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-   -   Tuning your ICE: What are your settings? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/car-entertainment/40244-tuning-your-ice-what-your-settings-4.html)

@arnabchak, the best way to listen is to set everything else but the Volume control to have no effect on the music, i.e. all tone controls and equalizer settings to 0. This will tell you how your system sounds naturally. Since no one else can hear the same, you will have to listen and describe to us what you find lacking in the default sound from your system.

Once you do that, we can suggest what needs to be changed. It could be a setting, it could also be a piece of hardware for that matter. Please remember, what works for someone else may not work for you, since tastes and preferences are individual.

Dear Der Alte

If I neutralise all the settings, the sound is pretty flat.

The guitars and the drums sound last lustre and the beats are missing.

I did some tweaking in the morning and found that the beats are better now:

Earlier settings are below. The changes are in BOLD.

80 Hz- -2 +2
250 HZ-+4 + 3
800 HZ+2 +2
1250 HZ-+4 +3
2500 HZ-+2 +1
8000 HZ-0 +1

Super Bass reduced to +1.

All other settings remain status quo.

However, earlier, at a volume of 10, the sound was pretty loud.

Now, the loudness has decreased and a reasonable sound is at 14-15.

I have not tweaked the Loudness and it remains at HI.

I feel that at a high volume, I get some slight harshness in the music. Its not like the music "fat raha hain" types yet the smoothness is lacking.

:) Increase the volume a bit and check again.

What does this do?

I assume you say this w.r.t. the same song. Yes, this happens, as your ears would hear a different profile.

Should be 0. IMHO Super Bass too.

Loudness traditionally was used to boost bass a teeny weeny bit at low volumes. Synthetically jacking it up PLUS all the bass boost through the Equalizer would give a funny imbalanced sound - just to get the bass kick you will be losing a lot of other music bits that get drowned out.

That is 'onset of distortion'. An indication of the (not so great) power levels the speaker can take, or even the clean power level the HU can produce.

I think you have to consider replacing the speakers. They seem to be the weakest link in your system, if you say it sounds flat with all controls at 0.
The tone controls are not meant to radically change the sound profile of the speakers. They are there just to add a little tweak (personal preference) to competent speakers. Think steroids v/s capability and coaching with athletes.

Dear Der Alte

Super Bass I guess jacks up the Bass. As suggested, will keep it to Min.

Will also keep the Loudness to OFF and see how it responds.

With regards to the speakers, have tried and invested in the best possible speakers available within a tight budget. The JBLs are pretty decent otherwise.

I completely get your point regrading the steroids v/s the capability of athletes..

Well said!!

First set EQ to suit your taste keeping in mind that at least one setting must be at 0db or lower (as you have currently done). Once that is done then set the super bass. Superbass is a very aggressive control and excessive use of this (along with an amplifier) can damage your speakers. Hence it must be used only if EQ does not suffice.

I am getting new speakers installed in my VW Polo and below mentioned is the set up I am planning to go ahead with. I have already purchased the speaker sets but I am still debating about the amplifier and sub-woofer combo as my budget is strictly around 10k.

The HU has some settings options and I don't know much about all these different settings and specs., but I keep reading that the head unit should send lower frequencies to the subwoofer and not to the speakers. Anyone know what I should choose for each of the below settings for the mentioned ICE setup?

HU:
Alpine iDA-X305
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-CAMXTJS...-iDA-X305.html

Amp.:
JBL GX A644SI
http://harmanaudio.in/jbl-gx-a644si-...amplifier.html

Speakers:
Front:
Focal 165 AS
http://www.focal.com/india/access/461-165-as.html
Power Handling, RMS: 60 Watts
Power Handling, Peak: 120 Watts
Sensitivity: 91.3dB
Frequency Response: 60Hz - 20kHz

Rear:
Focal 165 AC
http://www.focal.com/india/access/465-165-ac.html
Power Handling, RMS: 60 Watts
Power Handling, Peak: 120 Watts
Sensitivity: 91dB
Frequency Response: 60Hz - 20kHz

Subwoofer:
Blaupunkt GTB 1200 SC
http://www.blaupunkt.com/en/nc/produ...s/single/5340/
Power Handling, RMS: 250 Watts
Power Handling, Peak: 850 Watts
Sensitivity: 91dB
Frequency Response: 35Hz - 5000Hz

Bass Adjustment
Fo:
60Hz
80Hz
100Hz
200Hz


Q:
1
1.25
1.5
2


Treble Adjustment
Fo:
10kHz
12.5kHz
15kHz
17.5kHz


High Pass Filter Adjustment
80Hz
120Hz
160Hz
Off

Sorry for the really long post, but thanks for any help.

Bass adjustment - this will be the frequency where the bass adjustment will impact the most (with slightly lesser impact on frequencies around it)
Play the sort of music you listen to, and try different settings until you find one that works.
Q - leave it at 1 unless you are using this to fix some sort of peak in your car frequency response - (a bit advanced given your current understanding of things)
Same goes for treble frequency.
I use 80hz for bass, 10K for treble

HPF - this is where the HU will stop sending bass to the components, and sent it to the subwoofer instead. The lower you keep this the better, but most comps may not be able to handle as much bass properly (you sure there is no 60Hz?)
I would recommend 80hz, with 120 if you get distortion with the amps.

there is a bit of dependency between the bass centre frequency and the HPF, as depending on where the bass is going, the same bass might sound different, so I'd say try combinations with 60Hz and 100hz as well as well

80 Hz- -2 +2
250 HZ-+4 + 3
800 HZ+2 +2
1250 HZ-+4 +3
2500 HZ-+2 +1
8000 HZ-0 [b]+1[/B


For a lay man like me whose reasonably new to ICE can the gurus explain the effect of increase and decerease of the hz and khz ...

Interesting thread.

My ICE is 4-way active. I use an active head unit, two 4-channel amps, a pair of midbass in the front doors, a wideband and tweeter mounted in customized enclosures in the dash and subwoofer in a sealed enclosure in the boot.

The settings in the head unit are as follows:
Crossover:
Subwoofer: 80hz LPF at 18db slope, Phase: Normal
Midbass: Bandpassed between 80 hz and 315 hz (18db on HPF and 12db on LPF)
Wideband: High passed at 315 hz, 12 db slope, natural roll off from around 11khz so no LPF
Tweeters: High passed at 9 khz, 12 db slope

Gains: All drivers at same level, except -1db drop on left widebander and -13db on the subwoofer.

All speakers time aligned on the head unit to get the best staging at the driver's seat.

No EQ or tone controls employed.