Holy Hell... I've finally started!

[Toxis]

Wow. It's almost been 2 years since I bought my SR components and slowly from there bought the rest of my system and it's finally being installed! Components in, tweeters flushed and dyed. My question is this. I have an 06 Civic Coupe and will keep the OEM radio and will use the Rockford 360.2v2 processor. Now I plan on running high level in but where is best to get that signal? I haven't started stripping the car apart yet but will Friday. Do I cut and splice new wires from the deck and then to the 360 or do I go after the OEM amp? The car has the "premium" system so it has a component set up front and a sub in the rear deck but all that will not be used. The only other part I'm thinking about is where I'm going to place my amps... but I'll figure that out as I start laying stuff out. Thanks to all help.

[unrealii]

I would assume the Rockford 360.2v2 manual would say something of where to wire it up when interfacing with a premium system. I've of scenarios where people wire it up before or after the oem amps. On my ford taurus, I wired my line-out-converters after the oem amp (made it all convenient since the oem amp was in the trunk of the car). Some other cars like the bose in my maxima, the signal from the factory head unit is low level and can be used directly into rca's for the amp. Also, if I were you, I would try to find harness plugs than cutting and splicing. Do you plan to use the oem wires for speaker. I would check some civic forums for more details regarding your factory radio.

Good luck!

[Toxis]

I've already run new speaker wires back for the amps so no OEM wiring will be used in that aspect. I personally don't really trust the guys at the civic forum I am part of as most of them have never hooked up a car stereo or even would know how to wire a single sub to an amp as they think you can bridge a mono amp (I'm not exaggerating).

[bkeller3]

How did you wait 2 years with SR components sitting around?! That wouldv'e drove me nuts.

[Toxis]

I know! Anyhow, with some further research, I think I need to get a Mercman harness that he made to go from the OEM Honda to RCAs as the radio is balanced out. More info to come... unless someone knows where i can pick one up! I've messaged him so hopefully I can get one.

[cadenceclipse]

stock radio is balanced out?? whatabout 880prs?

[Toxis]

the Honda premium systems are. You just gotta get this harness that gives you RCA out and you're good. I bought it for $85 which is expensive but to be balanced audio, I'll take it! I traded the 880 for the Rockford 360.2v2 so I can keep my OEM radio and make it stock :)

Fixed my sig. :) Thanks.

[cadenceclipse]

wow 880 for 360. kinda suprised. thought u were all sq...although u r the same guy with srs sitting around for 2 yrs. guess your not that into it anymore. at least u aren't using them PACs. quad amped srs, sweet. hope all goes well. how do u think 360 will compare to 880??

[angelsmile]

Wow. It's almost been 2 years since I bought my SR components and slowly from there bought the rest of my system and it's finally being installed! Components in, tweeters flushed and dyed. My question is this. I have an 06 Civic Coupe and will keep the OEM radio and will use the Rockford 360.2v2 processor. Now I plan on running high level in but where is best to get that signal? I haven't started stripping the car apart yet but will Friday. Do I cut and splice new wires from the deck and then to the 360 or do I go after the OEM amp? The car has the "premium" system so it has a component set up front and a sub in the rear deck but all that will not be used. The only other part I'm thinking about is where I'm going to place my amps... but I'll figure that out as I start laying stuff out. Thanks to all help.

What?? :eek:
You've waited for 2 years? how come?
lols..

Well, congratulations anyway.. hehehe

[Toxis]

Personally, I think it'll be as good if not better. I will have a real crossover and a far more detailed EQ. Not to mention, I'll be keeping OEM look so stealth is always a good thing (when you've had a car stolen in the past). I look forward to playing with it.


How come? I never figured out exactly how I wanted the system to be perfectly. The only thing that I knew I wanted and has stayed is the SR comps run off 4 mono amps. Past that, I never figured out a good way to run a sub, I never really liked the idea of going with a radio in the OEM spot (that wasn't a double din). I finally ran into some deals (like the Stealthbox) and the xtant amp to run it was on eBay as "Xtant" in the description so no one would've found it if they didn't know what they were looking for. Stuff just takes time but I'd rather do it once and do it right than slam it in and go from there.

[1996blackmax]

Glad to see that your finally getting your gear installed.

