Hey guys, I installed an aftermarket hu to my evo x and had to use the mito-02 to retrain the factory rf amp and rf subs. My problem is the bass is turned to the max (both blue knob on mito-02 maxed) on the mito-02 and also on the hu but it seems like my sub isn't putting out any bass. The bass seems to be coming from the SPEAKERS. Is this a common issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks guys.

Installed the Pioneer Avic x940BT, Mito-02, Axxess ASWC Steering Control.

 

I think there's some option in one of the sound setup areas where you have to set a threshold for what goes to the sub and what plays through the normal speakers. I think it defaults at 80hz?

I had a x920bt like 5 months ago and I remember having a similar problem.

 

So leave it at default 80hz for the sub setting?!?

Thank you for the reply btw.

 

It's a setting that if I remember right you have to first enable, it doesn't say anything about the sub in the name.

I just looked at the manual and I believe the setting is called High Pass Filter (HPF) that you need to change. It sets the frequency range that's allowed to be played through the FL/FR/RL/RR speakers, if you leave it at default once it's turned on it should cut most of the bass out.

You may also need to mess with the subwoofer frequency but i don't think any of the subwoofer settings actually have any effect due to the RF system and the Metra MITO-02.

 

If you still get no sound from the sub woofer you'll have to check your wiring. I remember that on the harness from the pioneer HU there's a subwoofer lead on the harness with all the RCAs that needs to be hooked up or the HU can't use the subwoofer.

 

Alright, I will check the settings as soon as I get off this 24hr duty! if not, I'll check the connection too. Thank you for your help!

 

Well... Sub coming from the Front Stage can't be a bad thing really and is really desirable

Regarding your comments, for the front speakers one usually uses an HPF, but the intention is to avoid frequencies below that threshold to be played by the speakers in order to "protect" it... Most 6.5'' Midbass/Midrange drivers will have a hard a time playing below 80hz and if forced to do so, will eventually reach their mechanical limits and/or will start distorting... In order to avoid this situation, a filter is used

Now... There is no way the OEM speakers will be performing in a way that they are hiding the subwoofer... There is another problem in that area

First and foremost, the OP needs to make sure that the sub is getting a signal and is actually working (play a song, open the trunk and check if it is actually playing)... In this case, it depends on how the MITO kit is assigning channels and during the installation the channels for the rear speakers could have been applied to the subwoofer and if he is using a HPF in the headunit, he could be cutting the low end that the sub is supposed to play

Finally, if he is using the OEM AMP, if I am not wrong, the RF amp has the crossover built in it, so he shouldn't be using any additional crossovers... The best thing to do for OP would be to turn OFF all crossovers in the aftermarket headunit and carefully increase the output/volume of the system and check for issues

Regards,
SS

 

Correct, OEM am in an 8 channel amp, and each channel has it's own crossover.

The MITO-02 should only have two dials on it, one for gain, and one for subwoofer gain. It's also a huge pile of crap, so, it might be broken. I had one actually burst into flame and melt through itself one time. If you are handy with electricals, I'd recommend bypassing the yellow wire completely, just hard wire each side. The MIT-02 has no need for it, and the current running through it can eventually fry it. Stupid design.

Anways, I bet you have your RCA inputs mixed up. If you are feeling adventurous, pop the harness off the back of the sub enclosure and use a test light to see if it's getting voltage. It should get a small glow from two wires. It's a DVC sub, two 1 ohm voice coils.

 

I am not handy with electricals at all!
which yellow wire?!?

Lol..on another note,

I turned up the POTs knob (2 blue knob) on the mito and it is putting out bass on the SUB now but my Bluetooth volume for phonecalls and the NAVIGATION voice guidance volume are now extremely low! I have no clue what is going on

I'm thinking of replacing the the OEM amp and also the OEM subs....I don't want anything too powerful, any idea which SUB would fit inside the oem box?

 

Tackyevo... Tried to answer your PM, but I guess I wrote too much and didn't let me send it through there, please find my answers to your questions below:

Hi,

No problem... Let me try to explain a little bit more about those topics:

a) Sound: Usually when you are looking for a good sounding system, what you are after is a system that can reproduce what the artist and recording engineer wanted you to listen... Therefore, we look for a system that replicates that as good as possible... One example that I have always used to try to explain when a sound is "good" in lame terms is the following: When you go to a concert, you don't give your back to the band playing, right? You are usually facing at them and the sound comes from "in front of you"... A similar example is when you have a sound system at home, if your intention is to listen too music, you will be "facing your speakers", you won't have them behind you, right?... Same thing applies in the car, the sound should come from the front of the car, rear speakers in good audio systems are only use for what is called "rear fill", with the intention to have those speakers recreate the "space in which the recording was made"... Now, this can be achieved with only speakers in the front... That's why, in my case, I don't use speakers in the back of the car, I only use speakers in the front (my speakers are in the doors and in the kick panel area... some people put their tweeters in the a-pillars or sail panels (the sail panels are the stock location for the RF tweeters of the Evo)... We have the sound coming from the front, now we have to reproduce the left and right notes properly (this is called "The Stage")... Let's use the example of an small jazz group with a bass, a drum and a singer... the bass is on the right, the singer in the center and the drummer on the left, a good system will reproduce this and locate them properly in the stage... Now, we are talking about left, center and right, but where is the center? We consider the center of the stage to be located below the rear view mirror or the center of the dash... when that center is properly set and not "wandering" on the stage, we say that you have a good "image"... Finally (and this is mostly applicable to car audio, due to the location of the speakers), we consider a good system one that all has appropriate "Height"... The height of the stage should be around "Eye Level"... You have probably noticed that most cars have the tweeters in the A-Pillars or Sail Panels and the reason why is to help with the height of the system

