fun03TLS

Whelp, now that the hardware is installed the tuning phase has begun. What a pain in the ass this is. I thought I would just have to turn a few screws and that would be all. Not at all the case. Since I have horns and mids up front the equalization is critical. So, I installed a 30 band digital EQ along with a digital 3 way x-over. While this helped tremendously, I still needed a spectrum analyzer to view the frequencies that need adjustment. For an inexpensive RTA I chose to download one for my laptop from TrueRTA.com. It proved to be very good at roughing the system in. As far as having the best sound card and mic setup, whatever! I could spend $160 and might not see much difference. If anyone has experience with this product let me know. I'll spend the money if it is worth it.

After speaking with Jason at Image Dynamics, I found out my mids have to be broken in slowly (2 weeks) before I put full power to them. This information would've been helpful when I was trying to identify this poping sound. Turns out to be the driver hitting the backplate. So, I spent 2 weeks playing heavy bass music at low volumes while increasing over time. I'm at the end of the second week and running about 3/4 volume with no poping sound. I'm afraid to turn it up any more.

The sub amps have been giving me trouble lately. It turns out the front section of the Alpine MRD-M500 amps are fully digital. This means that you don't have to dump alot of voltage to get full RMS power. The input sensitivity is rated for 8.5V rms. So I bought a 6 channel line driver to bump things up on the sub amps and get the noise level down on the 4 channel amp. That worked for the noise in the front of the car. The digital sub amps don't like that much voltage. So I went back to the 4V output from the deck and changed a bunch of settings on the amp (level matching) and found the region where the overload symbol doesn't keep flashing. Seems to work a lot better now. I can get the deck just short of full power before the overload symbol starts flashing.

Now all I need to do is put about 10 more hours into tuning and then I can begin the next phase of cosmetic repair. The equipment in the trunk needs to be hidden as well as the horns. The baffle for the deck and bass control center needs better alignment and then I can finish the trim piece that matches the other plastic wood trim.

All in all, this setup is by far better than the Infinity Kappa components I replaced. Even when it was poorly tuned it sounded so much better. Now, whenever the mids hit it makes my eyes blink in anticipation of the next beat. The imaging is so much more defined. I'm very much interested in running it through a competition for sound quality just to get some professional feedback.

Nakamichi CD45Z
Alpine RUX 4280
Soundstream 500.4VG
Alpine MRD-M500 (2)
Image Dynamics CD1 Pro MH, CX64 Midbass
JL Audio 12W6v2 (2)
Audion Control DXS, DQT
Phoenix Gold TLD66
SPL cap
and a whole bunch of wires