Dream

I was thinking about getting one of these. Does anyone have an opinion about them? Are they worth getting, or is there something better out there? Coming from an Alpine 9835 with a 5-band parametric EQ, I was most impressed with the number of bands available and the level of customization you can do with it. I also liked the PDA interface, as I don't want the EQ being visible or taking up a lot of space in my car.

bjr

Not so sure you would want one of these with an aftermarket head. The whole point of it is to fix the unwanted EQ tricks they put in a factory headunit to make the factory junk sound flat so you can start over. You've already got an aftermarket unit so the response is already just fine. If you want to EQ your car to make it sound perfect I would take part of the money you would dump on the 360 and spend it on a quality 31 band EQ.

Dream

That's part of what I was wondering about. Is the 3Sixty.2 a quality EQ? Note that I'm looking at the .2, not the .1. The .1 has some EQ stuff, but it looks like it's geared mostly for people with stock decks who want flat sound with a bit of EQ. From what I saw of the .2 at a local shop, it looked like it was geared more for people who want a lot of control over their sound. It had more bands, ability to adjust curves for each speaker, crossover functionality, etc.

TTRANK

iTrader: (25)

I was a car audio installer for a few years and was sponsored by JL, Alpine, PPI and Fosgate and different times. In my opinion if you have a non-competition system you have no need for something like this. You will spend more time tuning it for certain kinds of music than you will enjoying it. It is complete overkill. Spend your $$ on something else. Just my $0.02...

RevLimitZ

+1 from another ex-car stereo/electonics installer. It's overkill unless you're goin competition and even then, there are much better EQ's out there.

bjr

I didn't realize there was a .1 and a .2. I know nothing about it then other than I thought the .1 sounded overpriced. I'm assuming the .2 would cost more? Also, when I read the article on it I was thinking that it was great if you wanted to get the sound flat but with the .1 what do you do when you want to then EQ the car beyond the settings that the 360 automatically makes? Add another EQ?!
Hope you find the other advice here useful for your decision. I think you would be better off with a quality regular EQ as well with an aftermarket HU. Good luck.

TeesZ

Define "Quality 31-band EQ" please. The 3Sixty.2 has 153 bands of EQ in all. Each channel can be configured completly differently.

TeesZ

3Sixty will automatically undo the factory EQ (in our cars that is something that NEEDS to be done). After that, with a .1 you have access to control 15 wide-Q filters to tune the system, for most people this is more than enough EQ. It also includes an AUX input for iPod, Sat, etc. On the .2 you have access to all 153 bands of EQ. It also has Xovers, delay and a 31-band EQ for the aux input...you can tune your iPod!

Both units have balanced input circuitry to convert your high level to line level as well as a line driver which can deliver as much as 7 volts to your aftermarket amps.

3Sixty was designed to give you a quality EQ while keeping your factory radio. It's not exactly a drop-in replacement to swap out your radio. Those dash kits never look right.

Dream

All I was really wondering was whether the 3Sixty.2 EQ is worthy or not. I'd be using it primarily for that purpose, as I have a full aftermarket system without a separate EQ. Of the people who responded, does anyone have first-hand experience with this unit and the EQ functionality? What makes one EQ better than another?

TeesZ

Well, I may be a little biased...I'm the design engineer for 3Sixty. Just here to defend our product. I have more expecrience with 3Sixty than anyone and have talked with many dealers and installers who've had years of experience with EQ's that just love the functionality and ease-of-use that 3Sixty offers.

Dream

OK, as the design engineer for the 3Sixty, what exactly makes its EQ and crossover functionality better than the other EQs available, aside from the ability to adjust each channel individually?

16psibrick

iTrader: (10)

i concur, if you are going with an aftermarket headunit, no need for this at all...

i too believe that all you need to get the most of your system, be it competition or not, is a good 31 band eq and if you have a lower voltage output headunit (pioneer nav for example), a line driver.

i have a z1 with an audio control DQT which is a digital 31 band eq and a line driver in one, and i do believe with some tuning, i will be fairly comeptitive in the pro street class in iasca

time alignment and all that fanciness, i never warmed up to, if you are trying to get a center image for hte driver only, and you use stock locations, its helpful, but a good pair of kicks properly installed and tuned gives a good center image and stage in the Z without it, and for both the drier and passenger at the same time...

i guess it all comes back to my idea of simple is better, less is more

b

bjr

I went to their web site and I don't recognize the difference between what I remember on the .1 and what the .2 has to offer. $699 is a lot but you are getting many channels of EQ. Are you even going to utilize the center channel and rear left and right in your system? The separate EQ on the aux. input is a nice feature. Separte for left and right seems to been unnecessary to me but at least you would have it?
The problem I still have with it is that it will automatically "un-EQ" the factory HU. This is DEFINATELY needed but is only the first step because this is at the signal level right?? Are you prepared to buy equipment (RTA) to further tune the reponse IN the car to be flat ( or a little modified from that to your liking) or are you going to tune 31 bands of EQ by ear?!
Also the fact that you have to give up your HU volume **** and mount the 3sixty's volume **** somewhere is just plain awkward.
Same thing for the JL Audio Clean Sweep.

TeesZ

You don't have to use the 3Sixty volume **** (it is programmable to master volume or subwoofer level), in fact in my Z I use it as the sub level control. It is the master volume while in Aux mode (but more often than not, my GF just adjusts the volume via her iPod and she has control of the system from the passenger side).