b) Bass: Most people is used to hear their subwoofers "coming from the back", this is due to a couple of a issues that I will try to explain and it isn't desirable... Low Bass (notes coming from 0hz to 80hz are "omnidirectional", what that means is that our ears can't locate or find the source of those notes... That's why subwoofers can be placed in the trunk of the car and still have "up-front" bass... How do we achieve that? By blending our subwoofer with our front speakers (our midbass or midrange speakers)... When the sub over powers the front speakers and/or when you have rattles or something else that can help you pinpoint the location of the sub is when you hear it coming from the back of the car... How do we blend it? Well, usually you work with the crossover points, the phase of the speakers and matching the output level of your subwoofer to your front speakers

c) Crossovers: In order to explain crossovers, we first need to understand how the speakers reproduce music... The speakers will reproduce "Frequencies", for example 80hz, 160hz or 1,020hz, 16,000hz, etc, etc,... each frequency has a sound attached to it... the higher the frequency, the higher the pitch of it and of course, the lower the frequency, the lower the pitch... imagine a Piano, on the left of the piano you have the lower keys (lower notes) and the more you go to the right, you will have the higher keys... Humans can hear notes from 20hz to 20,000hz... But is very hard for one speaker to reproduce all of this frequencies (there are full range speakers, but that's probably another topic), generally speaking the larger the speaker the more it can play lower notes and can't play higher notes, the smaller the speaker, it can play the higher notes easier than the lower ones

That's why most systems are 3-ways or 4-ways... a 3-way system is composed of a subwoofer, a midrange and a tweeter... a 4-way system is composed of a subwoofer, a midbass, a midrange and a tweeter... We will talk about 3-ways, because that's what you have

Remember that I told you that one speaker can't play all frequencies? (At least not do it properly)... So, in a 3-way system we will have the subwoofer playing from 20hz to 80hz, your midrange speakers will play from 80hz to 4,500hz and your tweeters will play from 4,500hz to 20,000hz (the values of 80hz and 4,500hz are just generic values, different speakers can play lower or higher and in what is called "active systems" (I will explain later) you can change those values to match the speakers... The other reason why we use crossovers is too protect our speakers... for example, a Tweeter CAN'T play very low frequencies, if it does it will get damaged

Anyway, so now we know why we have different speakers and those speakers will play different frequencies (just a comment... have you realized now that a subwoofer plays a very small fraction of the whole audible spectrum of music? only 60hz of the 20,000hz we can hear!!!... And people sometimes put a lot of effort and money only in that part of their system, crazy right?)

So, why do we need crossovers? The crossovers are the ones that tell the speakers which frequencies they have to play using filters, there are two types of filters... LPF (Low Pass Filters), which will only allow frequencies below that point... For example, if I use and LPF of 100hz on a subwoofer, the subwoofer will only play the frequencies below that point, in this case from 0hz to 100hz... The other type is HPF (High Pass Filters), which allow only the frequencies above that point, for example if I use an HPF of 6,000hz on a tweeter, the tweeter will only play from 6,000hz to 20,000hz... sometimes we use both filters, for example in your midrange you have to use a high pass filter (HPF) of 80hz and a low pass filter (LPF) of 6,000hz... that means that the midrange will play from 80hz to 6,000hz (to simplify the conversation, we are assuming that the speakers don't play anything above (LPF) or below (HPF) the crossover points, they actually do and how much they play below this points is determined by the "slope" of the filter, but we won't get there today)

Hopefully that explains what a crossover is... In audio we usually use 2 types of crossovers, passive crossovers and active crossovers

- Passive Crossovers: The passive crossovers are a series of resistors and capacitors that determine the value of the filters, this can't be change and are the most commonly use when you by a set of components... have you noticed that when you buy new speakers that have the midrange and tweeter separated, they come with a little box? That box is the crossover and inside you find the electrical components that determine the frequencies each speaker will work with

- Active Crossovers: The active crossovers are usually digital processors that allows you to pick and choose which frequency you want a speaker to play... In this case, we are not using a passive crossover and we are using a device (could be a head unit, processor, etc) to determine those frequencies ourselves... An active system is more flexible, but is also way harder to tune and equalize properly

We should only use one crossover (either passive or active), since their effects will compound and you could end up with cancellations and other issues... in your case, the RF amplifier has built-in crossovers (passive crossovers)... if you also pick a crossover point in the headunit (your aftermarket stereo) you will end with issues... since you can't disable the crossovers from the amplifier, just disable the crossover in your headunit (you should be able to turn them off)

Now that we understand those things... what do I think is happening in your car?... Well, I believe that when you installed the MITO, instead of sending the signal of the subwoofer channel of the amplifier to the subwoofer, you are sending the signal of the rear speakers to it... The stock amplifiers has built in passive crossovers... and it uses an HPF for the rear speakers (to avoid damaging the midrange speakers in the back)... This HPF is commonly 80hz... so, the amplifier is telling the sub to play from 80hz and above, this is why you don't hear the lower frequencies that you were expecting

My recommendation is to either double check your wiring or take the bullet and go to an installer for them to check the connections, sometimes it's the wisest thing to do... Hope this information helps!

Regards,
SS