ttocs

infinities are great as long as you loooooove tweeters. Their tweets have always been overpowering to me and was only good after tweeking the treble adj down.

rsh0763

Indeed.... treble and mid both set to zero. Bass on 5 out of 8, we will see about that on Monday when I install the sub. Crossover switch is set to flat for tweets also. The first time I heard it I caught that. After some sound time those cleaned up and I feel that they will clean up even more.

I have a feeling that the mach rack is helping counter it.

You nailed that statement for sure.

rsh0763

Built-in EQ is set down on the highs too. Both the EQ and the sound settings have negative settings which I dabbled with and is just too low.

ttocs

I can remember putting a pair in the back of a blazer once, the front speakers had been replaced previously but with a different brand. After the install all we could hear was the rear speakers over the fronts. Some people love that stuff, personally it makes my ears start to bleed just thinkin bout it..... The tweeter has always been too much for me but I can't tell you how many customers loved them.

rsh0763

The sub changed everything. That treble you talked about has been matched by the sub, I too do not like too much of it, but I actually ended up turning it up a little, with the sub it was required.

Question for you ttocs, you are a pro with this. I seemed to find myself using BOTH the HPF on the amp and the HPF built-in to the HU to limit lows to the smaller woofers. With the sub, I can get even more volume out of the infinity woofers, I mean a lot more., they are still giving me bass, I have both HPFs set at 80 and the LPF for the sub set the same way. At the amp and on the HU. I honestly can't feel any heat anywhere, but is using both filters on the HU and the amp with crossovers already in place going to do any harm?

It sounds so good like that, the amp gains are right in the middle and I can just about give it max volume and have zero distortion.

The other question is regarding the ipod sound quality. I have imported every CD I own into the ipod and the variance in quality between albums is huge. I have CDs from the 80's, 90's, 00's and even a few new ones. Do you know of anything that can balance that quality and sound level?

My wifes Armada records every CD inserted if it isn't already there, from its built-in HD, through the factory premium Bose system they all sound good, pretty much have no desire to change volume or any other setting, where depending on the album, from the ipod on the Kenwood HU, I can hear a massive variance between albums.

Just curious... no buggy, if I just listen to albums it is no big deal, but if I randomize all songs, if I am cranking it, the sound changes per song.

ttocs

having more then one electronic filter like you have will not hurt anything. The older passive cross-overs(a simple cap or coil for example) eats up alot of power and putting a couple of those inline would yeild a low output. In the electronic world if you feed a 120 hz signal and then filter it with a 2nd 80 hz signal will not show much if any difference then an 80 hz signal then filtered with a lp 120 hz filter. The net output of both is an 80 hz signal...

By balance the output, you mean make them all sound like the same SQ? You can probably take the really high quality recordings and make them sound like the lower quality ones but there isn't any way to make a bad recording sound good. Just like in records, tapes and cd's if you have a bad master recording yer basically screwed. That is part of the fun of mp3's is that your using a technological compressed music format so your quality of sound is directly dependant on everything from the software used to record it(Did you do the current updates on the media player that week?) as well as the bit rate its recorded at. Even the super high quality mp3's are not cd quality so if you take into account that maybe your pc didn't do the same updates when ripping them that it will yeild different sq outputs.

rsh0763

Great info, thank you, that totally makes sense. I remember in the late 80's, having to is in-line blockers to the tweets that did exactly what you said. They would generate heat.

I also totally see your point on the sound quality issue, it comes down to mixing music from a variety of sources. Unless they all come from the same source, there will be differences. I think Apple has us strapped by the units in that arena. Under normal listening volume, it is not noticeable, but crank it and the difference is amazing.

Now I have cleaned everything up, have all the wiring fastened securely. The only thing left is what to do with the mach wiring. I coiled and terminated it at the HU, I guess I should do the same with the back, but part of me just wants to cut it off and take it out of the trunk altogether.

ttocs

there are still alot of people that want to keep the stock look and want that equipment. Took me 15 mins to take the 460 hrns out and I am pretty sure I got $50 for it because NO BODY ever pulls that piece out.

rsh0763

I just can't get over that JL amp not having the same kick as the junker Blaupunkt amp I pulled out of my Ram 2500. They both claimed to have similar RMS numbers and max numbers. I always thought of blaupunkt stuff (at least the newer stuff) as being cheap. Sound quality is the same as far as I can tell. Maybe something is hosed, but all four channels are working equally. To get the same sound level I have the gains up all the way where the blaupunkt is a little above half. Oh well, it works and the speakers in my Ram are smaller, so really it doesn't matter. It isn't like anything I have can handle full output from either all day.

Sure was a fun project anyways, thanks for all the info. I saved a ton doing this myself and spent less than 700 on the entire system, including wires and everything.

Car Toys jacked me good on the Ram, I have always done my systems in my older cars, but I wanted the pros doing my newer stuff.

I still believe that if a guy wanted to keep all the mach stuff that with the right harness and built-in HPFs and LPFs, plus separate SW control on a HU with decent pre amp that a guy could easily get away with a HU swap.

That said, the mach 460 setup is nothing compared to replacing everything. I am torn, I love hearing my GTs exhaust, but this is just too good. Next up, suspension parts, all of them.