Making my sound system sound better

[AgnessGP]

Hi All,

I have a simple setup in a grande punto:

Hertz ESK 165 Door speakers
DLS Rw10i subwoofer
DLS performace CA31/41 (cant remember which) amp
Sound deadening in doors

Having spent nearly £600 on all of this, I think I can push the setup a bit further without further expenditure.

At modified nationals, I sat in volxstu car and someone elses, and the sound created by both is completely different to what I experience in mine.

To try and explain, the music sounded quiet (around volume 20) but when speaking you realised it is actually quite loud. Apparently this is due to the near lack of distortion normally experienced in normal setups.

When I turn my music up louder, the sub usually becomes loud and obviously bassy, where as the cars above were loud, but the subs were never booming sort of thing, but still powerful.

Its hard to explain, but if anyone can help me with any settings etc I could change id be greatful!

Sam

 

[volxstu]

I think Nige confused things a little with the whole distortion factor. Our cars aim to have something called linearity. This is where the levels of each frequency are correct to how they would be if you were listening to live acoustic instruments.
Your right in saying your equipment is fine, except the head unit. The source is very important. It is the source that defines the signiature of the frequencies of the amp. Having a head unit with time alignment would help you tune it how you want.
Which head unit do you have now?

For now though there are things you can do. Make sure the High pass filter of the components is set to 63hz and try the sub low pass at 50hz.
Play with the balance. Put it to the left a couple of notches. This will decrease the volume of the right hand side a little and you are listening for both sides to be the same volume to the driver so the sound seems to come from the middle of the windscreen.
Turn the gain down on the amp for the sub. Listen to it and keep changing it until the level of it matches your mid bass. You will find that the mid bass will come alive and the whole system will Intergrate much better. Unfortunately with it being in the boot and no time alignment it will always sound in the boot.

 

[AgnessGP]

Brilliant will try it out and have a listen!

At the moment I have a pioneer mvh-8200bt head unit with usb/sd/aux input only and i understand these are the lowest quality sources of sound?

Thanks for your reply, appreciate it

 

[AgnessGP]

didnt think it deserved a new thread to be honest but something else.

My speakers are sounding brill, especially with mid-bass and voices, but it all seems to go to pot when higher pitch drum beats kick in i.e. the symbolly type drums around 1:00 on the song below. (I have no idea what the real names are so try and understand the description lol)



Ill have my stereo quite loud on the intro, (as loud as i want it to be honest) but then at around 1:00 when the other drum beats kick in, im forced to turn it down as they are just piercing.

This is my current setting:


@volxstu im leaving the EQ on powerful for now as it sounds better than what I managed with custom lol

Hope its clear what I mean, thanks in advance!

 

[Jambo1]

Hi Sam

Not to answer your question but to ask you a question. I'm in the process of upgrading the stereo in my Multipla and the component speakers you have are the very ones I am considering.

Are you happy with them, or given the chance again, are there others you would have rather bought?

James.

 

[AgnessGP]

no problem mate.

the speakers I have sound great

e.g. my sub stopped working and it was weeks before I noticed due to the power delivered from these speakers.

can i ask, what type of music do you listen to?

 

[Jambo1]

Thanks for that Sam

I listen to a mixture from 80s (I am getting on) to current charty stuff, so not particularly bass focused, don't want a booming stereo, just something warm and rich.

I've just installed a Pioneer DEH 8400BT hu, which is supposed to output 50W*4. It does have 3 pre outs, so an amp shouldn't be a problem (although I've seen nothing about time shift that Stu has mentioned in the manual). Are you driving the door speakers with the external amp, or just the head unit?

James.

 

[AgnessGP]

Initially, I was driving these using the Head Unit only, sounded brilliant.

Currently though, im driving these using the external amp, sounds even better.

However you power them, they sound great and will suffice for what you want.

a lot of people say they don't want 'bass', but no matter what you listen to it always adds to it...even mozart, for example. Again, these will suffice.

Any more questions, feel free to ask

 

[Jambo1]

Well, that's made my mind up then. I'll order the speakers on Monday.

Think I'm going for the Hertz HE4 amp too, then in time I can get a subtle sub.

Nice looking car btw, you still happy with it?

 

[AgnessGP]

good idea. People often associate subs with loud booming music, when with a good one, its far from true.

Hertz HE4 sounds good, I saw one in the shop when I bought my speakers.

Still happy with the car mate yeah few rattles etc but still happy. Bit more power would be nice but just have to see what insurance is like next year.

 

[Jambo1]

My brother is saying the same thing about his Stilo lol, the curse of being young

So why did you buy the amp you've got then...did it sound better?

 

[AgnessGP]

i already had the amp to power the subwoofer. It was only recently i decided to get the most out of the speakers and power them up to the amp .

 

[Jambo1]

Cheers, you've put my mind at rest now lol.

 

[AgnessGP]

they will sound great without an amp

the advantage with not amping them straight away is that, if you ever decide to amp them in the future, you will notice the difference. If you went all out straight away, it is easy not to appreciate differences so to speak.

 

[Jambo1]

I understand what you're saying

Did you do your install them, or get someone else to do it?

Been thinking about the routing of the wires and placing of the crossover. I've never done this sort of install before.

 

[AgnessGP]

s*** I should have took a picture of where my cross over is! in the door on mine, there is a perfectly cut out square in a 'polystyrene' part of the door where the crossover fits brilliantly.

But I didn't do this, I had them done at Source Sound in sheffield.

It's the only part I haven't done myself though, mainly because I couldnt be bothered at the time.

 

[Jambo1]

Before you connected the amp to the components, were you using oem cables then? Just trying to get it sorted in my head. If I'm going to do this, I'll have to redirect the tweeter cables from their current route to the door, so I can connect it to the crossover. My tweeters are in the a pillar, that's all.

 

[AgnessGP]

yep, OEM cables.

Infact, there's no real need to change OEM speaker cable, if thats what you were planning.

 

[Jambo1]

That would make life a lot easier, I could put the crossovers in one of the dashboard storage compartments and run the oem cables from there.

 

[volxstu]

If you can wait until after the beginning of september i can give you a hand.