[navin]

Originally Posted by St. Anger

Currently the tweeters are installed in the in-dash 4'' pods

How do i place them 45 Degrees off axis ?

before you do that listen to them so that you head is 45 deg off axis.

if you say your tweeters are in the in-dash pods it might be what you are hearing is partly due to smear becuse the HF energy is hitting the windshield on axis.

to test out this hypothesis cover teh windshiled with a sun shade and see if it helps.

[St. Anger]

Navin,
I did cover the windscreen with a shield and it didn't help. Was going mad and decided to move away for some fresh air. Then it struck me that as i anyways wasn't too happy with the sound, maybe i should tinker around with the settings on the GTO75.4.

So i turned the bass and treble settings to 0 and began to play around with the amp knobs. Both sets of speakers are on Hi-pass, minimum gains from the amp ( hard to tell the % due to lack of markings),
Even the other controls were set to 320 Hz.

As i did that, the treble toned down a bit. In fact it became tolerable. I am taking the car out tomorrow and hopefully that will give me an opportunity to evaluate further.

My Santro is still a WIP. I want to tune the speakers from the amps first then move on to learning how to tune it using the HU.

Will report further observations. Have a beautiful weekend.
Take care,
Tanmay

[Bass&Trouble]

Originally Posted by St. Anger

Even the other controls were set to 320 Hz.

As i did that, the treble toned down a bit. In fact it became tolerable.

HPF and other controls on the amp haven't got much to do with treble.

Did you mean that the "controls" were at 320, or you set them to 320? If they were at 320, you were getting almost zero midbass, and turning it down gave the fronts a little more body, thus creating the illusion that the treble has toned down.

[St. Anger]

Uh oh, Guess my learning curve is going to be steep and rocky.

Fine (steeling myself for the long haul), how do i go about in my quest for the Holy Grail ?

How i do i tune my amp ? Please please please help me.
Do i need to get my car across someplace, I'm game to do that too. Waiting to hear from you

[navin]

[quote=St. Anger;678766How i do i tune my amp ?[/QUOTE]

All EQ at flat.

Start with HPF and LPF between 60 and 80Hz. keep gain between 50 and 70% (between 12 oclock and 2 o clock on the knob - I assume this is linear pot with a 270 deg wiper).

Now listen. then tune to taste.

[St. Anger]

Ok, since there seems to be some difference in what I'm doing with my ICE and what I'm communicating, here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to get my camera and do a step-by-step pictorial docu. Let's see. Another thing, currently, my HU, Clarion DXZ776USB is set to the B/T controls. I will report back on the current readings.

I want to understand how to tune the HU Parametric EQ but i don't know what each setting indicates & how to tune it to my taste.

[RAC]

Originally Posted by Bass&Trouble

HPF and other controls on the amp haven't got much to do with treble.

Did you mean that the "controls" were at 320, or you set them to 320? If they were at 320, you were getting almost zero midbass, and turning it down gave the fronts a little more body, thus creating the illusion that the treble has toned down.

'Ask the Guru' question
Can you share more knowledge on this in layman language.
Are there some default settings (like how Navin mentioned about the gain settings to be pointing at between 12 - 2 o'clock position)

[St. Anger]

My last update to my tumultuous ICEcapades was over a year ago when I got lucky & had the Clarion DXZ 776USB installed.

Now, the capabilities of this particular HU have brought many a fan following into its fold & hence I will not discuss it much here.

At that time my configuration read like this,

HU: - Clarion DXZ 776USB

Front & Rear Stage: - Hifonics Zeus 6.1 Zxi Components

Sub – Oxygen Audio 12’’ sub in a lossy-sealed enclosure

Wiring – 16 GA Kicker Hyper-flex wiring

RCA – Kicker RCA’s

Amp – JBL GTO 75.4 powering the Components &
Clarion APA 450 powering the Sub

As a bump up from the Pioneer HU, the Clarion brought about a sea change in the SQ and I spent the better part of 8 months trying to understand its capabilities. In the meantime I also toyed around with the idea of going ‘’active’’ which was later shelved as I couldn’t gather the required tech understanding of the task at hand.

So I took a break form my ICEcapades & diverted my attention to Exams, Work & other mundane stuff.

Then, one lovely Sunday afternoon, I caught up with Nishant Gandhi who wanted to evaluate the Clarion & the journey resumed. PM’s were exchanged, soon he had his HU installed & a mini meet was planned with Frank Mehta & Invincible too joining in.

Frank’ system was a revelation at that time. No, it had me under a spell. Never before had I had such detail dug out from a car environment. And this was with the Alpine HU. Of-course, today he has an even more spine tingling setup but that’s a well documented story anyways.

To cut to the chase, Frank came in, twiddled around with the HU & instantly declared that the Hifonics had to go. A month later I went dancing down to Boom and reworked it to what it stands today.

