i just upgraded the factory stereo in my car. had the standard cassette stereo with the single cd player from the factory and swapped it out with an Alpine cda-9833. i've got questions with setting this thing up in my car so i get the sound in the sweet spot, getting the time correction, x-over, bass focus all set up.

does anyone know what the distances are to the individual speakers from the driver's position ? i did not have a meter stick handy, so i guesstimated them and messed with the time correction to try to get the sound where i wanted. but whenever i crank it up beyond 20 or so, i get distortion. i have a feeling the hu is overpowering the speakers with more bass than they can handle. do i use bass focus or x-over or both to correct this ? i'm using an audio cd to make sound adjustments.

i have stock front speakers (mids @ the doors and tweeters up by the corners of the dash @ the window). in the rear i've got pioneer 6x9's. bought the car used, didn't realize they were aftermarket until recently when i was in the trunk fixing something.

i don't want to go out and get new components right now, so i just want to get the best out of what i have. i'm not too much into heavy mid-bass, i just want them to sound very good and get distortion-free sound when i crank it up to around 25.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sakman74 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i just upgraded the factory stereo in my car. had the standard cassette stereo with the single cd player from the factory and swapped it out with an Alpine cda-9833. i've got questions with setting this thing up in my car so i get the sound in the sweet spot, getting the time correction, x-over, bass focus all set up.

does anyone know what the distances are to the individual speakers from the driver's position ? i did not have a meter stick handy, so i guesstimated them and messed with the time correction to try to get the sound where i wanted. but whenever i crank it up beyond 20 or so, i get distortion. i have a feeling the hu is overpowering the speakers with more bass than they can handle. do i use bass focus or x-over or both to correct this ? i'm using an audio cd to make sound adjustments.

i have stock front speakers (mids @ the doors and tweeters up by the corners of the dash @ the window). in the rear i've got pioneer 6x9's. bought the car used, didn't realize they were aftermarket until recently when i was in the trunk fixing something.

i don't want to go out and get new components right now, so i just want to get the best out of what i have. i'm not too much into heavy mid-bass, i just want them to sound very good and get distortion-free sound when i crank it up to around 25. </TD></TR></TABLE>The first thing I would do, [if you haven't already] is run a 10 ga, [fused] wire from the batt. to behind the HU and wire the HUs yellow constant power to it, insted of the stock constant, [its can't deliver enough power to the Alpine] and if you go to http://www.alpine.com scroll down, and on the right you will see support, [in blue] click on i-Personalize, they have all the help you need 94

 

i checked under the hood and it looks like the audio shop i bought the hu and ipod adapter from didn't run a seperate power line. should they have ? paid for installation, so i dunno it this would have been covered in the install.

as far as sound inside the car is it much better than stock. but now all these variables i need to adjust to get things right make it a nightmare. i would rather not bother with i-personalize unless i know all the settings i need to get the sound perfectly where i want it. better to do it in the car so as to hear what i'm changing.

there are so many adjustments in the hu that it's confusing. for example, if i go to adjust the x-over, what first appears is the x-over for low freq. which is shown as 80. to the left there are 2 zeros. when i turn the ****, the zero closest to the **** has a range of -12 to 0. the other number in the middle changes when i hit source. what does that number mean ? it can go from 0 to 4.

in any case i don't hear any difference in sound when i am messing with that frequency, i guess it's too low for my speakers to reproduce. all these variables are too much for me to sit down and figure out with enough confidence.

 

It is extra work to run the power wire, and we charge an extra 1/2 hr to do it, but we give the customer the choice.

thats what i-Personalize is all about , do it online , burn a disk , pop it into the HU and load it.

LPF is for the sub output, so if you have no amp and sub, you will not hear a diff., all the other settings you will hear a diff., and once you find what you want, you have to lock it in.

Don't forget i-personalize is there to make it easy. 94

 

thanks much for your help...greatly appreciated !

although i probably don't know what i'm looking for in the sound when i'm changing all these settings on the deck, i thought i knew but then i got all confused. i'll learn as i move on. i don't how much better the stereo will sound if i swapped out the components to better components, probably a big difference.....

in any case, i will see about getting the shop to add the line to the battery. will that give me better sound with the setup i have now ? probably the distortion i'm hearing is from the speakers.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sakman74 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">thanks much for your help...greatly appreciated !

although i probably don't know what i'm looking for in the sound when i'm changing all these settings on the deck, i thought i knew but then i got all confused. i'll learn as i move on. i don't how much better the stereo will sound if i swapped out the components to better components, probably a big difference.....

in any case, i will see about getting the shop to add the line to the battery. will that give me better sound with the setup i have now ? probably the distortion i'm hearing is from the speakers.
</TD></TR></TABLE>Changing the speakers may not do anything for the sound, if the problem is lack of power to the HU, yes you hear the distortion from the speakers, but it may not be the speakers that are making the distortion.

If the lights on the HU dim and flicker when playing loud, [disco lighting] then upgrading the powerwire will make a big diff. and if you have "disco lighting" then its the HU thats causing the distortion, after installing the power wire, the stock speakers will sound better, then if you replace them, you will be able to hear a diff. 94