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Tuning process


Brandonloos21

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Looking for some tuning guidance. 

System consist of stock Malibu medallion 8ch head unit, audio control matrix 6ch line driver, 8 revo8’s powered by sdx4, 4 rev 10’s powered by sdx2, 2 Revo xxx12’s each powered by syn dx 2.3hp. 

My plan was to use tower output into 2 ch of line driver, combine the front and rear outputs (4 total channels) into 2 ch of line driver, and use the sub output for the remaining 2ch of line driver. In coming out of the line driver, I will take 2 ch and run the sdx4 in 2ch, 2ch into the sdx2, and 2ch into one syndx2.3, using passthru to go to other syndx2.3. 

Set the stereo volume to 75% 

First tune line driver outputs to match amp sensitivity input levels?

Next tune gains to equal the output voltage needed for each channel? (For example, subs would be V=sqrt(1200watts*4ohm)=69.28 volts) so on so forth. 

Make sure there’s no distrtion, tune back needed gains to even out sound. 

Any specific tracks you’d play? Obviously through the 3.5 or USB (not Bluetooth)

Everything look about correct? Any suggestions help.

AF350700-1A12-4E1B-BFB6-C1BBC35F28B4.jpeg

Edited by Brandonloos21
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I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish by combining front and rear into the line driver?  Just pick one pair (front OR rear) and use that to drive all speakers.  You'd just have an unused pair of outputs from the HU, but just fade all the way to the pair you are using and good to go.

Wetsounds says their amps take 6v inputs so I'd just go with "maximizing" the output from the matrix (gain up till 5v but under the "maximized" light).

The gain on the second sub amp is likely going to be higher than the gain on the first (assume the pass through output is lower that the matrix's).

ACR-1 on CH 5+6 would be nice to remotely adjust sub gain from the helm.

I'm not sure why you wouldn't tune on BT, at least as a double check.  If BT is "hotter" than the usb or 3.5, then you have to do the tune all over again (or never use BT).

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6 minutes ago, shawndoggy said:

I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish by combining front and rear into the line driver?  Just pick one pair (front OR rear) and use that to drive all speakers.  You'd just have an unused pair of outputs from the HU, but just fade all the way to the pair you are using and good to go.

Wetsounds says their amps take 6v inputs so I'd just go with "maximizing" the output from the matrix (gain up till 5v but under the "maximized" light).

The gain on the second sub amp is likely going to be higher than the gain on the first (assume the pass through output is lower that the matrix's).

ACR-1 on CH 5+6 would be nice to remotely adjust sub gain from the helm.

I'm not sure why you wouldn't tune on BT, at least as a double check.  If BT is "hotter" than the usb or 3.5, then you have to do the tune all over again (or never use BT).

Because the kind driver is 6ch I was trying to combine the front and rear channels, didn’t know if there would be different tones coming through them. 
 

That would make sense as it would be losing signal strength from the pass thru
 

i was under the impression that tuning on 3.5 was a more clear signal. But I suppose I could switch to BT and check for distortion. 

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Agree that usb or 3.5 may be *clearer* (i.e. higher bitrate) but if the level (gain) of one of the outputs from the HU is substantially stronger than the others, I'd want to tune to the strongest output.  In my car, for instance, the FM output is way louder than the USB output from my iphone.  How come?  Dunno.... but when the stereo flips over to FM it's always extra loud.  Soif I tune to the usb and then the stereo gets flipped over to FM, all the gains will be too hot.  Hopefully that makes sense.

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1 hour ago, shawndoggy said:

I'd want to tune to the strongest output.

Tune to the weakest. This gives you peak performance on the weakest. When using the stronger sources, you just dial back the master volume. 

I would not try to sum the front and rear by splicing. The front and rear outputs should be identical in range and gain, and only effected by fade. Keep the fade centered or faded to whichever you use, and there is no loss or gain. 

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9 minutes ago, MLA said:

Tune to the weakest. This gives you peak performance on the weakest. When using the stronger sources, you just dial back the master volume. 

I would not try to sum the front and rear by splicing. The front and rear outputs should be identical in range and gain, and only effected by fade. Keep the fade centered or faded to whichever you use, and there is no loss or gain. 

Summing front and rear would go mono at that point? 

Steve B.

