I just recently installed 2 alpine amps and needed help setting up both, the MRP-M850 (Mono) and MRP-F450 (4-channel)

The following items needed adjusting on the Mono MRP-M850..

1. Gain -- at half it reads NOM and if you move it slightly up it reads .5v and can go as high as what would seem to be 1.5 and as low as -1.5.

2. Bass EQ -- As low as 0db and high as 12db. Right now it's around 8db

3. LP Filter -- It's at roughly 80hz.

Are these good settings? The sub just doesn't sound as loud as I thought it would be.

I have a Diamond Audio D6 (rated @ 600 watts rms @ 2ohms)

Should the sub be broken in?

 

Sub 'break-ins' are really a bunch of ****. Once they are played for the first time, they pretty much are broken in.

Really, setting your bass boost on the amp that high is not recommended.

The LP filter should be at about 80hz so your good there.

If you feel like your sub isn't as loud as you thought it would be, just mess around with your settings. I would do more of the tweaks on your head unit than on the amp for bass settings.

It's kind of hard to help you without being there and tuning it for you, but hopefully I can help.

 

tunit,

Thanks!

I really don't think my deck has any real adjustments. It's the Alpine CDA-9883

Another thing to note is that it takes a much higher number on the volume for the system to get loud. Before 10-13 was loud now it's around 17-20.

I know the amp is good, as is the sub, and the install was damn near flawless.

Also, we wired the subs like so...it's a dual 4ohm, so we wired down to 2ohm load, we wired both positives together and both negatives together, then from one of the pos leads on the woofer and one of the negative leads on the woofer we connected it to the terminal. that should be a 2ohm load right? This is what I referred to...

 

Should be.

The way I always tune systems that I hook up for people is this:

1. Turn all of the gains on the amp down.
2. Make sure nothing on your head unit is turned on (bass boosters, etc) or up (bass setting, treble, etc).
3. Turn your volume up on the head unit to your 'normal listening volume' (make sure theres no distortion, don't turn it up anywhere past 2/3's the max vol)
4. Play a song that has a variety of different bass levels etc. and adjust the settings on your head unit to a place where the speakers themselves sound good.
5. Then adjust the settings on the amp for your sub.

If it's still not loud enough, or giving you the SQ you wanted, you may just need to get something else

 

Does this apply to the 4channel and mono or just the mono amp?

 

on the contrary, your deck has quite a few adjustments. IF i were you, you could have purchased cda-9884 for the same price. even Alpine-USA has them at the same retail cost so your dealer should have them at that same price too. my dealer does here...anyways, it has a better d/a converter. its 24bit versus a 1 bit. anyways...as for the adjustments...

Sound Tuning

* • Crossover: Off/80Hz, 120Hz, 160Hz (12dB/oct)
* • Treble Level Control Range: +/-14dB at 10kHz
* • Treble Center Frequency: 10k/12.5k/15k/17.5kHz (Selectable)
* • Bass Level Control Range: +/-14dB at 100Hz
* • Bass Band Width Adjustment (Q): 4 choices (1 =wide, 4 =narrow)
* • Bass Center Frequency: 60/80/100/200Hz (Selectable)
* • Subwoofer Level Adjustment: -15dB to 0dB (1dB steps)


check your bass and crossover frequencies. they may conflict with the amps settings. IF you have a setting on the amp AND the deck, you may be cutting your Db by -3 Db. that is like cutting your power by half.

check your BASS center freq's as this may be part of the reason why you may not hear your music until later.

you also didnt specify if it was ALL your music or just the sub. if the sub isnt loud, it will take a few minutes to "break in" per se. i disagree with the other poster that says that it is a bunch of ****. it takes a few minutes of being driven hard for the spider to loosen up a bit. a seasoned sub will be louder than a fresh sub of the same value manufacturer.

check the sub itself with a OHM meter to verify the OHM load. double check, i had a customer with a similar problem with sub output, and when i took the sub back to the bench to test, low and behold, he wired it for 8ohms....instead of 2ohms. he was only getting 100w to his sub from a 300w mono amp.

good luck

 

Well I bought my CDA-9883 like 4-5 months ago, the 9884 wasn't out then, so that really wasn't an option. I could have sworn I bought it thinking it had 4volt pre outs but it actually only has 2 volt pre-outs.

Could you possibly explain what each sound tuning variable means? I mean what does higher or lower in each variable lead to so that I can adjust accordingly you know? I was initially using the factory SSL amp so it's possible that the settings at the amp are conflicting at the deck.

I'll try and get a OHM Meter to it in the next day or so. The image on the far right of this image is what I've done to wire it down to 2ohm. Does the ohm meter have to be at the sub or can it be at the speaker wire terminals at the amp?

