SR 6500 Active Setup Questions

[mustang2244]

Hello,

I'm new and was looking to find anyone with first hand experience setting up the SR 6500 component set active with the MS-8 processor.*

My car is a 2009 Honda Fit Sport. Completely sound isolated/treated with CLD Tiles, CCF, & MLV. Roof, Floor, All doors, rear truck areas / Pannels. I made custom brackets out of MDF for the SR's and everything looks stock. I hid the passive crossovers (before I went active) from sight. And I've chosen the Infinity perfect 12.1 for a SQ sub. I made a one cubic foot sealed box for that and it sits behind the smaller fold down seat in the trunk cargo area.

I have been messing around with running the polks active. I am running a JL 600/4 150RMS To the mids and 300RMS to the Sub. And channels one and two of the MS8 i have powering the tweets separately.

Right now I have them crossed at 3800hz 24db / 88hz 24db slope. I brought the levels up considerably on the mids to match the tweets which in the Fit, are mounted high in the A pillar relatively (not completely but close to it) off axis in the stock locations.

This brings me to my questions. Im not likening the sound after sweeps. Or much at all for that matter and I have heard comments about needing to wire these differently (out of phase) off axis so I thought I would ask if anyone has suggestions. I figured the MS8 would fix my issue but this may not be the case. Right now the tweeters give me a headache at moderate to high volumes. It was much worse when I ran them passive through the XOvers. The MS-8 seems to work properly as I tested it on my other system.

Also side question after hearing much talk of the good sound from 3 way systems and clarity in off axis situations I was wondering if anyone knew of a good mid driver and passive mid Xover that might integrate into the system. I would likely mount the Mid on axis higher in the door than the 6inch driver. I don't want to add another speaker however untill I can get the two that are in the doors figured out. :op

Thank you very very much in advance. I'd like to start enjoying these speakers.*

I also own KEF 3005's, Infintiy Beta, and Focal K2p's in my other car as reference. And I have listened for many hours to the Polk RTI speakers which prompted my choice of these SR's for my little Honda*

[pentoncm]

(1) You shouldn't have to wire the tweeters out of phase. This is because the MS-8 automatically time aligns the drivers. Reversing phase is what you do when you mount tweeters far from the woofer but don't have TA.

(2) I'm not surprised the sound is suboptimal. It is auto-tune. Often times you are better just tuning manually.

(3) Since the tweeters are hurting your ears, I suspect problems with the auto-eq function. I suspect that the eq is giving you an overly bright sound. I have some suggestions to fix this.

I would go to your manual EQ on the MS-8 and cut the 3.15, 4, and 5kHz bands by 3 to 6db each. Try cutting 6.3, 8, and 10kHz, by 1-3db. Next play around with cutting 12.5kHz to 20kHz - this will make the sound less airy.

Let me know if this helps. I have not played around with the MS-8 but I've read a lot about it and I've tuned my car extensively with my Bit Ten.

[mustang2244]

Thank you for the quick detailed response.*

I'll start to play again with cutting the highs like you suggested after work today. I just found that when I did use the manual EQ before and cut the highs i lost alot of the live sound / life in the tracks. I'm using the Focal #8 CD to tune. Its an EMI records cd. I'll see what can be done. Thanks for your knowledge. How do you like the bit 10?