The equalizer in-car stereo has become more and more popular recently. Equalizer generally features three adjustable functions: treble, bass, and sometimes mid.
It is especially important for those who enjoy listening to music while driving. The task is not to create perfection but to make the music being broadcasted sound as good as possible.
Then the enjoyable time will not be bothered by those annoying consonant noises at all while listening to the radio channel.
The word “equalizer” can be used to refer to a few different things, but it’s always based on the concept of making frequencies in music or sound more equal.
So there are EQ presets for instruments, vocals, genres, and styles like dance or rock. But this article isn’t about hearing aids. Here we’re talking about car stereo equalizers – also called audio controls – which make all the frequencies of your music (or whatever’s playing) at the same volume level.
When you own a car with an in-built sound system, you might already have some idea of how to set up an equalizer.
Sadly, setting this up isn’t as easy as selecting which music you want to listen to and tuning it in. You can quickly find yourself lost amongst numbers and settings that simply baffle you.
Why Is Tuning Your Stereo Important?
Stereo system tuning is important because it optimizes the audio signal that you get from your system.
You want to get the best possible sound out of your stereo, right? Well, tuning a stereo system gives you the best sound that you can get. Tuning does this by optimizing the audio signal and giving it a better quality.
To tune your stereo, you need to adjust the different elements of your system to improve the overall audio quality. For example, if you have a subwoofer in your audio setup, you need to get that subwoofer adjusted adequately to fit in with the rest of your speaker system. This will give you better sound and make your system more enjoyable to listen to.
Sound quality can be improved by tuning your stereo.
Stereo sound is an illusion. The human brain can detect, and process sounds coming from different directions.
When we hear a car horn honking in the distance, we can tell where it’s coming from without even looking. And when there’s a loud motorcycle passing us, we can determine its location based on the sound alone.
When you’re watching a movie or listening to music on headphones, the audio can create a more realistic experience by mimicking natural sounds. Headphones do this with one speaker for each ear and surround sound home theater setups use several speakers positioned strategically around the room.
However, even when you don’t have headphones or theater speakers, you can still create a sense of directionality through stereo audio. What’s the difference between a good stereo system and one that will make your ears bleed?
Think of it this way: When you go to a restaurant and order a steak, you expect it to be cooked just the way you like it — rare, medium, or well-done.
And when you get that steak, you hope it tastes good, right? Well, what if the chef didn’t know how to cook a steak? Or what if he had never tasted the food he prepared? Your meal would probably be pretty disappointing.
Similarly, when you buy a stereo system, you want it to sound as good as possible.
A good stereo system should reproduce music accurately so that what you hear is true to the original recording. That’s where tuning comes in.
How Do Equalizers Work?
A lot of people know what an equalizer is, and that they allow you to tweak the frequency response of your audio. But if you’re not familiar with equalizers, or EQs, it’s easy to get lost when trying to use them.
This article will help you understand how equalizers work so that you can make better choices about what to do with them.
How Does EQ Work?
A basic Equalizer ‘EQ’ works with just 3 bands of frequencies. There are more complex EQs that have up to 13 bands of frequencies or more. For instance, a basic EQ with 3-bands would have its divisions of frequency for bass, mid and treble tones. With bass having the lowest frequency.
Bass is between the frequency of 60 – 120 Hz, mid between 400 – 2500 Hz, and treble being the highest with the frequency of 8000 – 15000 hertz. EQs with 13 or more frequency bands give room for more tuning thereby providing finer quality sound.
Many different kinds of equalizers exist, but all work in a similar way. A typical equalizer provides sliders for adjusting the volume of different frequency bands. For example, one slider might control the volume of low frequencies, another might control the volume of high frequencies, and so on.
For example, if you have a system that sounds muddy, you could move the slider for the low frequencies down to reduce the level of those frequencies. The result would be a brighter sounding system. Or perhaps frequencies are ringing out during part of a song — in that case, you could find the slider for that frequency band and move it down to tame those frequencies.
EQ is a powerful tool for shaping your sound. It can be used creatively to place instruments in different locations within the sound field or make something sound better overall. In their most basic form, equalizers are just filters.
When you adjust the controls on an equalizer, you’re adjusting the settings of those filters.
Low frequencies get boosted when you turn up a low-frequency knob, and high frequencies get boosted when you turn up a high-frequency knob.
But what exactly is happening?
To understand it, we need to look at how sound is generated in the first place. Sound comes from vibrations — a guitar string vibrates when plucked and causes the air around it to vibrate as well.
