My setup:

2 polk audio 4x6 components in the front

2 6.5" elemental designs components in the rear

10 inch ED sub

an amp for the 4 speakers and another amp for the sub.

(Please forgive me for not remembering the model numbers of all my equipment. The amps are both alpines.)

My system is very powerful and everything seems to be performing perfectly except for one problem I am having. It seems that the mid-range frequencies are somewhat drowned out in comparison with the sub and especially my high range tweeter sounds. This scenario sounds awesome for Rap and Hip hop music since it is mainly base and hi hats. But, for trance music and music with subtle mids I notice that parts of the song seem to be missing, or just barely heard.

I have the crossover settings turned off on the amp that powers my four component speakers. And, the sub has no crossover limiting its highs besides the fact it takes the sub channel from my deck so I guess I could change these settings from my deck.

I have been playing with my deck, alpine cda-9830, but haven;t maneged to increase the mids and make it all sound good.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

Where are your front speakers mounted???? Mid bass needs a box!!!! Or at least (if their in the door) a lot of damping material....

 

First a question what is a "midrange frequency" to you?
These should help define the answer that question:
1-What instruments sound weak
2-what instruments sound normal
3-what instruments are too strong
4-how natural is the human voice

this sounds like a mis-tune rather than faulty equipment (which is good news since the solution is free!)

Things to do for now:
1-Are all the speakers making musical noises check each one
2-turn down the gain on the sub amp (my guess)
3-turn off the loudness button (also my guess)

 

Thanks for the input so far. My sum amp is electronically controlled, there are no gain dials like most amps. Is adjusting the gain on my sub amp the same as turning down the bass on my deck?

Also, I don;t have any loud button or boost from the deck enabled.

Do you think I should be limiting the frequencies of my speakers and subs or just let them play a fuller range of music?

 

You haven't said if you checked to make sure all the speakers are working. Often times when something doesn't sound right, something might of come loose.

You definitly want to xover your subwoofer, play with the xover setting fi you can... anywhere from 60 to 100 or so. Lots of decks have the default 80hz.

 

Oh well so much for easy answers... dang

well we have either 1) too much bass and treble OR 2) too little mid-range (duh)
lets assume everything is fully functional and you dont have any weird crossover/ high pass/ low pass filter setups.

Don't take this as demeaning but most dont know how to operate their HU. This is because there are SO MANY features that it is sometimes very hard to know what is going on, I am with ya... but if you have a manual then read it, if you went and bought it from a retailer then they can help.

As AAAAAA mentioned try to cross the sub over at a freq where it makes sense, typical crossover (xover) is 80 Hz or so but not always. If the sub amp is electronically controlled please control it there has to be a way to control the amps sensitivity (gain) otherwise your stuck using the bass controls in the HU to control the power of the sub-woofer.

Another thing you can do later on (with the engine off) you can run your stereo with the sub off just to see how the stereo sounds, then you could gradually blend in the sub output to match the strength of the rest of the system. There is NO WAY a single 10" properly controlled should be overpowering the system.

 

BTW this may come down to an installation issue like Installer said, I am trying to go the inexpensive and easy route for the moment

 

Thank you all for the responses. I appreciate your help!

I printed out the manual for my HU and for my sub (which I know know is an alpine mrd-m300).

I made the following changes to my system and I am much happier with the sound. Of course I will listen to it for a few days with the new settings and see where to go from there.

The most frustrating part of my old settings was the ear splitting high high notes like the snares and hi hats. From your input I thought that maybe I was missing midbase, so I set out to reduce my high freq (17.5Khz and up), and to increase my mid base.

The changes:

I turned down the gain on my 4 component speakers from a setting of 1.5 to 1. This actually made the sub more powerful in comparison with the speakers.

I then turned on the "bass boost" setting on the same amp which drove more bass to my components.

I checked the settings on my woofer amp and left them as they were: with the gain at 0 and the crossover turned off. I know that some of you feel I should have the crossover set, but with the crossover off the the middle spectrum that I was after seemed to be filled.

Finally the HU. The two settings I played with were the treble and bass settings. The way they work on my alpine cda-9807 is you select a center frequency for the treble and for the bass. This center frequency is more pronounced. You can then boost this center frequency (from +7 to -7), and choose how wide the boost is, (from 1 - 4). The higher the (band)width setting, the greater the range that will be boosted. (I hope I understand it right).

The settings were:

Treble: 10kHz, 12.5kHz, 15kHz, 17.5kHz
Base: 60Hz, 80Hz, 100Hz, 200Hz

Initially these were either untouched, or set in some random setting but I changed them:

Treble centered at 10kHz and boosted by +4
Base centered at 200Hz with maximum bandwidth and boosted by 2.

My thinking was to boost the highest bass and the lowest treble to help fill in that mid and it is definitely an improvement.

Thanks again for the advice.

Cheers.

- Chris

 

I am still not happy with my sound quality and have decided to move the position of my speakers to increase the sound stage quality and balance of low-mid -highs.

I currently have my 2 front speakers installed in the dash facing the window which I realize is a no no. And my 2 back speakers are hanging in the carpet under the back window.

My plan is to reduce my system to 2 speakers + 1 sub and build custom kicks in the front driver/ passenger door for these 2 speakers.

If I am them right I hope to improve the sound stage and bring out more mid-bass.

I will get some pictures and keep you guys updated.

 

a bad speaker in a good location will outperform a good speaker in a bad location, so by the sounds of it you're on the right track. I'm just wondering how bad the problem really was?
basically diffraction will make deeper notes "flow" around corners while higher notes are "aimed" toward listeners. I'm not familliar with your speakers but usually in sq car audio I've found the hardest hurdle to overcome is the midrange location, making the stock location of most kickpanels crappy to say the least.
If the location is the problem then do your best to get a kickpod location that is visible from the eye from wherever the listener is sitting (both of them from both front kicks if possible). This will usually yield a much better high vocal/strings in music.

If possible tune your mids and highs without your subs first with your low pass around 200hz. After you get it sounding right start dropping your crossover frequency and bringing in the subwoofer gain. Tuning your subs is a whole nother world, so keep it seperate.