Settings for Alpine 9881

[nirmalts]

Hello all,

I have an Alpine CDE-9881 on my Aveo. Haven't put an amp and sub yet. The speakers are currently the stock Kenwood (dont know the model). Since Alpine does not have an equiliser I am finding it tough to set the bass and treble correctly . Could anyone explain me what the following means for an Alpine and adjusting each of them brings in what changes?

1. Bass center frequency
2. Bass width
3. Bass level
4. Treble center frequency
5. Treble level

Is there any optimum setting?

Regards,
Nirmal

[rocksterraghu]

Originally Posted by nirmalts

Hello all,

I have an Alpine CDE-9881 on my Aveo. Haven't put an amp and sub yet. The speakers are currently the stock Kenwood (dont know the model). Since Alpine does not have an equiliser I am finding it tough to set the bass and treble correctly . Could anyone explain me what the following means for an Alpine and adjusting each of them brings in what changes?

1. Bass center frequency
2. Bass width
3. Bass level
4. Treble center frequency
5. Treble level

Is there any optimum setting?

Regards,
Nirmal

Hi Nirmal,

The Alpine HU does not have any EQ, agreed. I have been using an Alpine for quite sometime and it should not be a problem to manage bass and treble as long as you get the settings right.

As far as you question about the setting goes,

1. Bass center frequency is the frequency of the bass that you essentilly target, if you increase/decrease the bass in general, that particular frequency is going to increase/decrease.

2. Bass width: It is the set of the neighboring frequencies (on either sides of your bass center frequency) that are going to be modified when you adjust the bass. For example if you have 50Hz as your bass center frequency, if you increase the bass bandwidth, the frequencies on either sides of 50Hz are also going to be modified (but on a smaller scale).

3. Bass gain: It is the gain in bass center frequency (measured in dB), maybe positive or negative

4. Treble center frequency: Same as bass center frequency for treble.

5. Treble level: Same as bass gain, but for treble center frequency.

Correct me gurus if I am wrong.

[Rehaan]

Hi Nirmalts,

Please welcome me to the ICE section . Im new here, but i will answer this post anyway because i want to use some very basic ASCII art.

1. Bass Center Freq:


50Hz...........100Hz........300Hz.......500Hz..... ...800Hz....
---------------------------------------------------------
...................^

The ^ is the representation of the center frequency you choose. IE, the frequency at which you want your bass boosted. If you like really sub-bass stuff, go lower (40-70Hz ?) if you like tight bass go higher (100-120Hz (im making this up)).
In the above diagram we have chosen 100Hz.

2. Bass Width


50Hz...........100Hz........300Hz.......500Hz..... ...800Hz....
---------------------------------------------------------
..................^^^


50Hz...........100Hz........300Hz.......500Hz..... ...800Hz....
---------------------------------------------------------
.............^^^^^^^^

You can choose how wide a range of frequencies adjacent to the bass center freq you chose that you want to affect with the bass boost/level.
The first example is a narrow range, say 80Hz-120Hz.
The second example is a wider range from 40Hz - 200Hz.


3. Bass level

Say we go ahead with it set to the last example above.
Level contols how much you are boosting those selected frequencies.
(Same as a +1,3,5dB kinda setting on other HUs with fixed/preselected bass freq and bass width)


Low setting for bass level/boost:
..................___
...............---------
-----------------------------------------------------------
.............^^^^^^^^



Higher setting for bass level/boost:

....................-
...................---
.................------
..............----------
............-------------
----------------------------------------------------------
.............^^^^^^^^



Hope i am not too mistaken with my guesses on what these things mean!
Same applies for treble.

cya
R

ps - eeks i had to put in dots instead of spaces, which ruined my ASCII art!

[nirmalts]

Excellent Raghu and Rehaan!! The ASCII art was too good

Few more questions:

1. An equiliser gives your control over a wider range of frequencies (for example, 32 to 16K). Can Alpine settings also achieve the same finally? Which is better?

For example, below is a typical "Rock" setting on an equiliser (inspired by Rehaan's ASCII ). How would this translate to on an Alpine?

6
........x.................................................. ....................................x
4.................x
...........................x.................................................. .......x
2....................................x.....................................x

0.......32......64.....125.....250.....500.....1K......2K......4K......8K......16K
……………………………………………………………………x
-2

-4

-6

2. Following are the Bass setting parameters on Alpine:

Bass Center Frequency: 60/80/100/200Hz
Bass Band Width Adjustment : 4 Choices (1=Wide, 4=Narrow)

If I choose 80 as my center frequency and set width as 4, will the boosted frequencies be

60..65..70..75..80..85..90..95..100

Means, does it equally divide the difference to the left and right frequencies.