I mounted mine under the dash, close to where my right knee resides. It's out of the way, but fairly easy to reach. You could also take it apart and use some of those dead panels where options which I don't have are on the left side (next to the traction control button).

While I am an engineer, I am by no means an audio compeitior. I use my ears to tune the system.

TeesZ

The fact that you can adjust it from anywhere within the car, wirelessly (and typically 5-10' outside of the car) is a nice feature which allows you to sit in the sweet spot.

3Sixty allows you to mute each channel individually so when say you want to tune your front right channel (maybe you're troubleshooting a rattle), with a few quick clicks you can mute everything but the FR.

Each channel has its own level control (0~40dB in 1dB steps).
You can save files on your palm/Windows Mobile Device for different scenarios.

If you use the OEM integration feature, it will show you a plot of the response before and afetr for each channel corrected.

The aux input is nice, especially when it includes a 31-band EQ

The Xover is HP/LP/BP from 50Hz to 10kHz in 62 individual steps.

Adjustable slope 12/24dB/oct

Subsonic filter (20~35 1 Hz steps)

Delay in 2" incriments

On the sub channel, there is 10 bands of EQ!

Any questions?

bjr

OK on the volume ****. That wasn't explained on the web site. Must have been the reveiw on the JL Clean Sweep that was doing that. So the 3sixty gets one step higher with me.
And you have one of these? You and Dream should be able to figure out if this is the right choice for his particular system. Good luck deciding Dream. I can't imagine getting this thing and needing anything more so if the price seems right give it a try. It looks very flexible and provides more features than just EQ. Are you going to be able to utilize the Bluetooth interface. That part looked pretty cool

Last post went in while I was working with mine.

Delay in 2" increments? Thats' pretty cool. More usefull to have delay than separate L/R EQ.
Of course get your speaker placement right so you don't need to use delay but nice to have.

So what kind of system are we trying to put this in anyway?

TeesZ

Note: By default, the Left and Right channels are "Linked" such that any adjustment you make to one, affects both. You have the option to UNLINK the channels if you like. We offer the flexibility as an option.

bjr

I should try and just work during the day instead of reading my e-mail notifications
Part of the stuff I asked about and complained about were addressed before I opened my mouth or as I was posting.

I personally don't care for any EQ/processing gimmicks at all but they are necessary in a car environment. The 3sixty will probably leave you needing nothing else in the future. In general, any time I've considered buying a 31-band EQ MOST people are of the opinion that almost any regular name brand company that cares to manufacture an EQ capable of 31 bands it pretty much goes hand in hand that the thing is of good quality. None of the cheap brands seem to get into this level. There would be a few questionable ones out there but the 3sixty should be great. The fact that it is not analog will provide you with very narrow bands that should not overlap and be very effective at EQing your car. This is a concern with some cheap analog 31-band EQs and one band will get adjusted then when you move to the next band it starts to affect the band you just got done with because they didn't design it right.
Leave the L and R channel linked together from the factory and give it a try.
I wish I would have known about these when I put together my small system with the factory HU but I still would have passed on this one because it does so much more than I need and would never spend that kind of money on something like that.
Are you just doing simple audio or do you have video too? This would be perfect for a theatre setup. Overkill for a set of front components and a sub
Is this thing sophisticated enough to upgrade software in the future if new stuff is developed for future models??

TeesZ

It is software based and we are currently working on the next gen product line. The great thing about software is the flexibility of design and as hardware gets cheaper, processing power increases allowing more software!

Dream

OK, since someone asked, this is what originally got me to look at the 3Sixty. Note that I know jack about car audio.

Currently I have a pair of BA Z6 in the stock locations for fronts, a pair of BA SX-65 in the rear, a JL Stealthbox (2 10W3V2), a JL 450/4, a JL 500/1 for the subs, and an Alpine 9835 HU. No deadening has been done, and the car rattles like no other. The HU crossovers are set to flat, and I have the EQ set to boost the frequency range from 20 to 120hz or so because, well, I like bass. The deck's EQ is a 5-band parametric, with 3 being used for the bass range boost.

One of my complaints about my system is the inconsistency of the bass. Bass below a certain level has a good feel/loudness. Once you go above that level, the bass is weak and almost non-existent compared to the lower frequencies, like the crossover is set too low and those frequencies aren't hitting the subs. I think this is just improper tuning, so an EQ won't help. I've tried messing with the sub amp, with mixed results. I can sort of make things better, but the higher low frequencies still sound weak.

Another one of my complaints is the highs. At higher volumes (17+ on the deck), certain frequencies become painful to listen to. High female vocals, high guitars and other high sounds have this weird resonating feel that hurts my ears. Using the crossover settings on the deck to drop the levels on my fronts alleviates the problem, but then the sound quality suffers. I was thinking that if I had more than 5 EQ bands to mess with, I could fine-tune the system to eliminate this problem.

On another note, sounds like heavy distorted guitars lack the punchy feeling I had with my old system (Memphis reference speakers run off a Pioneer HU, pair of sealed Audiobahn 12s and a Memphis 1000D amp). I can hear the guitars, but they lack the oomph that my old reference speakers had. Honestly, I liked the way my old system sounded a lot better. Once again, I was thinking that if I had more than 5 bands to mess with I could fine tune things.

Honestly, a 3Sixty is probably severe overkill for what I want to do. I suspect that deadening the car and maybe swapping the Z6s out would fix at least some of my complaints. However, I'm still thinking about the 3Sixty, if for no other reason than the PDA interface is cool and I'm techno-nerdy enough to want a vast array of audio-customization options that I'll never use.