Holy Hell... I've finally started!

Toxis

wait... huh? What's your volume to go? I usually go to about 85-90% then set the gains there...

cadenceclipse

80. just like my last 1 i had for bout 5 yrs. always kept it at 79. tried different settings couple times, maybe many times, but always went back. but of course i always had that question of if it was the right spot, specially since every1 specially installers told me thats too high, mixed with the fact i've been tuning the same amps for 6 yrs now, i've been a bit frustrated since bout '04, and just trying to get all the fine lines,.. down, or something..

arun1963

ur running some mighty steep slopes on mids also there arun, not 2 mention tweets. how do u get 30db?

It is an active network (tks to dan), with everything controlled from the hu. Everything bp at the amp. Except the sub amp, which has a built in default of 12db on LP. So I set the lp dial on min at the amp and 50hz @ 30db from the hu. The hu gives slopes upto 36 for subs and 24 for everything else.

Most passive xover's while splitting the signal, give a steeper slope to the tweet and a shallower one for the mid. This, with the xover points being in the 2.5-3.5khz range. I'm talking about most comps in the $2-400 range. A decent mid, in this price range, would play well at silghtly above this range, but you dont want a the avg tweet playing much below this range.

Some of the high end comp's come with xovers where you can adjust these slopes. You get 6-8 diff settings based on three diff principles, lower for mid higher for tweet, same for both and lower for tweet and higher for mid. As you xover higher, you would move towards the last.

I think the momo tweets are best above 4kz but the mids start losing it around that point. So I should set the mid at 3.15khz and the tweets at about 4khz with a sharper slope for the tweet and a lower one for the mid, but I lose the "airyness" that I get with the tweet at 5. But, it costs me a bit at the mid. I guess I am trying to play the momo's just beyond what they are capable of. Which is partly the reason I'm auditioning for the upgrade. With better drivers and your sr's are much much better than the momo's, You can xover higher on shallower slopes and retain coherence.

arun1963

Toxis wrote: »

wait... huh? What's your volume to go? I usually go to about 85-90% then set the gains there...

This is another grey area along with the xover and slopes. A very wise friend told me the following:

1. The objective of sq is to run the signal from hu to speakers with min added distortion.
2. The signal strength of a good hu's cd read point is 3volts +.
3. The job of a good amp is to increse the amplitude of the signal without touching the volts.
4. If your signal is at 5v but you set your amp at 6v, your amp will have to amplify the volts of your signal as well as the amplitude of each frequency. That will add to audible distortion.
5. All man made devices are best at a certain % of rated performance. 80/20 is a good rule.
6. Hence for best results, set your gains 20% lower than your hu signal volts and set the vol from hu at 80% of max. This would work for the sensitive ears who tune the other way 80% vol and then 20% below distortion level.

All this worked great in passive mode. But in active mode with much higher xover point, I find that to get really loud (and clear with best stage) I have to drive the hu vol close to 60 out of 63. So I am confused. The gains on the amp are at about 4.5 volts for a 5v signal from the hu.

Can we pls have some inputs from the "guru's" here on this issue?

cadenceclipse

arun
1. "everything bp at amp" u mean bypassed or bandpass?

2. i like your last post, intristing....so, first, like i told u b4, higher the volts on amp=lower gain setting. my min. gain setting on amp is 9v. max is like .2v(point 2). "gain lower than HU signal" sounds like where my best results have always been--with gain at basically 9v(allll the way down) and HU with 8v output..

arun1963

bp in this case = by passed. I find it easier to have all the controls at one place i.e. the hu.

Maybe I should qualify on the volume, gain bit. My current gain setting is abt 4.5v on the amp, hu signal is 5v. The volume goes to a max of 63. Some cd's that are recorded well or maybe just recorded at lower levels give max impact at around 54. Beyond 57 or so, you start to hear distortion creep in. With other cd's the high 40's to 50 is the limit.

I think, this tells me that I should turn my gains down a bit. Just a major PITA getting to the setting, the way its mounted.

arun1963

with gain at basically 9v(allll the way down)

Are you basing min and max on 7 0'clock = min and 5 o'clock = max? If so some amp brands eg jbl and maybe cadence have the gain setting the other way. Where 7 o'clock = max = 9v and 5 o'clock = min = 0.2v. Check your amp to see if this is the case.

For a 8v signal from your hu and if 7 o'clock is indeed 9v on your amp, try setting the gain at about 9 o'clock. This would give about 7v.

cadenceclipse

sheesh your still misunderstanding. 4get about the clock. 9v IS min and 0.2v IS max. on ALL amps(not that i've seen more than 6 amp brands out of 1000 and maybe 20 diff amps in my lifetime). i'm guessing thats just the way it is. (and it IS 7 min, 5max) just like all others, again i hypothetically assume. your confusion is thinking 9v means more or louder than 8v, or 0.8v)
so, 7v would be 20% more, not less, power. 4.5v is more gain than 5v. if your hypotheis(or budy) is right which i'm still not doubting, try 5.5!