Roffles

I was wondering if anyone has experience tuning the JL-6450 with a setup similar to mine? I've been messing with the sensitivity at front 4 channels and bass boost at rear channels trying to find the right sound but it's still a bit off.

My setup is:

LC6 - 6 channel remote output controler
Stock tweets in front
Alpine Type-S at all four doors
Rear 6x9's disconnected in favor of a box in the trunk
10" Kenwood excelon sub in a 16" box mounted in the trunk

Everything is running on the JL amp (stock amp is out of the equation).

I have bass boost enabled on the amp and sensitivy set low to eliminate any speaker noise. So far it's better than stock. Using the stock HU, I understand my fidelity can't be superb because I'm only allowed to adjust bass, treble and fade, but it seems like it could be better. Any tuning suggestions for the amp. I don't have fancy tuning tools and audio CD's. I thought there could be someone on this forum with a similar setup who got the perfect sensitivity adjustments and/or decided bass boost wasn't needed after getting the perfect sensitivity.

TYIA

Roffles

Update: I've been playing with the sensitiviy settings on the amp. As far as power is concerned, setting sensitivity low (like hour hand on a clock: in the 6 to 9 range) is like a playful punch in the shoulder and putting it up high (in the 12 to 3 range) is like a punch in the face. It's now apparent to me that the JLA6450 is overkill for door speakers and a 10 sub but it sounds great.

Tuning the stock HU settings with disabled rear 6x9's is pretty much the opposite of what you would do with the old stock amp. When the car was stock, too much distorted bass came from the rear 6x9's and you would want to bias fade to the front to get a better sound. Now with the 6x9's gone, my settings are in favor of the rear bias fade so that the front isn't as alarmingly sharp. This way, the 10" sub compliments the sound by resonating throughout the whole car rather than distorting it by fighting with the front speakers for attention.

This is my first car where I've done a sound system and it's been a great learning experience. I realize there are a lot of people who get a sub(s) in there trunk to make it loud and crazy. I've always frowned upon subs because of this. But with the correct tweeking, a guy like me can get an awesome sound with a thick healthy bass that totally compliments the clarity of aftermarket door speakers.

Castles_Saloon

What do you mean by "off"? harsh, boomy, lacks mids, etc.?

dizzy1

I am running a e6450 also in my 05 with nav. I tapped into the factory low levels before the amp and ran them to a Clarion 746EQ in the center console. This splits the subs out so I have control from the eq back to the e6450. I have JL VR components and a 12w3v2 in a fiberglass box. I was surprise how much power the amp has, it's underrated and if you look on line you can see where it was ran thru a test and was putting out like 97Wx6 or 233x3 cleanly. For setup, I just run the fronts and increase the gains until I hear distortion or the speakers being over powered and backed it out alittle, same for the rears and sub. Crossover at 85 upfront, 95 in rear and subs at 80(eq has a 90Hz crossover also running since both only have a 12db slope).

I'd recommend and EQ, but that's me. Every setup in all my cars had some EQ, this was a budget system compared to the past due to kids and need all the trunk space I could get.

mercman

Dizzy1, your EQ is not compatible with the TSX HU preouts. You need to use an EQ with balanced differential inputs. Your SQ and imaging will improve when you do. Actually, you can feed the JL 5450 directly from the preouts of the HU and it will sound a lot better.

Roffles, how did you connect your amp to the factory system? Did you tap the speaker wires at the factory amp?

jeff

dizzy1

Actually, I don't have any noise or issues in my system and it sounds great, no quality issues or anything. I worked 4 years doing installs back in the day and it sounds really good. I know some on here were having issues due to the balanced inputs, but I was able to find an EQ that worked without noise, hissing. Only issue I had was a snap sound from my toggle switch to activate my nav converter, but that was fixed because I forgot to put a diode on the relay.

I tried running straight to the amp but it sound the same and alittle flat, it needed EQ'ing. I tried a bunch of different units, Audiocontrol, Phx Gold and and old PPI but the Clarion worked the best without issues, I was kind of surprised that such a cheap EQ worked out the best.

I know you sell you adapter, but if I needed it I would have bought it. I'm a perfectionist and haven't had a problem were I need the adapter.

Some have just gotten lucky I guess without any problems.

Roffles

Almost a complete lack of mid range and no boom at all unless you did some goofy tweeking with the HU's equalizer. But I have it all sorted out as you will read below when I explain my settings.


I don't know audio terminology that well so you will have to forgive me for any confusion. Also, by brother helped me with most of the wiring as he's done his own installs in the past. I tried to be a good student and help as much as I could with getting the LC6 online, but most of what happened at the beginning of the install is a blur. The two of us did a lot of reading about wiring and options and sort of ghosted our way through it with lots of trouble shooting.

The factory amp is out of the picture. All the HU speaker connections are running into the LC6 and from there they are running to the A6450 which is controlling my speakers. I read in the FAQ that line out converters are not required for our stock HU and that it could potentially cause speaker noise. This is not my experience with the LC6....it plays very nicely with the stock HU.

The front door speakers and tweeters run together into the channels 1 and 2. The rear doors are using channels 3 and 4 and the subwoofer is using 5 & 6.


http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_a...php?amp_id=403
Here are my amp settings with a brief explanation of why I'm using them (see link above for illustration).