[cadenceclipse]

what do u mean real crossover? ever hear srs on xtant monos b4? i don't think your car got stolen cause u had aftermarket cd

[Toxis]

a real crossover meaning something I can tune myself to my car/equipment. Not something with half the control (880) or no control (Polk crossovers). I haven't heard the SRs on the monos before and I'm pretty sure no one else has either.

Plus, my old car was stolen because it had rims and a cd player. When they got in, they saw the rest of the system and took the whole car instead of just breaking in.

[cadenceclipse]

880 had active setup right? switchable slopes and freq. whats different on 360?
sorry to hear bout old car. stock HU will def. help with that

[Toxis]

More points of adjustment. 16 points on the 880 vs. 31 on the 360. More "tunability" :D Also doing it live on your laptop vs on the HU screen is easier too.

[exalted512]

880 had active setup right? switchable slopes and freq. whats different on 360?
sorry to hear bout old car. stock HU will def. help with that

The 880 has a total of 32 bands of equalization, the 360.2 has 31 band front left and front right, 28ish band rear left and rear right, 10 band sub, and a 31 band center, so it has over 130 bands of equalization.

Its about 10 million times more versatile than the 880. The only bad things about it is that they're prone to engine noise and the blue-tooth going out.
-Cody

[Toxis]

I'm "hopefully" not going to be prone to engine noise as my wiring will be done very well and with the harness from the OEM radio sends the signal balanced to the 360. "should" be good. The BlueTooth was an issue but now the new V2 models have fixed said issue. The one I got was a V1 that was refurbished by RF which basically meant they swapped it out for the new V2. I know because there's markings of V2 all over the box and a letter from RF saying they swapped it out. Let's pray it is flawless! :)

[arun1963]

I haven't heard the SRs on the monos before and I'm pretty sure no one else has either.


I think mac was running his sr's for a while off xtant mono's.

A friend of mine has the 3sixty.2 and it is amazing. It is definately my next upgade. Only prob is that it costs the equivalent of USD 850 over here.

[exalted512]

I'm "hopefully" not going to be prone to engine noise as my wiring will be done very well and with the harness from the OEM radio sends the signal balanced to the 360. "should" be good. The BlueTooth was an issue but now the new V2 models have fixed said issue. The one I got was a V1 that was refurbished by RF which basically meant they swapped it out for the new V2. I know because there's markings of V2 all over the box and a letter from RF saying they swapped it out. Let's pray it is flawless! :)

Hopefully! My truck started getting engine noise out of the blue a few months after I installed it. Got up one day...went to work...had engine noise. Wonderful feeling, let me tell you. This is with the gains on my amps all the way down...literally...all the way down. I havent had time to mess with it...one more thing to deal with...yay. I'll get it figured out this summer after the wedding. Hopefully I'll have time.


I think mac was running his sr's for a while off xtant mono's.

A friend of mine has the 3sixty.2 and it is amazing. It is definately my next upgade. Only prob is that it costs the equivalent of USD 850 over here.
Man! Thats expensive as hell. $150 more for shipping? Mine was only $175;)
-Cody

[Toxis]

to my knowledge, mac has never ran Xtant monos, let alone xtant amps...

[Toxis]

Forgot to post an "update." I have the comps in and the 4 monos up and running. Just patiently waiting for the drivers to break in so I can do some tuning. They do sound great though and I get almost as much bass out of the two 6.5's as I did with 4 6.5's and an 8" from the OEM premium system. Not quite as much but it's not a lot less either. The mids are very snappy and can really take a beating. I can't wait to hear the midbass when they break in.

