Okay, I've got the equipment I'm happy with, got the last little distortion problem ironed out, and ...

IT SOUNDS FREAKING INCREDIBLE!

Next step is to get everything tuned. I can take it to the local shop, for $35 per hour to use thier real time analyzer. I'd like to wing it by ear for now, until my musician buddy gets his rackmount RTA for his studio. (Which he said we could use in his garage).

I tore my house apart to find these, but I have the following test disks: "Autosound 2000", and "Lasertrak CD2000".

So, now what? What can I do without an RTA? Like I said, the system sounds near perfect to me, so their aren't any glaring problems I'm chasing down. Just want it sound as natural as possible, since I've put so much money and effort into it.

 

Listen to the most demanding and revealing music you have... I like to use specific discs to tune for mids and highs. But if you don't know what you want them to sound like, it doesn't help. Listen to them with your home reference system first

I like to use just about any Rickie Lee Jones, Famous Blue Raincoat by Jennifer Warnes, Trinity Sessions by Cowboy Junkies, and Clark Terry, Live at the Village Gate. But thats just me : )

 

Do you have an EQ?
Need some more info...need to know what you have that's adjustable...

When you say "use their RTA" does that mean they hand it to YOu and YOU use it? Because let me tell you, you'll spend a long time trying to figure out how to use it properly.

So, yeah, I would say, don't even think about the RTA for now, just start tweaking by ear...
Then if you really want it to sound good, and you don't have much sound quality experience, you need to find yourself a baseline. Such as, go to a high end home audio store that has their rooms set up properly and listen to one of YOUR cds on their equipment. Pick out some music you can remember, with distinct instruments. And don't worry about positioning yet, as much as clarity and volume of different pieces... Like volume of the bassline compared to the volume of the vocals, etc.....

Again, need to know what you have for adjustment, and all this is just personal opinion..

 

where in idaho you at?

 

The EQ is a 1/2 octave DSP unit from Sony: xdp-210eq. Has time delay and eq--18 bands up front, only 3 for the rears. No compression, which I miss from my old xdp-766eq. Also has bass and treble controls.

front crossovers are set for tweeters at the lowest setting, and tweeters are mounted high.

rear crossovers are set to medium, and tweeters are mounted to reflect off rear glass.

sub is currently cutoff at 100hz. Sub, Front, Rear crossover points are all selectable: off, 62, 78, 99, 125, 157, maybe 200 can't remember. I have them all set at 100. (78 sounds good too, but the doors make more noise).

I think that's about everything that's adjustable.

 

I'm in Boise. The "promised land" I liked to call it a few years ago...

 

I know you went through a few sets of components so I'm glad you're happy with your new speaks

 

Thank you. Yeah, I've been at it for four months. The car got rear-ended, so a month of that was just waiting to get the car back. A textbook example of how not to do something--making it up as you go along, instead of planning everything in advance.

 

Eldude--How is it that I don't a single artist in that list? What types of music are those? I'm in desperate need of finding some new music...

Ah, I'm getting old...

 

Not as old as me... I think every one of those came out in the 80's, except for Clark Terry maybe.

Terry is an old jazz man (the Village Gate is a Greenwich night club), Junkies is a touch of twangy female vocal/songwriting (Trinity Sessions was recorded inside a stone church in Canada - amazing acoustics), FBR is Jennifer Warnes singing songs written and originally performed by Leonard Cohen (who was most famous in the 70's) - I first heard this as a demo at CES at the Sahara hi-fi demo rooms, and I also like Lyle Lovett CD's as being very well recorded. But in case you can't tell, I like words...

 

I'm definitely into whiny female vocals--I'll have to check out Cowboy Junkies. I have a hard time with music, because I hate to spend $15 only to take a chance on something. I guess I need to start sampling stuff on the internet sites to see what I like...

It's been a couple two three days since I bypassed the relay, and that was definitely it. Haven't heard that crackle again. Whole system sounds better, actually.

I was reading in another thread that like the sub cutoff between 60 and 80. I've been experimenting with that lately. I'm amazed how low the Infinity sub plays. I was playing 20Hz sinewaves from my test cd and it was pretty damn clear. But, it seemed to taper off above 70Hz, so I'm thinking I probablly need to put the crossover point back to 78 where I had it.

Haven't started playing with the EQ yet. In the absence of detecting any peaks or valleys I'm now sure where to begin.

 

If you play the sine wave of 70 or so thru the DLS fronts, how do they sound? Because I'd rather have that note come from the front than the back...

 

I'll have to go try that--what I remember is that a lot of bass makes the darn door panels vibrate.

 

What is it with poor documentation? Sony cover's the xdp-210eq in such a sparse manner that you need an darn analyzer to set the darn thing up.

I switched the front crossover to 78Hz, and left the sub crossover at 99. The EQ either moved all the 78-99 range to the fronts, or cut half of it--I can't tell which.

Anyway, after listening to some songs from Frente!'s "Marvin the Album", I decided that the kick drums are right in that range, and they lack punch if the sub doesn't cover the 78-99 range.

It sounded fine the other way, and the DLS's sounded good--but just not as punchy on the kick drums. I think it probably has more to do with the door vs. the sealed box than the drivers themselves.

At what frequency does bass become discernable as directional? 'Cause I can definitely locate it as coming from the rear, even at 78Hz.

 

Some theorists say that's 300, I say they're high. I've discerned directionality down to 50 Hz, although I'm prepared to say that any woofer box playing 50 Hz emits higher-freq noises too...

I looked at the beutiful scanned manual on sony's web site. Here's what I'd try personally:

Set the sub to 62 (try it, it's a 36db/octave filter).

Set the F to 78 (24db/octave filter).

Bump 62 Hz up 6db and 90 Hz up 3 db and 130 Hz up 3db, leave 190 flat and 270 flat or cut 3db to taste, and recheck the drums.

 

Okay, I'll try all that. Probably would need a bump around where you suggest. (Above the cutoff--this sub does sub-70Hz signals with ease). I have decided 80-120ish is my weak spot.

The Sony aux adapter arrived today. Another Sony product with very little documentation. However, it is in TEN languages--impressive but absolutely no help to me. Works fine, and the xdp-210eq has nary a problem with it.

However, CARDINAL SIN, it has no tabs or brackets for mounting! It's a small metal box, and it comes supplied with VELCRO!!! Hello!!?? Velcro is not a mounting option for a metal box in a car! What the heck were they thinking?? So, I have to take it apart and drill holes through the casing to mount it. Nice.

Any ideas how streaming music through USB would work? I have no plans to try it, as I bought this thing to hook up my jvc mp3 changer, but just curious. This thing is an auxiliary adapter, it certainly doesn't have a codec in it--so is there a standard for streaming analog audio signals over USB. Again, the documentation is no help.