Thanks for all the help!

 

I just went and played with the deck, couldn't wait till the morning

It only has 3 settings...

Bass -- + 7 and selectable frequency from 60 - 120 hz

Treble -- + 7 and selectable frequency from 10.0 - 17.5

and HPF -- Off/80/120/160

I've set:

Bass -- +7 @ 60hz
Treble -- +7 @ 12.5hz
HPF -- 120hz

My sub amp has it's crossover at 80hz, does this conflict with my bass setting? The system sounds a lot better and gets louder at a lower volume number as well.

My rap music definitely has better low's then my alternative/pop music. This is probably normal at the frequency I'm playing at I assume.

 

Badhabit has some great info as well. He may know more than me, who knows?

As far as the break in goes, thats been a debate that has always been argued, but after all this time regardless it shouldn't be an issue.

Your settings are going to vary as far as the type of music you listen to because of the different frequencies.

Why don't you just take it to a local audio shop? Ask them if they could tweak your settings on the deck and amp for you. I don't know about where you live, but there are plenty around here and they are great guys that do it for free.

 

It is supposed to be quiter until higher on the volume scale if your HU and gains are set correctly. Follow this for starters. . .
Do it for both amplifiers (I usually do one at a time with the other amp disconnected to start off), following the above procedure for your high amp. I set the gain up till the music is a little bit louder than I would ever want to listen to it. Then do it for your sub amp until the bass is as loud as you'd ever want it. Hook them both up and play around with your settings and salt to taste. Once you get the hang of it, it is really easy.

 

Fair enough, i'll just sit down and play with it. I wonder though, does the fact that my deck only has 2v pre-outs causing my problems?

 

No, 2v preamp volts is fine.

 

FIRST, reduce your bass and treble settings to zero. THEN cut your HPF to 80hz. depending on what amp you have, set the crossover for the sub to OFF. you can use the crossover in the deck set to 80hz. this will activate the sub control from the deck.

IF you rrrreeeaally want to get technical, there is a formula to figure out the EXACT output of the sub amp AND the other amp. there is a target voltage output that you can achieve to obtain every single watt from the amp.

can you tell ive done some serious competition before?? i even had an amp built for me and my name is the serial number...


okay, enough braggin rights, back to your issue. okay, your deck will put out say 2v at your max volume +/- a couple of numbers. here is where it starts to get technical...you need to find out what the max output is of the amp. okay, now get your self a test track of say 50hz or a sinewave generator. disconnect ALL speakers from your amps. the testing can be done two ways. as mentioned above, use a 50 hz track OR the sinewave generator. the 50hz track will be played AT MAX volume from your deck(you will have to take it down a couple of notches though. IE-if your max volume is say 50, then just take it to 47 for a buffer zone.) okay, hit play and let her play, preferably on repeat.

you can check out the way to tune your system here:

http://www.subwoofertools.com/forum/setgain.asp

(you will need a couple of tools, not much, and some simple testing.)

follow this step by step and you will get the MAXIMUM from your amp.


i will agree with you about the great debate on the subs or any speaker for that matter. the speakers, regardless of brand and/or size, should be played for awhile before really "tuning" them.

correct about the settings. music will vary quite a bit actually. check out this fact...

Michael Jackson is known for how well his music sounds, correct?? okay, get this, he is signed with Sony, correct?? did you know that he has very little Sony studio products he records on?? he records with a company called Hafler. he swears by this company for his recordings in his studio. Hafler used to be a division of Rockford Fosgate. Jim Fosgate was one of the designers of the amps of the company for home audio and studio. Rockford Corporation designed car audio amps. whalla, Rockford Fosgate is born...anyways, a neat little tid bit of trivia....okay, back again for your problem.

tuning your system with his music will help reproduce everything possible from your systems abilities. IF you were to take ANY original track(meaning the original disc and NOT an MP3 or burned disc) and put it in a RTA (real time analyzer) or a spectrum analyzer you will find that all the music is a flat response across the whole 31bands of spectrum. meaning that NOTHING is overpowering any other frequency. check it out sometime. its a trip...

so i hope this small lesson helped in your journeys to enjoy good sound....

 

This is another good link for setting up gains. It's a bit more educational if you want to learn more about the whole process...(It show the "Mysterious" and "technical" formula ;-))
What are gains and how to set them


By the way, I think all you audio pros forgot to ask one basic question...

can you describe the enclosure you have it in? (Type, volume, ports [if any]), etc etc...

 

I would just like to say to Tunit and BadHabit, this is some awesome info. The sheer amount of info and knowledge is incredible. Soon I'll be purchasing car audio gear for my Evo within the next couple months and this thread has been extremely helpful. Keep it up guys!