1. Input voltage is set to low (all I know is that setting it to high is for special cases and mine isn't a special case).

2. Channel 1 & 2 Controls:
Input Sens is set to a little more than half. There is an ever so slight speaker hiss that would go away if I turned it down below half, but I'm happy with the high and lows and the paunchiness of the current setting. This is a safety setting for the time being. I originally had it set too high and everything sounded like ASS. It is especially important not to set the front sensitivity too high with my setup because it also effects Bluetooth telephone conversations, map guidance prompts and voice commands.
Filter Mode is set to HP. The user manual says to use this for front components and I agree. The front components are controlled by the HU's equalizer this way.
Filter Freq.(Hz) is set to about 85Hz. This is a safety setting for the time being. I may turn it up in the future.

3. Channel 3 & 4 Controls:
Input Sens is set to a little less than half. My brother tells me good rear speakers should make plenty of sound, but you should never be able to hear them over the front speakers.
Filter Mode is set to Off. Because of this, the rear doors are not affected by the HU's equalizer. I do not want audio fidelity adjustments made to the front speakers to be present in the rear speakers. Turning the bass and/or treble all the way up would create too much noise and confusion inside the cabin if the rear door speakers were to join the parade.
Filter Freq.(Hz) is set to about 100Hz. This is a safety setting for the time being. Because they are not being equalized, I want their presence inside the cabin to be acknowledged with a higher settiing than the front. This is mainly becaue my seats block their direct presence from a front seat drivers point of view and (assuming it's a bassy song) the woofer would drown them out a higher volume.

3. Channel 5 & 6 Controls:
Input Sens is set to a little less than half. This appears to be a good setting and I'll probably keep it here. Depending on if I'm listening to rock, hip-hop or electronic, having it set here allows me to adjust the HU's bass equalizer setting as I see fit. 0 bass on equalizer makes the sub non-existent while full bass makes them crazy loud.
Filter Mode is set to LP. As noted with regard to input sensitivity and with channels 3 & 4 filtering notes, I do want the HU's bass equalizer to play a role with the woofer's bass output.
Filter Freq.(Hz) is set to about 70Hz. This is a safety setting for the time being. Using the sub hardware noted in my first post (10" cone and 16" box), it makes way more than enough bass at this setting when controlled with the HU's equalizer
Input Mode is set to Discrete. I don't know too much about this except that after troubleshooting, it works and the A6450 user manual suggests I use it for my particular setup.
Bass Boost is set to On. Setting it to the on position isn't that noticeable when you first do it, but get in your car and listen for a while. The before and after is dramatic. I'm toying with the idea of turning off bass boost but that decision won't be final until I learn how to tweak my HU's equalizer for the different kinds of music I listen to. If I finally decide that "crap, every time I switch from hip-hop to rock, i need to turn down the bass and it's getting annoying", then I will disable bass boost and maybe even lower the sensitivity.

At this point, I'm very happy with the sound but I REALLY want some input on what other people are doing with this amp.

Roffles

I guess I should follow up with my final impression using the current settings as listed above.

Bass Music:
I tuned into a reggae station on the XM to see how extreme the bass can get. The bass is almost unbearable it's so powerful, but outside the car you don't hear much noise. Audio from the front speakers were still plenty clear. I nearly made myself nauscios from getting pounded by low frequency bass waves, so I'm thinking setting the bass on high is a little extreme for my taste.

Rock Music:
Next I played an indie-electronic song - M83 - don't save us from the flames. I chose this song because it has the best of all worlds with guitar, synth bass, natural bass, vocals, drums etcetera. It truly tested every range capable by all my speakers. Highs were sharp and crips, lows were soothing and the bass resonated througout the cabin without causing too much alarm. It was a great test song because now I'm thinking I need to lower the Input Freq. of the rear-door speakers to to 85 or 90hz and maybe lower the sensitivy of the front speakers to a little below half. This should make things a little more crisp and clear.

Some songs, even with the bass turned all the way down have a little too much power at higher volumes and I'm pretty sure I will disable the bass boost setting now.

Thanks for telling me your amp settings dizzy1, it gave me something to think about when I was doing my most recent test.

I highly recommend the JLA6450 to anyone looking to go aftermarket.

peter_bigblock

Roffles, where did you mount the A6450? That's the amp I'm getting as well. I have an '04 so have no power passenger seat. Will it fit under that seat or does it have to go in the trunk? No big deal either way, just curious. Also, did you rewire your speakers or tap back into the TSX's existing wires?

baxter263

Yo, I'm interested to know this, as well. I have an 04 and I'm looking to put the JL a6450 in my car, and would definitely welcome suggestions on a location for this amp. If it's too big to stash under the passenger seat, would it be a decent idea to use a 4 channel amp instead (like a JL a4300) and wire the rear door and rear deck speakers in parallel and run them off the rear channels simultaneously at 2 ohms? I'd rather have 70W x 6 at 4 ohms, because I bet that will sound much cleaner, but if it's the difference between being able to mount the amp under the passenger seat or not, I might be able to settle for 70W x 2 at 4 ohms going to the components in front, and 55W x 4 (or 110W x 2) at 2 ohms going to the rear channels. Has anyone else run into this issue?