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Dynaudio Settings

JaysGTI

New member
I hadn't seen a dedicated post for everyone to post their current settings for their stock Dynaudio systems.

For reference, the values should be - or + from the center (0) value.

Current Settings:
Treb: +5
Mid: +1
Bass: +1

Fader/Balance: +1 towards Rear

I figured this would be a great way to try each others settings and see what works for your GTI, or see what others recommend. :thumbsup:
 

PandaGTI

Go Kart Champion
I have mine set right at 0 across the board... and It sounds great. The response seems to be nice and flat this way which is the way it should be.

One of these days, I'll take my sound meter & test disc with a frequency sweep to try and flatten out the frequency response more. But to my ears it sounds just right already.
 

elbles

Passed Driver's Ed
I should go out and confirm this, but I think my settings are:

Treble: -2
Midrange: 0
Bass: -2?
Fader: +3 Front

It sounds pretty good with these settings, and fairly well-balanced to my ears, though there are still times where the highs and lows still sound a bit too punctuated compared to the mids (the high positioning of the tweeters probably has a bit to do with the highs, of course). I tend to use my home stereo (Yamaha receiver and Infinity towers) as my reference point, for whatever that's worth.
 

ajmstilt

Passed Driver's Ed
Treble: 0
Midrange: +2
Bass: +1
Fader: +1 front

If I'm listening to something particularly "thumpy" I might notch the bass up a bit. I do mostly city driving, so i might find that on the highway i'd prefer it elsewhere.
 

PNCHDUB

Mk VI
Until the speakers break in most people will find themselves changing the settings quite a bit.
 

tornadoredgti1

Passed Driver's Ed
how long does it take for the speakers to break in??
 

onomatopoeia

Passed Driver's Ed
I have mine set right at 0 across the board... and It sounds great. The response seems to be nice and flat this way which is the way it should be.

Agreed.
I'll occasionally play with the settings but keeping it flat works best for my ears.

how long does it take for the speakers to break in??

There is no science here. Some swear by specific break-in periods while others dispute break-in even exists. Frankly, speaker break-in is just as much you getting used to the speakers as it is any physical change (if any) in the actual speakers.
 

snobrdrdan

former GTI owner
Wow...you guys keep them real low

I think I have my treble at +6, mid at +1, and bass at +5 or something....I don't recall exactly....but I know it's something like that
 

CS^MKVI

New member
Interesting settings some of you have.
I have not taken delivery of my GTI yet, nor do I have the Dynaudio Option. However, I have a bit of experience in car audio as I have been installing kit into my cars constantly over the last 7 years and have learnt many things when it comes to tuning.

The first thing that I will always question is why people fade speakers to the rear. It is bizarre to say the least because our ears face forward so bias should be towards the front. The reason for this you should be aiming to create a stereo image as if the band is performing in in front of you with the dash as the stage. When you start fading to the rear, the image is dragged towards the back and everything starts to sound a bit strange.. Tell me, would you go to a concert and face backwards?

IMO rear speakers are there for one reason, if you have passengers sitting in the back. Any other time they should be faded out completely so you can enjoy a more accurate stereo image. The only speaker that should be in the back of the car is a sub woofer, sub bass is non directional so providing the sub is located in a position where there is minimal cancellation, you should not be able to tell where the sub is, you should feel it as an extension of your front stage. You should not be able to differentiate the sub from the front speakers, they should sound like one.

I know by now a lot of you are thinking that I do not know what I am talking about, but I challenge you to try it.. Fade 100% to the front, at first it may seem weird as there is an emptiness in the back but it will not take long to get use to it. Drive around for a week like this then fade the rears back in and notice how bad it sounds as the singer and the band is pulled back behind you.

In 7 years I have run rear speakers in 1 car, which was my first car but I only ran them for a month before I replaced them with a small sub. In my last car, a 2005 STi I had a pair of Morel Elate 6 speakers only running in the front because I could not be bothered with the subs.

Trust me on this one!

As for other settings, they tend to be subjective. I tend to leave all my EQ's on flat until I identify certain frequencies that are resonant, for me this tends to be in the 3-4KHz range so I will generally notch them down a bit.

