Equilizers..worth The Time To Tune?

[biged30]

Has anyone gone with a high end equilizer to tune perfectly all of the frequencies the ear can pick up? I know the better the equilizer the more range of frequencies yo ucan tune, but also will take a whole lot longer to perfect. Anyone gone to this step to get that perfect sound?

[Bing_0]

i have a 30 band eq...but my opinion is

if you are going to add an eq, use a trunk mount 15-30 band, non of those in dash adjustable ones.

but i think the only reason why you should get a 30 band is:

1. you are extremely picky about sound, meaning a real audiophile, who has a ear for reference

2. you plan to compete in iasca

3. you are using equipment or cars that causes a lot of irregularities in your sound (horn drivers, or cars that have a very big natural gain at certain frequencies that hurt the sq)

i believe a well executed install with quality parts, sans eq, will achieve the results that will satisfy 99 percent of the listners

b

[Guest Guest]

I appreciate it Bing, figured you would respond quick. Yeah I agree about getting a trunk mounted one. That was the route I was considering. Yeah no plans to enter competitions with the ride, you can only do so much with sound quality without going to kick panels or at least directing the speakers they should be. I've heard quite a few rides with the 30-bands adjusted in them and the sound is very nice. Yeah I'm really more looking into one as a finishing touch if I even go that route. Messing around with the HU equilizer helped alot, but that only goes so far.

[Bing_0]

remember one thing at elast this is my opinion o fit..

with an eq, its best to turn down certain frequencies, not boosting, in most cases, dips in response is caused by either hte speaker not being able to produce it, or cancellation...so...if you turn up the eq there, its not going ot amke it sound much better so...thats hwy i think with our stock locations, there is alwayhs going to be a hole around the 70-150ish hz level, if you make the sub produce it, its going to be so boomy and bloated, but no way a 5.25 in the door can produce under 100 wiht any kind of authority, eq or not

b

[Owned]

Myself, I plan on using the new edition 20 band that Crossfire is coming out with this year (still yet to be released).

They are currently phazing out their older ones, so if you're in the market for a 20 or 30 band eq (5,7,11, etc are absolutely useless), there should be some liquidation sales popping up on the older ones in the coming months. I've used the Crossfire 20 band in my Navi with good results. I've put them in many customer cars also. I always get good feedback on them. Even though they're not going to be made anymore, they're still a very respectable unit.

Do yourself a huge favor when shopping for an eq, wherever you may be doing it. Make sure that the eq has at least stereo in and stereo out. Otherwise, you're going to be stuck buying a second one and having 30 bands for each side of the car. It doesn't hurt anything (besides maybe your wallet) but it's just more stuff to mess with that you don't have to.

[biged30]

did either of you use something like a spectrum analyzer to tune the frequencies? Or simply by ear?

[Owned]

I do what I think sounds best in the car. Then see if the customer likes it also which, they generally always do.

I've seen some crazy computer programs on laptops that people use to do some spectrum analysis though. It's pretty unnessisary unless you're going into serious competition.

[Bing_0]

some peopel use an RTA to tune their car, but mian becuase they want to score high onthe RTA at a competition, having a perfect RTA score does not mean your car sounds good

so yeah, tune by ear is the best, in my old car i had one of my freinds who is a professional studio recording technician tune my eq, cuase he has a far better ear than me ...but now, i neve rhave hte time, so just tuning it by ear with my favorite reference tracks does the trick

b

[BenW]

A good EQ can light up a sound system but it can also send it straight into the "now how the hell did it get to sounding like this "

I've had a 30 band EQ since my horns and i will not get rid of it.

[Guest dougk]

Sometimes I contemplate getting a cheap 6band on the XM side to help adjust for the missing top end XM so lovingly provides.

then I remeber my days mixing down studio recordings :ph34r:

[exexpat]

Bing said it all. I really have nothing to add, except if you do run horns or aperiodic subs and have 30-band eqs, you'd better have an RTA to get a baseline and know what each 3rd octave band is affecting from the SQ standpoint.

[medicT5]

wow. here I thought the EQ in a head unit did wonders.

Ignorance is bliss...... unfortunately now I know. :(