What would happen if the center frequency is set at 100. Here the difference to frequencies to the left and right are different (80 and 200)

Regards,
Nirmal

[DerAlte]

Raghu - Spot on. You rock, Rockster!

Rehaan - Dots or no dots, that was brilliant - shabash! Looks like you are into a lot of ASCII art otherwise too.

[Sam Kapasi]

*Sam quickly runs up to Rehaan and sits on him*

Welcome to the ICE section Rehaan!!!

You cannot leave now. Now you please stay here and make all these ascii art posts. IMO ascii art is better than modern art. Wait ascii art IS modern art.
How terribly pretty your drawings are!!! Do it again! Do it again!

@Raghu, a perfect answer. Well explained.

[rocksterraghu]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Raghu - Spot on. You rock, Rockster!

Rehaan - Dots or no dots, that was brilliant - shabash! Looks like you are into a lot of ASCII art otherwise too.

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

@Raghu, a perfect answer. Well explained.

Thank you gurus, it is an honor to be complimented by you people!

[rocksterraghu]

Originally Posted by nirmalts

Excellent Raghu and Rehaan!! The ASCII art was too good


An equiliser gives your control over a wider range of frequencies (for example, 32 to 16K). Can Alpine settings also achieve the same finally? Which is better?

Thanks Nirmal,

Alpine HUs don't give you an equalizer like the Pioneer or some other HUs do. So, the 'Rock' eq setting that you talked about is really not in picture.

You don't have any control over frequencies like 500Hz, 1k, 2k that you've mentioned in your picture - they're all at 0 (zero) dB by default. The only control you have, is over the bass center and treble center frequency (and a little over their neighbors with bass width/treble width)

As far as 'which is better' goes, honestly, the flat setting is the best. Recording companies would have set the optimum setting for your CD based on the genre, artist, etc.

But, at times, depending on your setup, you may need a little tweaking for which the bass and treble settings are provided.

You really don't need to push the bass the +5 or +6 , or pull some other frequency to the total negative; A minor adjustment should do (say +/- 1).

Originally Posted by nirmalts

does it equally divide the difference to the left and right frequencies.

What would happen if the center frequency is set at 100. Here the difference to frequencies to the left and right are different (80 and 200)

Even though this may not be the best way to illustrate, try using the windows media player's equalizer, there are three options (like in the picture below), the first on the top is narrow adjustment, and it goes wider with the two options below. Hope that answers. Cheers!


Shot at 2007-07-29

[Sam Kapasi]

I would like to add that all this Rock, Pop and Jazz eq settings are an extra unnecessary masala that spoil the taste of music. (IMO and many others)

[nirmalts]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

I would like to add that all this Rock, Pop and Jazz eq settings are an extra unnecessary masala that spoil the taste of music. (IMO and many others)

Hi,

Please do not get me wrong here. My idea is not to have settings like "Rock", "Pop" etc. I mentioned it as an example to show the equaliser setting. The emphasis is on equaliser to what extent it can set db for different frequencies which is not possible on Alpine. Does this mean that Alpine has lesser control over the frequencies (because it can set only centre frequency and extend the width a bit)

Thanks,

Nirmal

[rocksterraghu]

Originally Posted by nirmalts

Hi,

Please do not get me wrong here. My idea is not to have settings like "Rock", "Pop" etc. I mentioned it as an example to show the equaliser setting. The emphasis is on equaliser to what extent it can set db for different frequencies which is not possible on Alpine. Does this mean that Alpine has lesser control over the frequencies (because it can set only centre frequency and extend the width a bit)

Thanks,

Nirmal

No, no one is getting you wrong here.

If you notice Sam's and my earlier post, it is our opinion that these are merely unnecessary.

And yes, Alpine has lesser control and for good!

[nirmalts]

Originally Posted by rocksterraghu

No, no one is getting you wrong here.

Ok cool

Originally Posted by rocksterraghu

And yes, Alpine has lesser control and for good!

I was wondering if these are missing features on an Alpine. Its nice to know that Alpine has cleared up the unwanted

Originally Posted by rocksterraghu

try using the windows media player's equalizer

Thanks Raghu. I will play around a bit with windows media player and see how it works

Nirmal

[hkanitkar]

@nirmalts - man, thanks a lot !! For starting this thread. I have the same HU fitted a week back and i was about to post the same query here.

@rehaan, rocksterraghu - thanks guys ! your ASCII art made it a lot easier to understand..