As for bass and treble adjustments, I tend not to touch these at all.
If you have split components (which the Golfs do) then when you start adding treble, you are raising the sound stage higher towards the level of the tweeters and then it starts to sound bias towards the tweeters and the over power the woofers - not to mention irritating to your ears.

The same goes for bass too and I find that adding bass makes it sound muddy rather than more bassy or punchy.

So as an experiment, fade 100% towards the front and leave your settings on 0. If it sounds bad, I reckon it is your source, are you using a burnt CD made from downloaded MP3's? Are you using an iPod with poor quality MP3s? and by poor quality I mean below 320kbps or lossless. If yes, go and get an original CD and try that out.. Keeping in mind that all CDs are recorded differently so some may not sound better than a cassette tape. You will know a good CD when you hear one, but here are a few I use as reference because of their awesome recordings - not for the song itself!

Bee Gees - This is where I came in - Track 9 - Loose Talk
Toni Braxton - The Heat - Track 3 - Spanish Guitar
Angus and Julia Stone - Down the Way - Track 4 - Big Jet Plane and Track 7 - And the Boys
All of these tracks will test the mid range and top end of your system with amazing vocals and details.

For something more punchy and dynamic get:
Armin Van Buuren - A State of Trance 2009 - Track 1 - Unforgivable and Track 2 - Spring Breeze, play them sequentially.

Jamiroquai - A Funk Odyssey - Track 1 - Feel So Good, listen for the detail at the start of the track; Track 7 - Black Crow - awesome vocals and clarity; Track 9 - Twenty Zero One - test bass response and dynamics!


Have Fun,
Adios,

Emille
 

pvivino

Ready to race!
I tried the rear speakers off and didn't like it. I think to make this work I would need to remove the rear speakers and relocate them up front so that I had all 4 channel amps and sound coming from the front. This works in my living room because I have much better speakers in front of me and more watts going to them than in my car.
 

snobrdrdan

former GTI owner
Well I wouldn't turn the rear completely off

The whole point he was trying to make is that you should invest in the front sound stage
 

CS^MKVI

New member
Yes, I would actually turn the rears off, or at least to a level that is bias towards the front.

I can understand that you might not want to do this after you have purchased the Dynaudio option as it would be a waste.. But I urge you to persist with it for at least a week..

I would not agree with moving the rear speakers to the front, I would recommend (if it were possible on the Dynaudio amp) to bridge the front and rear channels and put all the power to the front speakers.

When I do a build, I generally allow for 150-200WRMS for the front speakers, no rear speakers and 500-600WRMS for a subwoofer or two.. Power is your friend because power = control and control = sound quality.. You can put all the speakers you want in your car.. But if you do not feed them properly - there is no point.

An example of this is in one of my last builds.. I had some Focal Polyglass speakers which are their lower end that are rated at 75WRMS.. I was actively driving the woofers with 150WRMS and driving the tweeters through a passive XO with 60WRMS.. Some may call it excessive.. But it absolutely sang and never once distorted.

Just remember that you are more likely to blow a speaker by under powering it rather than over powering it..

The reason for this is that if you do not have enough power, you drive the amp into clipping, clipping is bad because it sends DC signal to the speaker and hence fries it.. If you have more power, the amp can drive the speaker effortlessly when it needs to spike and it will not clip.

Sorry to waffle on.. I love my car audio lol!
 

gkallis

Ready to race!
dont say sorry most of us r learning from u lol
 

jokerific

Ready to race!
I think the settings also depend on the source. Mine are set to something like -4 treble, +1 mid, +3 bass... sounds pleasantly neutral with my iPod Touch (which is thinner/colder than ideal), but is way too warm-sounding for regular radio. At highway speeds the bass gets drowned out by the road noise, so that's why it has to be notched up a bit. I wish the EQ settings were source-dependent - would be very useful - but I end up listening to my iPod 95% of the time anyway..

Good advice about fading it all the way to the front, I'll give that a try.
 

xg31

Ready to race!
I agree.. i have no idea why some people fade it to the back.. my friends say it is surround sound...

BUT, musics are not SURROUND SOUND!!!! It is a front stage!!
 
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