Thanks for all the help all you guys have afforded, especially Cody here these last few hours.

However, I also thank you for your advice, suggestions, and corrections over the last three years or so. I remember I started my first car audio thread at least like two years ago. And I've just now gotten my first amp! Man, y'all are so patient...thanks a bunch to all of you!!!

MacLeod

Our little boy is all grown up.

audiobliss

Mac - I don't have a sub. I'm thinking about having the mids roll off naturally on the low end, but have them and the tweeters crossed over like stock elsewhere.

I'm thinking I'd like to set up a 'safety net' with the crossover on the amp. I mean, have them crossed over at different (wider) points on the amp so they won't interfere with fine-tuning from the HU, but have them in place just in case something happens to my HU (like me!) so my tweeters don't suddenly get a full frequency blast!

Do you think I could do something like that?

MacLeod

Yeah. I have my beloved SR tweeters running thru the passive units just for the protection.

If say the stock setting is 5000 Hz, set the amps high pass for the tweets at 4000 Hz and that should protect it from damaging it but still allow you to fidgit with the crossover settings on the HU.

exalted512

you could cross over the mids with your amp and use the passive crossovers for your tweets only...
-Cody

audiobliss

Ok, now we've got a problem. None of the literature I have with my components mention anything about crossover points. So now how do I got about setting the HPF for my tweeters?

EDITED for correctness.

audiobliss

I'm going to just set the tweeter's HP at 5kHz if I don't have any other ideas before it's time to set 'em up.

MacLeod

Have you tried looking for the specs on Boston's website?

audiobliss

Yes. In fact, that's where all my literature came from. From their webpage and then the pdf manual I downloaded. The components didn't come with any literature.

Well, everything's put back together! Well, except for the seats. And it's absolutely amazing how I can change all the LP and HPF's on everything, and the slopes, and the db levels, and the phase! It's incredible!!

The only thing that could make it better is...if...if my right tweeter weren't blown. It's making crackling noises. The left one isn't. I even pulled it back out and made sure the connections are good. Crackling.

I'll just live with it for a good long while, I bet. Can't afford replacing it now. I guess I'm free to experiment with crossover points now, though, without fear of blowing anything!!

Greg Peters

The tweeter was doing this before the amp install?

That's too bad. Maybe you'll find a set on eBay cheap (for spare parts)...

Don't leave that broken bolt on the seat for too long.

audiobliss

I just got back from riding around, jacking it up, adjusting this, tweaking that, and attempting to set the gains. I'm not entirely convinced the tweeter is blown. When I said it was blown, the tweeter was making this crackly sound, though it was still reproducing the music (radio). However, it seems to come and go, and I don't think I've noticed it at all when playing a CD.

To set the gains, I (first searched the forums for one of Mac's quick explanations on how to do it...) turned my HU up to 33. It goes to 40, so I figured 33 would be a pretty good point. So then I started turning up the gain on the tweeters. I have to tell ya, I don't think I heard them complaining one bit all the way to about 12:30 or 1, but turned them back down to about 10:30 or so. The mids started pushing the door panel out when I jacked up the gain, and then began distorting. I originally had them crossed at 50Hz with a flat slope, but then I bumped it up to 63Hz with a flat slope (they're rated to 65Hz). I ended up setting them at about 11 or so.

Overall, I think I want more 'body' or 'impact' with the sound.

One thing I was surprised about is when I got back from riding around, the amp was warm. I was probably only gone less than 15 minutes, but the amp was warm. Not hot, but I can definitely see it getting hot, playing it loud on an hour or longer road trip.

Greg Peters

audiobliss wrote:

Overall, I think I want more 'body' or 'impact' with the sound.

Subwoofer, subwoofer, subwoofer

audiobliss

Greg Peters wrote:

Subwoofer, subwoofer, subwoofer

Money, money, money

MacLeod

audiobliss wrote:

I just got back from riding around, jacking it up, adjusting this, tweaking that, and attempting to set the gains. I'm not entirely convinced the tweeter is blown. When I said it was blown, the tweeter was making this crackly sound, though it was still reproducing the music (radio). However, it seems to come and go, and I don't think I've noticed it at all when playing a CD.

To set the gains, I (first searched the forums for one of Mac's quick explanations on how to do it...) turned my HU up to 33. It goes to 40, so I figured 33 would be a pretty good point. So then I started turning up the gain on the tweeters. I have to tell ya, I don't think I heard them complaining one bit all the way to about 12:30 or 1, but turned them back down to about 10:30 or so. The mids started pushing the door panel out when I jacked up the gain, and then began distorting. I originally had them crossed at 50Hz with a flat slope, but then I bumped it up to 63Hz with a flat slope (they're rated to 65Hz). I ended up setting them at about 11 or so.

Overall, I think I want more 'body' or 'impact' with the sound.

One thing I was surprised about is when I got back from riding around, the amp was warm. I was probably only gone less than 15 minutes, but the amp was warm. Not hot, but I can definitely see it getting hot, playing it loud on an hour or longer road trip.

A few things:

One, start adjusting the gains of the mid first. Itll be a lot easier to tell when its distorting than when the tweeter is. After you have the gain of the mid set, then adjust the tweeter til it sounds right which will usually be a little bit below the mids point.

Cutting off the mid at 50 Hz with a flat slope means its not cut off at all and running full range. A cutoff point doesnt mean the speaker stops playing frequencies at that point but rather that is the point where the response is attenuated and by how much depends on the slope. A flat slope means its not being attenuated at all and so theyre playing full range. A 6 db slope means theyre being attenuated 6 db per octave. A 12 db slope would be 12 dbs quieter per octave (an octave is double the frequency. I.E. 200 Hz would be one octave up from 100 which would be one octave up from 50 and so on.

Set the cuttoff point to 65 Hz and then start out with a slope of 6 or 12 db and see how that sounds.

As for the amp being hot, thats what they do. Unless its smoking hot or glowing red, its normal for it to be pretty warm and even hot to the touch after spirited listening.

audiobliss

Thanks for the advice, Mac. I did finally figure out that the 0 slope setting didn't cut it off at all. So now it's at 63Hz and I think a 6db/oct slope.

I'm having a hard time decided where to transition from mid to tweeter. I originally had the mid bow out about 5kHz and the tweeter come in at 6.3, and I've been flirting with keeping it low like that, and with having the mid come all the way up to about 8kHz and then having the tweeter come in at around 8 or 10kHz. I'm sure y'all really will come slap me now for having it transition that high, but I didn't think it was that different from the former settings.

I was going through the menu earlier, looking for where it'll adjust everything automatically with the included mic, but I couldn't find it. Can I not do that with it in the three-way mode or did I just over look it? I'm mainly waiting it for the TA feature, because there really is a difference in time between when the left tweet gets here versus when the right tweet does. I guess I could just get out a tape measure and do it that way.

Also, for now I've disabled the amp's crossover, at least until I figure out where I want things set.

Now, a question about my components. I know Boston Acoustic's name isn't on anything 'SQ' or anything really great sounding. However, aren't BA's speakers supposed to be able to take a boat load of power? At least, that's about the only positive thing I've heard about them.