Okay, so you’re installing a double din car stereo and want to get the best sound from your system. Where do we start? Well, let’s start at the beginning before we even turn it on.
We’ll look at this as it relates to a fairly basic set-up with a basic head unit, 2 channel amp with passive crossovers for the speakers and single channel low freq. subwoofer.
First, make sure the connections are properly made as per the factory manual says. Then before turning on, we’ll adjust the initial crossover settings.
To get a abse to work from, set any switches or jumper settings for the passive crossovers to the neutral position (check the manul for how to do this if you’re not sure).
For the amplifiers, set the bass contouring and equilization controls to a neutral position. Also adjust the gain control to the lowest position.
With a base system the crossover settings that we look at are between the subwoofer and midrange frequencies. The location of the active crossover may be located in the head unit or alternatively be part of the input stage of the amps. Since systems vary so much it is difficult to say where exactly they are on your unit, however once found, try setting the lowpass and highpass crossovers for the subwoofer and mid range amp respectively at between 70 and 90 Hz.
Set both the low and high pass slopes to the same setting if possible (not all units will allow this), preferably 12 or 24 dB per octave.
This is the starting point, next time we’ll look at gain structure and work from there.