When I first got the system installed, I didn't know there was a gain on the input level of the 360 so when I set the gains on the monos, they were pretty high and it was giving me a terrible hiss. I talked to a couple ex-installers I know and they gave me some ideas (ground loop, loose connections, etc) but one guy said there's no way that's the issues. He said check the gains. I told him the amps are at 70-75% which was too high as I could only take the HU to 10 (out of 40 mind you) before it got pretty loud. That's when I read my manual (haha oops) on the 360. Seeing I couldn't get my laptop to connect to the 360 because the dongle I was trying to use was a POS, I didn't get it all set up correctly. I buy a new dongle and it works great. I reload all the programs to give it a fresh start and it says "First, let's set your input gain. Unhook all the RCA outputs." Great. Seeing I'm hiding the processor under my center console up directly under the radio, this meant I had to take the car apart again. Fun at 11:45 at night when i thought all I had to do is spend 15 minutes setting some crossover spots and maybe the time alignment. Anyhow, I slide the console back, get it all set up per their instructions, drop the gains on the monos literally to the bottom and the hiss is gone. Plus, now I can take the radio to max and it's pretty loud... with the gains literally bottomed out! Talk about head room! I will bump the gains some just to make sure I get some more power but I don't see it going above 1/3rd as that would be crazy. Head room for days I tell you! Now I just need to get my sub box mounted and build a small little wedge to "float" my sub amp in the trunk and I'll be done. All wires ran there already, just waiting for the finish. But for now, the comps sound stellar for brand new. I remember my LSi's sounding pretty bad at first but once they cracked open, they were completely different sounding so I'm figuring this will be the same way. They image pretty decent even though I haven't really even tuned the EQ or done anything other than make sure they're not running full range. I have the tweets flushed into the A-pillars instead of the OEM locations in the top corner of the dash just because I didn't want to bounce it off glass. I didn't turn them in because I didn't want them to be any more visible than they already are and it'd take too long to glass in a pair of pods. But with some tuning, I'm pretty confident I'll get them to image nicely. So now I just need some "umph" and I'll be a kid in a candy store. Giddy.

So any tips on tuning? How did you guys go about tweaking your EQ settings?

[cadenceclipse]

tuning? well for starters head room is of course a great thing but couldn't almost any1 just turn down their gains and up their HU? maybe i'm a bit confused on that issue. u say the 360 allowed this?

[Toxis]

Well the 360 has an input level/gain that needs to be adjusted so I needed to set it correctly. Yeah anyone can down their gain and up the radio volume and actually, everyone should do this. Gotta realize, most think of the gain as a volume so they just pump it without knowing what they're doing. As for my situation, I had to make sure the gain on the processor was higher than the amps to get rid of the hiss I started with.

[Toxis]

So after almost another month, I finally got my sub installed and it's running. Actually I'm in the car now just enjoying some music. lol I set it up some but I don't have time tonight to do some REAL tuning. I'll have to get with Mac on this another time. :) I'm just happy to finally fill out the sub frequencies... FINALLY. Sounds great but will only get better when the sub breaks in obviously. So stoked.

[Grimster74]

I wanna see pics!:D

[arun1963]

hi toxis,

what are yr xover points and slopes? Just curious

[Toxis]

Don't quote me but the tweeters are at 4k @12, mids are 3750@12 and 65@24, sub at 55@12 with the subsonic at 20@24. I set them real fast and will get into fine tuning them (eq and crossover) later when I have time and not so busy with home improvements.

[arun1963]

Tks for validating. I'm pretty close with my momo's in active mode.

sub: 50hz @ 30db slope
mid hpf : 63 hz @18db
mid lpf : 4khz @ 12db
tweet hpf: 5khz @ 18db

Only comment: u have a very shallow slope on your sub. Give yr sub a steep slope and let the mid flow into sub territory on a gentler slope......just an idea.

[cadenceclipse]

ur running some mighty steep slopes on mids also there arun, not 2 mention tweets. how do u get 30db?

i thought this was a good spot to post this hope u don't mind Toxis..
question..where do i set my HU volume(8vpreout on HU, 9vinput min. on amp, if that matters)also 75w components and amp, 800wsub and amp(actually 750sub, but for arguments sake..)(if that also even matters)

[Toxis]

the question is where do you set your HU volume?

[cadenceclipse]

c, c!

[Toxis]

wait... huh? What's your volume to go? I usually go to about 85-90% then set the gains there...

[cadenceclipse]

80. just like my last 1 i had for bout 5 yrs. always kept it at 79. tried different settings couple times, maybe many times, but always went back. but of course i always had that question of if it was the right spot, specially since every1 specially installers told me thats too high, mixed with the fact i've been tuning the same amps for 6 yrs now, i've been a bit frustrated since bout '04, and just trying to get all the fine lines,.. down, or something..

[arun1963]

ur running some mighty steep slopes on mids also there arun, not 2 mention tweets. how do u get 30db?


