bimmer10

iTrader: (1)

Is it just me or is the Z acoustically difficult to tune. Ive done the system in all of my past cars and Im just having the tuffest time tuning this one correctly.

I have the Alpine 9831 HU, Alpine XM tuner, Alpine components in the doors, Alpine 2 ways in the rear and a 10" sub in the back. 1 4 channel amp and 1 2 channel amp bridged for the single sub. I've gotten to the point where Im not even trying to use my rears, I have the fader all the way forward.

Jeez I really wish the BOSE POS sounded better and I would have left it in there.

stu46

i don't seem to have as much trouble as you. i still need to tweak it a little more, but it does sound really good. the center channel does wonders. kinda hard to tell where the music is coming from up front. the rears are a little softer than i'd like. it sounds really good at lower volumes. not so significant at higher volumes.

Beaker02

Bimmer-
I am a professional sound engineer and have tuned systems professionally for the past 25 years. You are a VERY preceptive man. Yes. The Z enviroment is very difficult. I have an Alpine 9833 with Infinity speakers and JL amp. It took about 3 weeks for me to get the system balanced. Normally I would have been happy in 1-3 hours. I have access to all the cool toys and real time analyzers you would expect to be at my disposal, and used everything. Even with the cab flat and time alligned to the drivers seat, i'm not 100% happy with the tune. I am close enough to really start enjoying my sound system at this point though. Good luck, and your not crazy. You are very correct.

motown

Try crossing over the rear's to eliminate the high frequencies from the rear. You should really just have mid-bass drivers back there IMHO. These speakers are aimed right at the back of the seat. Not the greatest of ideas by Nissan's engineers. When I took my stockers out, they didn't seem to have any kind of cone or anything, so I think they realized this themselves when they were putting the stock system together. Good luck with the tuning!

LS350Z

Alright - the Z is easy to tune if you do the following things.

1. Buy good high quality component speakers with high off-axis response.

2. Invest in an extra set of tweeters.

3. Ignore rear speakers all togther.

4. Spend a few hours to tweak your car.

First off, if your using shitty components you're going to have a terrible time getting things right. Unless your running the Alpine type X series components (and to whoever had the Infinities - ditch those asap please) your off-axis response won't work well for the Z.

Along with this, put your component tweeters in the kickpanels facing back and slightly up. This will widen your stage to the windows and bring it up off the floor.

To get realistic level stage height, run that extra set of tweeters I told you to get in the stock location and cross them over at 6-9k depending on taste. You won't hear them off if done correctly but you'd know if you'd turned them off. They'll raise your stage, bring the highs to infront of you, and won't clutter anything. Best off, all your total ambience of the stage will be full-er and really start to develop height which will be very noticable on live recordings.

And those rear speakers, either put them in the kick panels or ebay them (unless you have video). If you do have video, run a switch to them so when you've got music going you can turn them off. Rear speakers in music are just bad unless you're one who goes to concerts and stares at the backwall...

Finally, tweak your system. Drill out all those extra holes in your door speaker grills. Better yet, make a grill cloth to replace the stock ones. You're loosing a ton of sound there. Add a ton of dynamat to your front doors. Not just one sheet either - like 3-4 sheets per door. Everything counts! Make new speaker mounts out of mdf to get the speakers more centered in their covers. Better yet, angle them slightly upward.

Seriously, the Z can sound great if you do things properly. Just changing speakers and the HU will only lead to less-the-desirable (but better then stock) results. I've continually been tweaking on my Z stereo for almost 2 full years now.

bimmer10

iTrader: (1)

For the fronts I'm using the Alpine Type-S SPS171A's. I mounted the tweeters where the factory tweets go but I used the mounting base which lets you angle them towards you. Im also learning how to use the parametric EQ that comes with the 9831, I havent even started playing with the T. CORR yet.

I'm going to start from scratch and try tuning the fronts only w/o the rears and without the sub. Once I have the fronts set I will work on the sub and frequency of sub. Sound about right?

At this time I really would not want to spend a fortune on dynomat but if I must I will.

LS350Z

Type S's don't have a very high off-axis response but they should do fine in the Z. Take that angle mount and angle the tweets at the windshield. This will increase their path length to more match the woofers in the lower door and center them more in the car. Also with their off-axis response it should widen your stage. I'd still highly recommend mounting them in your kickpanels though for way better results.

bimmer10

iTrader: (1)

Well, it finally sounds right. Wasnt my ears after all it was the radio. I had already requested a replacement radio from Crutchfield b/c I was having problems with the first 9831 I had bought. At times when I would turn the radio on only bass would come out of the speakers, no highs or mids. To fix this I would have to change to another EQ setting (ie Flat) and then back to my personal EQ setting.

Well the new radio came in last night, I swapped them out and BAM everything sounded balanced and right. Maybe its a software issue with the 9831 as the old one was running Version 4900 and the new radio is running Version 5000.

In any case, thanks everyone for you input.