Figure 13: Sample RTA curve
The Strength of Digital™
4)Although the plethora of controls on your DQS can be intimidating, fear not; they were designed to give enough control to maximize your system’s performance but not enough to get you in trouble. Here is an explanation of the key areas you should focus on:
Sub-bass: 100 Hz and below - A car without bass is like a day without sunshine…unless you live where we do because most of the days in the Pacific Northwest do not have sunshine. Bass is one of the more critical areas and it is also one of the most difficult to properly reproduce. Most people prefer their bass frequencies to be 6 to 9 dB louder than the rest of their system, although there are some crazy folks that prefer their bass substantially louder. The key in this area is to have enough speakers and power to produce the amount of bass you
desire. But don’t use the controls on the DQS to
try and force your speakers to produce sounds they can’t. Too much bass boost creates
a condition called
“speakerus explodus”, which is not pretty to
hear or watch.
Midbass: 100 Hz to 300Hz - The phrase, “too much of a good thing”, can certainly apply to the midbass frequencies. This is the transition area of the audio spectrum that is an octave above your sub-bass frequencies and several octaves below your midrange. Most autosound systems have too much mid-bass due to the fact that speakers mounted in the doors or kick panels cause reso- nances or peaks in the response curve. These peaks in the mid-bass can actually mask or block sounds in the all-important midrange area causing your system to sound dull and lifeless.
Midrange: 300Hz to 3kHz - Musical instru- ments, vocals, mid-range percussion and many things we associate with imaging and staging happen in this area of the bandwidth. For that reason you will want to keep this area as smooth
