Has anyone installed a DIN-size graphic equalizer (such as the units from kenwood and pioneer) into the TSX to shape the sound a bit better?

 

Oh, God, let's put in a happy face! (referring to the eventual curve everybody puts on their EQ sliders).

Until you have enough power, and you have speakers that CAN sound the way you want, don't even waste your time with an EQ. And if you DO install an EQ, don't install one of these pieces of shite.

Did you know that moving your EQ slider up 3dB (out of a usual 12dB + or -) asks your amp to double its power at that note? If your amp can't double its power, it instead generates extra distortion.

an equalizer is (literally) the last thing to add to your system. After you have more power, and better speakers, and everything tweaked within an inch of its life, if you still don't like the sound, then get an EQ.

 

 

Ok, lets calm down. I was just asking if anyone had done it.

 

And another thing!

: )

Sorry to go John Madden on ya... it's just a sore point for me. (Don't even ask me about power ratings on speakers...)

 

the nerve of that guy asking about installing a EQ

 

Again, this is not entirely true. a 3db gain does require double the power, but when you use an eq to boost a frequency 3db you are not really doubling the power. why? b/c you gonna lower every other frequency. its all relative to how you look at it.

 

Please see above, tuan. "at that note". I think you missed that part earlier.

No, pushing an EQ slider up 3dB does not require your amp to double its power at all frequencies - only at the frequencies affected by the slider (the center freq plus the freqs on each side, depending on the q of the filters in the EQ design.

But it does NOT "even out". Asking you amp for twice as much power in the bass is not made much easier by asking for half as much power in the highs, for example.

tuan makes certain to use large amps in his system designs - more power does sound better, but also, you can't make effective use of EQs unless you have scads of power. I don't think anyone would advocate eq'ing the OE amp.

 

yes, but the point of an eq is make the frequencies more linear, so if you boost a particular freq. 3db you will prolly lower a freq pt at another. if you are using the eq to just boost, i would agree with your statement.

 

Technically, the point of an EQ is NOT to make the frequencies more linear... it is to make the speaker response more linear. It actually makes the frequencies going to the amp less linear to effect this result.

And while experience may tell us that a system is as likely to have holes in its response as to have peaks in its response (thus requiring some sliders to go up and some to go down) so what? Bass is harder to play than highs... you can lower the highs all day and the bass slider going up can still run into clipping. With a 50W amp and a small sealed box woofer, If I raise the 40Hz slider up +6dB, it really doesn't matter too much what I do with the 80 Hz slider... I am still probably gonna run outta watts.

It is true that if you narrow the bandwidth of the sgnal going to an amp, its power increases. But that's not what you're doing with an EQ. And with most car systems (I would say all) bi-amped, what you do on the other side of the xover point is irrelevant.

 

ok, im not going to argue with you any longer. believe what you may.

 

OK, you keep boosting one frequency and lowering all the others.

That's not really what you do - I'm confident that you tune systems well. I'm just surprised that you would quibble over this basic point of signal processing, when you obviously make sure to recommend amps of sufficient power to avoid just this problem...