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1 hour ago, shawndoggy said:

Agree that usb or 3.5 may be *clearer* (i.e. higher bitrate) but if the level (gain) of one of the outputs from the HU is substantially stronger than the others, I'd want to tune to the strongest output.  In my car, for instance, the FM output is way louder than the USB output from my iphone.  How come?  Dunno.... but when the stereo flips over to FM it's always extra loud.  Soif I tune to the usb and then the stereo gets flipped over to FM, all the gains will be too hot.  Hopefully that makes sense.

Makes total sense! Thanks. Don’t want to flip to a different input and damage speakers 

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14 minutes ago, MLA said:

Tune to the weakest. This gives you peak performance on the weakest. When using the stronger sources, you just dial back the master volume. 

I would not try to sum the front and rear by splicing. The front and rear outputs should be identical in range and gain, and only effected by fade. Keep the fade centered or faded to whichever you use, and there is no loss or gain. 

So you’re saying use front and fade to front (or vice versa)?

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50 minutes ago, MLA said:

Tune to the weakest.

I totally get what you are saying.  If everyone is fully trained and competent with the volume knob and no adult beverages are involved it makes total sense.  

He's already proposing to tune to 75% on the volume knob so there's already headroom for disaster ("if it goes to 100?!").  My way is a little more conservative.  Yours potentially maxes all sources.  Neither is wrong, but my way builds in a little margin for error when the doofus brother in law is at the helm three natty lights in.

(fer my own self, I'd actually just tune to the source I'm gonna use (BT) ... I couldn't care less about the 3.5mm input or the usb, cuz those will never ever get used)

  • Haha 1
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15 minutes ago, shawndoggy said:

I totally get what you are saying.  If everyone is fully trained and competent with the volume knob and no adult beverages are involved it makes total sense.  

He's already proposing to tune to 75% on the volume knob so there's already headroom for disaster ("if it goes to 100?!").  My way is a little more conservative.  Yours potentially maxes all sources.  Neither is wrong, but my way builds in a little margin for error when the doofus brother in law is at the helm three natty lights in.

(fer my own self, I'd actually just tune to the source I'm gonna use (BT) ... I couldn't care less about the 3.5mm input or the usb, cuz those will never ever get used)

Might end up just tuning BT, for whatever reason I was thinking tuning to most clarity which I thought would be 3.5. 75% was usually what I heard as a reference.

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32 minutes ago, shawndoggy said:

yes. do that.

Now rather than using crossthey, what about y-ing out of the 5-6 channel of line driver to have a pair of RCA’s straight to the amps? Guess I’d have to see the voltage out I suppose 

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6 minutes ago, Brandonloos21 said:

Now rather than using crossthey, what about y-ing out of the 5-6 channel of line driver to have a pair of RCA’s straight to the amps? Guess I’d have to see the voltage out I suppose 

It would be nice to know what the output voltage is from the "pass thru" connections on the master amp.  I can't find that in the manual.  Might be worth calling wetsounds?

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45 minutes ago, shawndoggy said:

It would be nice to know what the output voltage is from the "pass thru" connections on the master amp.  I can't find that in the manual.  Might be worth calling wetsounds?

I will give ‘em a call tomorrow. Also curious. Thakks for the help man

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2 hours ago, Steve B. said:

Summing front and rear would go mono at that point? 

Steve B.

In theory, it would still be stereo if you paired the front left and right left and front right and rear right. If you physically splices these chnls together, I dont think the source unit would like it. If you summed them through a processor, there is still no advantage to just running a front or rear into a line driver. 

 

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1 hour ago, shawndoggy said:

I totally get what you are saying.  If everyone is fully trained and competent with the volume knob and no adult beverages are involved it makes total sense.  

He's already proposing to tune to 75% on the volume knob so there's already headroom for disaster ("if it goes to 100?!").  My way is a little more conservative.  Yours potentially maxes all sources.  Neither is wrong, but my way builds in a little margin for error when the doofus brother in law is at the helm three natty lights in.

(fer my own self, I'd actually just tune to the source I'm gonna use (BT) ... I couldn't care less about the 3.5mm input or the usb, cuz those will never ever get used)

"Had my system professionally installed and tuned! Sounds great on FM but real weak on BT, what should I do?"

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