When I first started putting a system together alot of it was comprised of old stuff I bought cheap or got free from a buddy who stockpiles stuff. I began with Eclipse 6.5 coaxials front, infinity reference 6.5 coaxials rear, 4 year old Alpine tape deck with I think only one pre-amp output, KEnwood 37 watt/channel 4 chan, and Soundstream Rubicon Lil wonder 2 channel driving a pioneer premier shallowmount 10 in a custom box that was powered off the Kenwood.
Things have...matured a bit since then as Ive learned more about the importance of decent equipment. I'm now running Eclipse SC 8362 components in front with the tweets in the sail panels aimed close to on axis and the mids in the doors, as well as the same Infinity Ref. Coaxes in the rear off a 4 channel Eclipse EA4200 rated at 60 watts rms, off an Alpine CDA 9883. It's still the same pioneer premier 10 inch shallowmount in custom box getting approx... .65 or so cubic feet, running off the same Soundstream Rubicon Lil Wonder 2 channel. High pass in the fronts are set to mid 60s, the rears are set as close to 80 HZ as I can get them. Low pass on the sub is, unfortunately IMHO, preset at 90 HZ on the soundstream amp with no adjustability I know of. Gains are set using test tones on the front and rear speakers, which coincidentally put everything at almost exactly 2 volts on the amp. Sub amp was tuned by ear by an installer.
Now this is amp is from soundstream's old days, when they tried to be 'cute' for awhile and rate this line using funny adjectives and sarcastic remarks rather than real numbers that would help match it with a sub. My buddy has a highly optimistic view of its capabilities. Ive done some searching on the net and have never found bench tests or specific ratings or anything, but have heard that it may not be all its cracked up to be.
The Pioneer sub needs 250 watts rms. I have no clue if this amp is giving it that. I just know I've beat up on this thing for about 2 years and it gets hot but so far it hasn't malfunctioned and the sub hasn't gone bad on me and that's saying alot for an amp that's probably 6-10 years old by now and has been used in two different vehicles. The sub sounds good 99% of the time except in normal listening at medium volume I have to cut the treble just a tad to the point where the highs aren't as crisp as I'd like them to be otherwise the highs start to drown the sub. Also on my BB King and certain other blues music when Im blasting it sometimes the really dynamic bass gets rough and boomy and doesn't sound so good and to smooth it out nothing seems to help except either cutting the gain, sub volume, or bass to the point where it doesn't sound as good in music with subtler bass.
I guess what Im trying to say is I just don't feel Im getting all the quality bass I could be out of this system. I'm trying to figure out what would help best to get everything to balance out properly without me having to retune for different types of music. Different sub amp? Slightly bigger box? Is my sub just weakazz and should I find a way to incorporate a better 10 or a 12 into my system? Do I maybe need an EQ? Is my sub trying to play to high due to that fixed 90 HZ cutoff on the sub amp? Rather than settling for cutting the highs to balance things out I'd like to find a way to bring the lows up. This seems to be the last thing I need to make this system perfect to me Im just trying to get input on what change/changes to make at this point without wasting time or money to bring the lows up to balance out the mids and highs. This is all in an 04 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab pickup.
Things have...matured a bit since then as Ive learned more about the importance of decent equipment. I'm now running Eclipse SC 8362 components in front with the tweets in the sail panels aimed close to on axis and the mids in the doors, as well as the same Infinity Ref. Coaxes in the rear off a 4 channel Eclipse EA4200 rated at 60 watts rms, off an Alpine CDA 9883. It's still the same pioneer premier 10 inch shallowmount in custom box getting approx... .65 or so cubic feet, running off the same Soundstream Rubicon Lil Wonder 2 channel. High pass in the fronts are set to mid 60s, the rears are set as close to 80 HZ as I can get them. Low pass on the sub is, unfortunately IMHO, preset at 90 HZ on the soundstream amp with no adjustability I know of. Gains are set using test tones on the front and rear speakers, which coincidentally put everything at almost exactly 2 volts on the amp. Sub amp was tuned by ear by an installer.
Now this is amp is from soundstream's old days, when they tried to be 'cute' for awhile and rate this line using funny adjectives and sarcastic remarks rather than real numbers that would help match it with a sub. My buddy has a highly optimistic view of its capabilities. Ive done some searching on the net and have never found bench tests or specific ratings or anything, but have heard that it may not be all its cracked up to be.
The Pioneer sub needs 250 watts rms. I have no clue if this amp is giving it that. I just know I've beat up on this thing for about 2 years and it gets hot but so far it hasn't malfunctioned and the sub hasn't gone bad on me and that's saying alot for an amp that's probably 6-10 years old by now and has been used in two different vehicles. The sub sounds good 99% of the time except in normal listening at medium volume I have to cut the treble just a tad to the point where the highs aren't as crisp as I'd like them to be otherwise the highs start to drown the sub. Also on my BB King and certain other blues music when Im blasting it sometimes the really dynamic bass gets rough and boomy and doesn't sound so good and to smooth it out nothing seems to help except either cutting the gain, sub volume, or bass to the point where it doesn't sound as good in music with subtler bass.
I guess what Im trying to say is I just don't feel Im getting all the quality bass I could be out of this system. I'm trying to figure out what would help best to get everything to balance out properly without me having to retune for different types of music. Different sub amp? Slightly bigger box? Is my sub just weakazz and should I find a way to incorporate a better 10 or a 12 into my system? Do I maybe need an EQ? Is my sub trying to play to high due to that fixed 90 HZ cutoff on the sub amp? Rather than settling for cutting the highs to balance things out I'd like to find a way to bring the lows up. This seems to be the last thing I need to make this system perfect to me Im just trying to get input on what change/changes to make at this point without wasting time or money to bring the lows up to balance out the mids and highs. This is all in an 04 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab pickup.