It is an active network (tks to dan), with everything controlled from the hu. Everything bp at the amp. Except the sub amp, which has a built in default of 12db on LP. So I set the lp dial on min at the amp and 50hz @ 30db from the hu. The hu gives slopes upto 36 for subs and 24 for everything else.

Most passive xover's while splitting the signal, give a steeper slope to the tweet and a shallower one for the mid. This, with the xover points being in the 2.5-3.5khz range. I'm talking about most comps in the $2-400 range. A decent mid, in this price range, would play well at silghtly above this range, but you dont want a the avg tweet playing much below this range.

Some of the high end comp's come with xovers where you can adjust these slopes. You get 6-8 diff settings based on three diff principles, lower for mid higher for tweet, same for both and lower for tweet and higher for mid. As you xover higher, you would move towards the last.

I think the momo tweets are best above 4kz but the mids start losing it around that point. So I should set the mid at 3.15khz and the tweets at about 4khz with a sharper slope for the tweet and a lower one for the mid, but I lose the "airyness" that I get with the tweet at 5. But, it costs me a bit at the mid. I guess I am trying to play the momo's just beyond what they are capable of. Which is partly the reason I'm auditioning for the upgrade. With better drivers and your sr's are much much better than the momo's, You can xover higher on shallower slopes and retain coherence.

[arun1963]

wait... huh? What's your volume to go? I usually go to about 85-90% then set the gains there...

This is another grey area along with the xover and slopes. A very wise friend told me the following:

1. The objective of sq is to run the signal from hu to speakers with min added distortion.
2. The signal strength of a good hu's cd read point is 3volts +.
3. The job of a good amp is to increse the amplitude of the signal without touching the volts.
4. If your signal is at 5v but you set your amp at 6v, your amp will have to amplify the volts of your signal as well as the amplitude of each frequency. That will add to audible distortion.
5. All man made devices are best at a certain % of rated performance. 80/20 is a good rule.
6. Hence for best results, set your gains 20% lower than your hu signal volts and set the vol from hu at 80% of max. This would work for the sensitive ears who tune the other way 80% vol and then 20% below distortion level. ;)

All this worked great in passive mode. But in active mode with much higher xover point, I find that to get really loud (and clear with best stage) I have to drive the hu vol close to 60 out of 63. So I am confused. The gains on the amp are at about 4.5 volts for a 5v signal from the hu.

Can we pls have some inputs from the "guru's" here on this issue?

[cadenceclipse]

arun
1. "everything bp at amp" u mean bypassed or bandpass?

2. i like your last post, intristing....so, first, like i told u b4, higher the volts on amp=lower gain setting. my min. gain setting on amp is 9v. max is like .2v(point 2). "gain lower than HU signal" sounds like where my best results have always been--with gain at basically 9v(allll the way down) and HU with 8v output..

[arun1963]

bp in this case = by passed. I find it easier to have all the controls at one place i.e. the hu.

Maybe I should qualify on the volume, gain bit. My current gain setting is abt 4.5v on the amp, hu signal is 5v. The volume goes to a max of 63. Some cd's that are recorded well or maybe just recorded at lower levels give max impact at around 54. Beyond 57 or so, you start to hear distortion creep in. With other cd's the high 40's to 50 is the limit.

I think, this tells me that I should turn my gains down a bit. Just a major PITA getting to the setting, the way its mounted.

[arun1963]

with gain at basically 9v(allll the way down)

Are you basing min and max on 7 0'clock = min and 5 o'clock = max? If so some amp brands eg jbl and maybe cadence have the gain setting the other way. Where 7 o'clock = max = 9v and 5 o'clock = min = 0.2v. Check your amp to see if this is the case.

For a 8v signal from your hu and if 7 o'clock is indeed 9v on your amp, try setting the gain at about 9 o'clock. This would give about 7v.

[cadenceclipse]

sheesh your still misunderstanding. 4get about the clock. 9v IS min and 0.2v IS max. on ALL amps(not that i've seen more than 6 amp brands out of 1000 and maybe 20 diff amps in my lifetime). i'm guessing thats just the way it is. (and it IS 7 min, 5max) just like all others, again i hypothetically assume. your confusion is thinking 9v means more or louder than 8v, or 0.8v)
so, 7v would be 20% more, not less, power. 4.5v is more gain than 5v. if your hypotheis(or budy) is right which i'm still not doubting, try 5.5!