# What is mid bass?



## jlee1469 (Dec 4, 2003)

Ok so after having my eD components sit in the garage for a few months, I got off my ass to put em. Was a bitch since if had to make a MDF spacer and it was my first experience with a jig saw. Well anyways i connected everything and I turned on the system without the sub. Well... the highs sounded way nicer that the OEM speakers... however I did not hear much bass. Yes I understand the components weren't designed to play low, deep bass. However, I don't know what "mid bass" sounds like, the kinda bass components are supposed to play. So after spending money on mid level components (eD 6000s) and an amplifer as well (JBL bp180.2), I don't hear much of a different from a friend that has infiniti coaxials running of HU power. Do I need to tune it? Set crossovers from amp or HU or is the passive crossover enough? Thanks for your input.


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## sr20dem0n (Mar 19, 2003)

Deaden your doors and adjust time alignment if you have the ability

Those are pretty low level components, they aren't designed to play the full frequency range. They're meant to be paired with a sub, without one you'll always have a hole, but you can still improve their performance drastically by giving them a proper install.


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## jlee1469 (Dec 4, 2003)

Yea I was considering deadening the doors, but I dont see myself having the car within the next yr (parents said good grades = new car). I do have the time adjustment thingy (Alpine CDA-7995) but have never messed with it. How do I adjust the settings? Should I adjust crossovers on HU or amp or should i keep it full range for the passive crossovers.

I'm still new on audio installs and all. I freaking twisted speaker wire around the tweeter wire and wrapped with electric tape cause I dont have a soldering iron... yah <--- audio noob =(. I also couldn't see how to fit 16ga speaker wire through the rubber boot on the door so right now the wire is sticking out.

Thanks sr20demon good to read up on internet and learn.


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## sr20dem0n (Mar 19, 2003)

Just measure the distance from your head to the left speaker and to the right speaker, then you can use the chart in the headunit's owner's manual to arrive at the proper delays for the L and R channels. As for the filters/crossovers....it's a touchy subject. It depends on what you listen to and at what volume, if you listen to mellow stuff at an average volume then you might not need a highpass for the speakers, but if you listen to rap or music with strong midbass and you like to listen to it loud, then a highpass filter will be vital to the survival of your mids. Basically you just need to listen to your mids very closely, if you hear them distort at all then they're telling you they're moving too far (could be clipping, but you should have enough power available where the speakers will distort before the amp does), and you need to enable the highpass, or if it's already enabled you need to raise the cutoff frequency for it or increase the cutoff slope. Since those mids aren't exactly the cream of the crop, they would probably do much better with a highpass filter than without. The steeper the slope and the higher the cutoff frequency, the happier the mids will be, but the less midbass/subbass you'll get from them. It's a delicate balance, you just have to find the point that works best for you. If it were me, I would start with a 50hz 24dB/oct highpass for the mids, they shouldn't have much output below 50hz anyway (especially in undeadened doors) so it's a win/win situation. If you find they still bottom out or distort at higher volumes or more bass heavy music, then raise the cutoff frequency to 63 or 80hz and see if that helps things.


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## captain_shrapnel (Sep 10, 2004)

jlee1469 said:


> I'm still new on audio installs and all. I freaking twisted speaker wire around the tweeter wire and wrapped with electric tape cause I dont have a soldering iron... yah <--- audio noob =(. I also couldn't see how to fit 16ga speaker wire through the rubber boot on the door so right now the wire is sticking out.


FYI, you can get a cheapo soldering iron for like $3 from parts express, but even at radio shack they should be less than $15. You need to be extremely carefuing about soldering wires to a speaker. The heat generated from a soldering iron can damage a tweeter easily, or even on big subs can pop off a tinsel lead (the wires on the speaker going into the voice coil). It's really a dilemma... solder makes the best connection, but too much heat can break something. On the other hand, using spade connectors or twist and tape makes for an iffy connection, but without danger to the speaker.


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