Jumpstart your In Car Entertainment Knowledge!

I want all of us to be knowledgable and eventually "gurus" of car audio, where other enthusiasts come to us for needed advice, tuning and sharing know-hows. We will aim not only to be ENTHUSIASTS but MASTERS as well. This thread will be dedicated to Car Audio information. Let's invest SOME OF OUR PRECIOUS TIME to read, understand and apply these valuable information. Here's something for a start:

Get to know your frequencies and which affect what. This is very basic and A MUST for car (or even home) audio enthusiast.

I shall work through the frequencies rather than the instruments, as this will allow us to see where there are complimentary frequencies (different instruments produce the same sound).

50hz (usually sub bass)
this freq is where all the boom is, if you want more boom on foot drums and bass guitar, boost, to reduce, cut.

100hz( usually mid bass)
this is the hard bass sound, it gives drums that solid feel, boosting here will harden the drums/bass guitar, as well as adding warmth to guitars. A cut will reduce boom on guitar and add clarity.

200hz (either midbass/mid)
Boost to add warmth to vocals and guitar, reduce to clean up vocals

400hz (usually mid / large Horn)
Boost to bass in general, reduce to decrease cardboard sound low drums.

800hz(usually mid/horns)
Boost to add clarity and Punch to bass, this is the one that digs you in the ribs , cut to reduce tinnyness to guitars

1.5khz (mid/tweet/horns)
Boost to add clarity to bass guitar, reduce to impreve dullness of guitar

3khz (mid/tweet/horns)
Boost to increase pluck on bass guitar, attack on guitar and high drums, increases clarity of vocals.
Cut to reduce breathy sound on vocals.

5khz(mid/tweet/horns)
boost for vocal presence, low drum attack, piano attack, and guitars, reduce to distance background.

7khz(usually tweet/horn)
boost, more attack on low drums, percussion and bring life to dull vocals, also sharpen elctric guitar
Cut to reduce siblance

10khz (tweet/horn)
increase to brighten vocals/guitar and piano
cut to reduce siblance

15khz (tweet/horn)
increase to brighten vocals/guitar and piano highs


Right, looking down this list we can see that if we want a good solid bass line ( add @100hz), that's not boomy (cut @ 50hz), with good punch (add @ 800hz), with good attack ( boost at 5-7khz), most of the action is in the midbass and midrange area, with only boominess being in the sub area.

Understanding these frequencies also allows for fine tuning things like stage height (more attack of drums gives perception of a higher stage), and adding depth, ( make background sounds more distant)

This is not really even an introduction apparantly, and I thought I was doing well when I understood this lot, but there's more, so much more.....

Here's some of the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS in Car Audio. Very helpful if absorbed.

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/car-audio/part1/

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/car-audio/part2/

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/car-audio/part3/

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/car-audio/part4/

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/car-audio/part5/

agree..knowing this things are different from applying them, another thing from having the equipments to tune them and having the ears for it, and another thing from following your inclination or taste of music (were most tunning will depend to get a "fix" of your system). from the type of music you listen to you would more or less have an idea of what kind of tunning you need. we say need because if we aim to go for an SQ kind of tunning most listeners of house and R n B may find the the current tunning as lacking of bass or boom. SQ set-ups are ment to cut frequencies and use frequencies and therefore speakers only work when needed (a good example is your subwoofer) in which preferably your subs work on a frequency you have made a "cut" of...
also it is doesn't follow that if we use a certain brand it follows that we're already in an SQ, SPL or SQL type of set-up. It is in the tunning or how we tune are systems that say what kind of set-up we have. True it helps to pick brands that are noted for their performance or known to be used in a kind of set-up but if tunned differently we still wouldn't be in a category (SQ, SPL)as we suppose to claim just because were using a certain brand. i've seen alot of full-lined and good/expensive set-up brands of cars go against more cheaper brands or cars using assorted brands but they lost to the latter. (however this statement may also be bent as technologies have also granted todays users programmable settings were we can set back to the tunning we need and back to the everyday kind of tunning we listen to). So know what music you listen to or know what kind of tunning you want to narrow down on it and concentrate on achieving that.
also don't hesitate to ask for help and advice (as i believe part of the essence of having this club and site is). so post away..happy tunning! =)