Tuning the new stereo system
 

Finally got the stereo tuned to what sounds really good to me. Thought it might be cool to compare notes with others on what sounds good to them and how they have tuned their systems. For reference: Have got the Pioneer AVIC 8000, stock bose system, Alpine MRV-M500 amp and the Bazooka 10" dual voice coil sub.

For the record, just hearing the stock system with the new head unit was surprising to me - how much it improved it! It was a little bit of a struggle to get the bass notes to sound about equal, although I prefer the lowest bass notes in the music to be slightly louder. :D The mid bass was super loud at first - before really getting into fine tuning things. The resonant frequency of the Z car must lend to boosting mid bass, lol. The Bose sub is fairly mid bassy, too, but can be tuned to be pretty sweet with the HU. The following really got it right where I liked it. It has surpassed my expectations from the standpoint that every song owned sounds equally awesome!!

On the HU: I've got the front speaker High Pass Filter set to 63HZ, the rear speaker HPF set to 100HZ and the sub Low Pass Filter set to 50HZ. Balance and fade are at zero. The speaker level for front and sub are set to 0, while the rear speakers are set to +5. The 12 band EQ has the middle range of frequencies right around 0, while the higher four or five frequency bands step ladder up to the highest freq (12Khz) in increments of one step up each. The 50 hz setting is 2/3rds of the way up and 80hz and 125hz are just below zero.

On the amp: Gain is 3/4 of the way up. My remote gain is about 1/4 of the way turned up. The LPF on the amp is just below 60HZ (redundant to HU setting). The bass boost is half way up.

AAAAAAnd done. Absolutely love the way this car sounds now!!!

I don't remember what my HPF is set at. I believe it's at 150. Used test tones to set everything completely flat then played with gain settings at 3/4 volume until I heard distortion then backed off a bit. I'm happy with the outcome. I can hear every bit of a song

Looks like a nice setup you've got....that 12 must thump!

mirrors vibrate if I turn it all the way up

Question for you: When you roll your windows down (or even crack them about an inch or so), does your bass get even louder and hit even lower? It is quite significant in my car. Thinking it must be an acoustical characteristic of the Z.

Not Z-specific. With the windows up, you have a small, closed box for a listening area and there is damping going on. With the windows down, the box becomes more or less infinite and the drivers don't have to work as hard.

What he said......

^yup pretty much. with the windows up, your entire car cabin basically becomes an acoustic suspension sub box only able to push or pull the air inside the car. with the windows open, it can push more air thus allowing the subwoofer to move more freely.

Funny how that works. Well, the HU has two custom EQ's you can set. Made one with much lower bass!!!!:D