Power Wiring upgraded to 4GA

RCA’s retained

The front components were changed to the Illusion Electra’ EL6.1. The 75.4 was wired to power the components & the remaining two channels were bridged to power the Sub.

The Clarion Amp was disconnected & the rear fills too were redundant, having blown due to excess power from the 75.4.

The install went on from noon till 8 pm & I was exhausted by the end of it.

The EQ was set to flat & the gains adjusted from the amp. The first impression was Whoa!!! The front soundstage was up there. In the earlier hifonics, save for a couple of accidental tuning instances, the bass was never satisfactory & the tweeter too sounded rather harsh. But the Elektra’s’ were great.

The weeks went by rather quickly; tuning, adjusting the gains, the bass & further downplaying the treble. Laid back they are called, but they work great for me.
In fact, my EQ is set to flat for the lows & the mids, but for the highs, the treble is set at -5!

It’s a sea change from what it was before & the Elektra’s have made their mark. But I’m still trying to find the sweet spot. Currently I’m just staying away from all tuning as I feel I have hit a mind block. So I’ve let things be.

The best part of it all was in the sub department. All who had heard my 6 Year Sub had asked me to replace it with a newer one. But, budget restraints & a “give up only after exhausting all the options’’ attitude, made me persist with it through the years.

Initially, I had told Frank & Nishant after my Front stage upgrade that I went in for a new sub from Ground Zero. Frank played a prank on me by claiming to have spoken to Zohir & learnt that I had indeed gone in for a newly launched GZ sub (Had to control my laughter then for such a sub was non-existent).

We finally met up to audition his final (for now) setup featuring the Eclipse HU & the DLS amp, Illusioned set-up & boy-o-boy was it fun. So good is his setup that he decided to upgrade his ride itself.

Meanwhile, my own setup was auditioned, the TA dialed in & it was then that I revealed to them that it was the same 6 year “Oxygen Audio” sub that was doing duty.

What a journey it’s been for me, the Sony - Kenwood combo, the Pioneer – Oxygen combo, the JBL – Hifonics combo & finally today the Clarion- 75.4- Illusion Elektra combo.


Unless I hit upon a lottery or someone decides to gift me an obscene amount of money, my ICEcapade with my current ride ends here. A lil’ bit of fine tuning here & there but no major changes.


All my previous stuff has gone into my 3 other cars, two of which will be discussed in due course of time. The most recent one is a culmination of all that I have learned through my blunders & the wealth of information gleaned from T-Bhp.

Big shout going out to Navin, Sam, B&T, Nishant, Frank & all the others who patiently heard me out & answered my silliest queries.

Cheers for now as I await your feedback.

P.s. Apologies in advance for such a long post.

[Invinsible]

Congrats! St.Anger.. a very tried and tested journey.
We need pics, of both before and after.

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by St. Anger

Big shout going out to Navin, Sam, B&T, Nishant, Frank & all the others who patiently heard me out & answered my silliest queries.

You are happy and that is thanks enough.

Originally Posted by St. Anger

such a long post.

And an enjoyable one too!

[Technocrat]

Nice to know you are enjoying your ICE now.

I didnt knew that the 785 is known by so many different model numbers lol

[frankmehta]

congratulations tanmay. this is SOME write up.. lol.
i really like how your system sounds now, and the sub in the new enclosure is quite a revelation. a GZ sub would complete the install, but you can take your time for that. till then the install is just FINE.
enjoy the music, and thank you for all the kind words about my system. im loving it, but havent been getting time for it nowadays :-(**

[navin]

Originally Posted by St. Anger

In fact, my EQ is set to flat for the lows & the mids, but for the highs, the treble is set at -5!

Next time you tune your ICE try this. Set the HP section of the XO to -3db and listen. Then adjust the EQ to taste.

[St. Anger]

@frank - The current sub is great for me, till a new ride comes along. Or till someone decides to get generous & gifts me something.

@ Technocrat, the Clarion that i have is the 2007 version having installed it early last year. The deluge we are seeing on the forum is the 2008 version from the US of A. Mine is the APAC version that came from Jakarta.

@ Navin, the HP on the crossover is already set at -3 dB since the time i got the Elektra' installed.
Current P-EQ settings are as follows: -

Low -1 at 250 Hz
Mid -1 at 650 Hz
High -5/4 at 5 Hz

@ Invinsible,

It'll take me a while to look for the before pics, I'm uploading a few of the equipment at this stage of the upgrade.

Awaiting your feedback,

Cheers

[nishantgandhi]

Originally Posted by frankmehta

congratulations tanmay. this is SOME write up.. lol.
i really like how your system sounds now, and the sub in the new enclosure is quite a revelation. a GZ sub would complete the install, but you can take your time for that. till then the install is just FINE.
enjoy the music, and thank you for all the kind words about my system. im loving it, but havent been getting time for it nowadays :-(**

Tanmay, I reiterate, dont listen to Frank now!

On a serious note, Zohir was really praising your setup. It seems the equipment is well matched now. If only the sub could be better.....