I wanted to post what I've found to be the best EQ levels for my stock Alpine sound system. I have the 506W system with the Alpine sub in the storage area and the 430N (RHB) receiver.
lets be blunt, this is not a high end system. I see that comment all over the boards and I agree. I do however think its a pretty decent system for stock. it does lack low bass, yes. any system lacking a dedicated and adequately powered 10" or 12" sub is going to lack low bass. so we know that going into it. I'm not convinced how effective the 8" 'sub' in the stock system is, I'll have to really dig into that to see what I can do with it.
but this system can produce pretty decent and balanced sound from the mid-bass frequencies up to the moderate treble range. I found I just had to really work on my EQ settings.
all credit to the forum members that have dug into this before and posted about 'dropping the Midrange all the way down'. that was the key I needed to find what sounded good to me. here's a pic of the setting I use with comments after the pic.
keep in mind that a 3dB gain (drop) in EQ is basically doubling (cutting in half) the power output from the amp in that frequency range.
so dropping the Midrange by 6dB waaaayyyyy drops the amp output on the Midrange. dropping the Bass by 3dB cuts bass output roughly in half and bumping the Treble by 3dB roughly doubles the treble output.
this setting still provides a bass punch (but not a kick -this system can't physically do that) at higher volume levels and makes the highs much more bright and noticeable.
I found that dropping the Midrange ALL the way just cut too much out for my tastes. I ran the soundboard at my local church for years so i have some experience with sound levels and frequencies. at some point I may upgrade the stock system but for now I want to be able to enjoy what I have. and I was NOT enjoying the sound at stock EQ settings.
I'm running my Volume at around the 17-25 levels which is noticeably higher than before I went to this setting. thats because the Midrange is most of the 'presence' in what we hear. with the Midrange cut so way down, a lot of the 'presence' is cut out. but what I get in return is balance. and much much less distortion. and this system has plenty of headroom to turn it up with the output now more balanced.
anyone else that wants to chime in on their favorite EQ settings and why, please do.
Did that for a bit, wasn't enough. Still not what I was looking for so went with a Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.3 into a Hifonics brx 1200.4 on some PPI pro audio mids and highs in the doors. All stays hidden and plenty loud and clean.
redalty, where did you put the RF 3sixty and the amp? I may very well redo my system at some point. I have other projects I want to tackle first though.
some of us are car stereo guys that just get into this stuff. I was adding a Sony tape deck (from Crutchfield) and and amp and new speakers to my '85 S-10 Blazer back in high school. I've always wanted good sound in my vehicles. I drove an '01 Intrepid R/T for years that I replaced the speakers with Infinities and put an Alpine V-Power amp in the trunk and wired it all into the stock HU. all the steering wheel controls worked and you wouldn't know it wasn't stock unless you looked real hard in the trunk.
but some guys don't get into that. they don't have the ambition to change all those components out. or they may plan on doing it but not be ready to get into it.
personally, the sound from the stock system was driving me nuts. I have a sub box in my cargo area labeled 'Alpine' and I have tweeters in the door sails and I have this pretty decent touch screen HU (RHB in my case) and I was listening to this sound??? and my midbass was this flabby??? at any decent volume level???
it just didn't make sense to me. the 2011 and newer D/C vehicles had some serious money sank into the interiors. that's why I bought this Durango in the first place. the execution and quality of materials is so WAY beyond what you saw in these vehicles before. I just couldn't accept that the sound from the stock system was that sloppy.
yes, I agree this is not a truly 'high end' system from an auto manufacturer. but with a little EQ work it is capable of much more enjoying sound than I was getting with the standard flat EQ settings.
I deleted the 3rd row in mine and the equipment is under there but for a bit I had the stock sub removed and crammed it all in that cubby hole. I've since reinstalled the stock sub with the enclosure wrapped in sound deadener for some more midbass.
Thanks for posting this. I'm not a stereo guy and have been pretty happy with the stock alpine system but certain songs and talk radio always made the front speakers rattle. The setting you suggest took that away and really makes the bass sound better.
for higher volume levels I've been using these settings.
with another 2dB taken out of Bass (-5dB total) I've cleaned up 90% or so of the midbass distortion that I hear. the 2dB reduction in Treble (+1dB total) brings the highs back down a little.
higher frequencies in the Treble range can cause ear fatigue and actually be a little uncomfortable. that can be more pronounced as people age. (something you have to factor in for church sound levels when you're running contemporary worship).
I've been running my Volume level at around 21-25 when I'm driving by myself and the lower Treble (+1dB) so far seems to brighten the sound without causing me to get tired of hearing it.
again, these EQ levels mean the Volume has to be pushed higher to get the detail and presence that you would have with much lower Volume at a flatter EQ. but the result is MUCH cleaner and more balanced sound (at least in my system) and the HU has plenty of headroom.
burn it on an Audio CD and then download an application like RTA on your Android phone.
With that app you can plot the frequency response of your audio system, while playing the Pink Noise file from the CD.
Adjust your EQ settings till you get a flat frequency response chart.
Before doing that you shall let the app calibrate onto your telephone microphone.
You can do this with by playing the same Pink Noise CD from a good quality HI-FI set (with flat EQ settings).
My first attempt has given me the following graph, not really flat...
As you can see there is a peak around the 4K.
That was obtained with EQ settings Bass:-3 Mid:-6 Treble:+3.
By further lowering the Mid, I do not seem to drive down the peak at 4K, rather the 1K bar.
I suspect my first calibration attempt was not good enough, or not taken at all, since it says "Calib: none".
Can you do something similar with your systems?
It would be interesting to compare our results and check whether we get the same pattern.
that is VERY interesting. I'll see if I can get that app installed. I use a BlackBerry but I may be able to side load it.
you might try lowering the Treble to +1. I've been running these setting (below) that I mentioned earlier and I find I like these better at higher volumes. my ears tell me the treble is too bright with the original settings at higher volumes.
it would be interesting to have that RTA app and see what it says.
