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Speakers Upgraded - Need Advice on Tuning Amp

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Old 03-07-2013, 03:36 AM
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Default Speakers Upgraded - Need Advice on Tuning Amp

Hey All!

I was able to get some time off and took this time to upgrade my cars sound. I upgraded my speakers with BSW Stage 1 and went with SWS-8 under seat woofers. For my Amp I went with JL Audio XD600/6. I got everything up and running and I am currently doing some research on how to tune the speakers.

This is my first time to play around with anything sound related so I am a complete newbie in this area. From what I picked up I would set my under seat woofers to somewhere between 60-250 Hz at 4 Ohm. Then for my front/rear mid-range between 250-500 Hz at 4 Ohm. Does that sound about right or am I off here?

Thanks for any tips!
Old 03-07-2013, 01:10 PM
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Let me first say that I don't have any experiece with the SWS woofers, but I would think that generally speaking you could tune them to a max freq. range more like 100-130 Hz. and then run your midrange/tweeter combo from 120 Hz - 20kHz (assuming there is a passive crossover?). You don't want too much mid-bass going to the underseat woofers since that might pull down your "sound stage." Your front stage speakers should be capable of playing well below 250 Hz, so I don't see why the SWS woofers would need to play up that high.

For some perspective, I'm running my subwoofer (JL Audio 12W6) between 20 Hz- 90Hz. My front speakers (Hertz Mille MLK2) are running from 70 Hz - 20kHz. However, you should probably not use settings like mine. The Hertz Mille speakers I have are rather exceptional and capable of playing lower than a typical car audio speaker, plus they are 6.5" drivers. I wouldn't try pushing a smaller speaker by playing too low.

As for setting gain levels, one way to do this is to play some music on the source unit and turn the volume up to the highest possible level that prevents clipping. Then you adjust the gains on your amps until the music starts to distort, and then turn them down just below that point. This way you will have a good, unclipped signal when listening at the highest probable level which means it will definitely be clean when you listen at the likely normal level which is lower.

Last edited by subterFUSE; 03-07-2013 at 01:29 PM.
Old 03-08-2013, 12:05 AM
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Originally Posted by subterFUSE
Let me first say that I don't have any experiece with the SWS woofers, but I would think that generally speaking you could tune them to a max freq. range more like 100-130 Hz. and then run your midrange/tweeter combo from 120 Hz - 20kHz (assuming there is a passive crossover?). You don't want too much mid-bass going to the underseat woofers since that might pull down your "sound stage." Your front stage speakers should be capable of playing well below 250 Hz, so I don't see why the SWS woofers would need to play up that high.

For some perspective, I'm running my subwoofer (JL Audio 12W6) between 20 Hz- 90Hz. My front speakers (Hertz Mille MLK2) are running from 70 Hz - 20kHz. However, you should probably not use settings like mine. The Hertz Mille speakers I have are rather exceptional and capable of playing lower than a typical car audio speaker, plus they are 6.5" drivers. I wouldn't try pushing a smaller speaker by playing too low.

As for setting gain levels, one way to do this is to play some music on the source unit and turn the volume up to the highest possible level that prevents clipping. Then you adjust the gains on your amps until the music starts to distort, and then turn them down just below that point. This way you will have a good, unclipped signal when listening at the highest probable level which means it will definitely be clean when you listen at the likely normal level which is lower.
Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. I'll run some tests later today.
Old 03-08-2013, 12:29 AM
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if you look at my thread where I did the under seat woofer change there is a link to a nice set of wave files at different freq. Use that to tune.
Old 03-08-2013, 02:41 AM
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Originally Posted by bruce_miranda
if you look at my thread where I did the under seat woofer change there is a link to a nice set of wave files at different freq. Use that to tune.
Awesome! Thanks Bruce
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