I have an Alpine 9833 that I am trying to set up. The configurations that are giving me the most trouble are the crossover speaker setup. I have two Alpine 6x9 and the factory 4x6 installed now. It is a 92 Z28.

First, Rather than trying to explain what I am trying to do can anyone direct me to a site that explains this unit or gives some good details in what they are trying to say. If you go to alpine1.com and find the 9833 manual, the pages I am having trouble with pages 15 and 16 dealing with the equalizer and crossover settings.

Second, reading info about amps and subs I have found a statement about choosing a sub based on its dB rating more than the RMS. With this in mind I went to an store and found a Bazooka TVB141 (baffled enclosure also) which had a 104 dB and 200 RMS while the others were 80-90dB at much higher RMS outputs. It seems that this sub also sounded better compared with Alpine, Autobahn, MTX, Infinity, or other 10, 12 or 15 with or without enclosures.

Can someone give me any reasons that this criteria for choosing this sub is flawed or incorrect?

Thanks

Jimbo

 

A dB rating on a sub is it's efficiency. This means how loud the sub can get at a certain wattage. The more efficient the sub is, the higher the dB will be, and consequently the lower the wattage it will take to get that loud.

The bazooka enclosure's dB rating is on the entire enclosure, not the woofer itself. I'd rather get a seperate amp/woofer setup based on my personal tastes. If the woofer sounds good to you and you're not looking to break any records, then by all means get it.

As for the crossovers.. what do you want them to do?

 

I am trying to maximize the speakers with the Alpine unit. From what I can tell the two speakers I am using, the 136A and the 694A can be set up with the crossover selection to filter certain frequencies for better sound seperation.

I am unclear as to what Alpine means by their descriptions and the readings on the player. What does the octave selection do and how do I set it up????

JIm

 

The octave steps are how good the frequencies outside the range selected are cut out. A lower dB rating means the frequencies outside the crossover range drop off and are more audible. A higher dB rating means they are cut off more quickly. This gives a smooth transition to blend the frequencies, so your music doesn't sound like crap.

If you have just regular speakers, the crossover isn't going to do you much good. If you want, you can cut the low end out so your speakers don't try and reproduce low bass and distort.

The crossover really comes into play when you use the pre-outs and have a seperate amp for midrange and subs. You can cut out all the high frequencies to your subs and the lower frequencies to your mids so they only reproduce what they can.

is that what you were after? i may not be understanding you fully?

 

What about amps? Mono, 2-channel, 4-channel or what? I want to be able to seperate and filter the frequencies between the 4 speakers and the sub. I am looking at the Bazooke TVB-141 because it has a 104 dB and 200 rms. Compared to other sub combinations it seemed to have a better sound quality given the same amp.

Any recommendations???

I forgot, I don't want to blast everyone else out of the water, just have killer sound for the metal music I listen to.

Jim

 

Well, if you're looking to power all your speakers and a sub, you'll need two amps unless you get a 5-channel amp. I recommend a 4 channel amp for your midrange speakers and a mono amp for your sub.

That way, you can hook up the pre-outs and have the crossovers do what they were meant to do. The crossovers shouldn't work with just speaker level outputs.

You don't NEED a seperate amplifier for your midrange, but they do sound better that way. My suggestion would be to just try adding the sub and see how it sounds. If your bass is obviously overpowering your mids and it's not to yoru liking, adding an amp will help things out.