Hey guys. I have a clarion mp3 head unit DXZ835MP i believe, and it has adjustments for Gain, Frequency, and some Q thing, for mids and bass, and it only has Gain and Frequency for Treb. I was wondering what does freq. and q mean, and what should i set them too? All i have right now is this head unit with CDT components in the front powered by the HU, and stock speakers in the back. What would you suggest that i set my gain settings too? Are there any resources that could help me tune my system better, I looked at the Faq's but couldn't really find anything on that. Thanks in advance for any input.

 

frequency is a sound cycle that is measured in hertz(hz). treble produces higher freqs, mids make mid freqs and bas makes low end freqs. Your tweeters from your components( the lil 1 inch speakers) will produce the treble while your woofer the other 6.5 speaker will produce the mid range frequencies. If you super clear/crisp/sharp music, make your tweeter freq higher and give it more gain. If you like more mids then give that more gain. I personally like to mix it in the middle, not too high not too low. Just play around with it and see what sounds good to you.

 

Well the frequency response of my cdt components is 60-20Khz. I've herd somwhere that all sound is 20hz to 20Khz. on my head unit my bass frequency can be set at 50/80/120hz. So i assume that i wouldn't set it at 50 since the speakers won't play that any way. For my mids, frequency can be set at 700Hz/1Khz/2Khz, and for the treble i can set freq. at 8Khz/12Khz. I think this option is called the center frequency, so could someone explain to me what this actually does? And what would you suggest to set those to, for optimal performance with the components that i have.

Besides the frequency setting, i also have a Q setting for my bass and mids, but not for treble. Q for bass can be set at 1/1.25/1.5/2 and for mids it's 1.5/2. I would also like someone to explain to me what that Q setting does, and what you adjust with it.

 

Q is the width of the frequency band that you are adjusting. For the bass setting, I would try going with the highest Q for the widest sweep centered at 80Hz. This will help boost midbass, if you need help there. Mids and highs are something that really need to be tuned by ear, if you know what to listen for. You can also use an RTA (real-time analyzer) to adjust frequency response, but I think that is unnecessary for your system. If the system sounds good to you now, then you don't need to use any of those adjustments. Otherwise, just play around with them to see what sounds good.

 

center frequency and Q go together. Q is known as the quality factor. it's rather complex to explain how it is computed, but i can tell you what to do with it. the center frequency is a frequency that you want to boost. like a bass boost except it is adjustable. so u can choose 50/80/120 Hz to be boosted. the Q tells you how well that frequency is boosted. when u select a frequency to be boosted, like 120Hz, technically that isnt the only frequency that is boosted. the frequencies above and below the center frequency are bossted as well, just not as much...picture it as a bell shaped curve with the center frequency at the top of the curve....to the left and right of that frequency the boost falls off. the Q tells how narrow the "bell" shape is....the higher the number, the more narrow the range of frequencies around the center frequency boost is. in other words, if you want to boost just a certain frequency and not others around it choose a higher Q number. i hope my vague explanation helps.

 

ok, thanks alot i got the idea now. I got another question, on my crossover i had a jumper for the tweter in the ranged from -3 to 3 Db. Does that adjust how loud the tweter is compared to the driver, or what does it do? Should i leave it in the flat position, or change it? Again i'm running them from the HU if that would be a factor.

 

thats going to make ur tweeter louder or softer, experiment with the jumper settings to see what you like best. that is really subjective. have fun man!

 

Normally the passives have adjustable L-Pads that allow for different mounting positions. If you tweeters are low in the door you might want the loudest position, in your case 3dB. But if you mount them in the A pillar they will probably be too fatiguing at that level and you would probably be better off with the -3dB setting.

 

ok thanks alot for the info guys. My speakers sound great now. But i also realize that i need subs BAD.