The rate of vibration determines the frequency of the sound generated by that vibrating object. When the vibration rate is low, lower frequencies are produced; higher frequencies are produced when the vibration rate is high.
The sound waves travel through the air until they reach your eardrum, which also vibrates in response to those waves.
Your brain picks up on these vibrations and translates them into something meaningful (in this case you’re probably hearing music). Let’s say you’re listening to music on your stereo system and want more bass — that is, lower frequency sounds. To do that, you boost your equalizer’s settings at the low end of its
How Do I Set Up My EQ?
A car stereo equalizer can be a great addition to any car audio system. However, it’s not always easy to understand how to set up your car stereo EQ properly.
By following the tips in this guide, you’ll be able to get your equalizer set up in no time.
Setting up your EQ is one of the most crucial steps in installing a quality car stereo. It’s so important that we write this entire article about how to set up your car EQ. Your car stereo has an equalizer (EQ) and a crossover built into it. An EQ is used to fine-tune the sound of your music or audio by boosting or cutting specific frequencies.
By doing this, you can make your music sound better or “tune” it for a particular vehicle, speaker setup, or environment.
The crossover lets you send the correct frequencies to each speaker, so you’re not trying to make high-frequency sounds come out of your woofers.
Want your car stereo to sound better? You can improve the sound by setting up the car stereo’s equalizer.
Setting Up Your EQ With Tools
Using tools while setting up the EQ of your car will give you accurate settings (or at least a near accurate settings).
There are two tools you will need to set up your EQ, they are;
- A Real-Time Analyzer (RTA) and
- Pink Noise Generator.
A real-time analyzer tool is used to measure the sound coming out of your stereo system. You can easily obtain this tool by downloading an RTA app from your phone app store.
Pink Noise Generator software is mostly included in many RTA apps. So you just need to find an RTA app with the pink noise generator. Pink noise is the equivalent output of a wide range of frequencies usually around 20 to 20,000 Hz.
While running the RTA app, play pink noise through your car stereo. The RTA app will display a graph of frequencies. There shouldn’t be any significant gap between the frequencies because it is the pink noise that you are analyzing.
At most, what you want is a 3-dB difference between each, with 32-hertz frequencies on the higher end of a curve, a level 120 to 4,000hz, with a gentle dip down between the frequency of 8,000 hertz and 16,000 hertz.
Find the exact frequency on your equalizer and make the adjustments. Continue tweaking until you get an even reading on your RTA if you’ve got a multi-band equalizer.
Setting Up Your EQ Without Tools
You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on a professional to do it for you. The good news is that you can easily set your equalizer yourself. All you need to do is follow these simple steps:
1. Turn off the car, but leave the key in the “on” position
2. Set all options and settings on your radio to their lowest or default values. This will ensure that no settings interfere with the EQ adjustment.
3. Play music through your system. Play a song that has varied frequencies, like classical or jazz music, or one that has a good beat, like rock and roll or hip-hop.
4. Slowly raise all of the sliders (the small bars) on your equalizer until you begin to hear distortion. Distortion sounds like a crackling noise (like someone walking on gravel) coming from your speakers. Lower all of the sliders down about 3/4 of an inch (about 2 cm) when you hear this.
5. Raise each slider separately until you hear distortion, then lower each by about 1/4 inch (1/2 cm).
Step by Step Stereo Tuning Tips
If your stereo head unit has advanced features, such as digital audio processing, automatic equalization, and timing, see the stereo owner’s manual when making changes.
When you are ready to tune your car stereo, get in the driver’s seat and follow these steps:
Step 1: Park Your Car & Turn On Your Stereo
The first thing to do is to park your car, needless to say, you should not try this process while driving. Safety is important. Then turn on your stereo.
Step 2: Play Any Song You Like
Play any one of your favorite songs. Play music you know inside and out.
This should be a song that you can play on repeat over and over again without getting bored of it, as you will need a good reference point tuning your stereo.
Also, make sure this song has a variety of sonic, with many different sounds, including:
- High notes – cymbals, flutes, and brass
- Mid range sounds — vocals, guitar, and piano
- Low notes – bass and drums
Step 3: Tune the Fade Control
Adjust the stereo fade controller until the music comes out of your front speakers. Then, tune the left to right balance until you have a favorable sound.
Write down these settings, either on paper or on your phone.
Now, tune the fade control complete opposite direction so that the sound is only from your rear speakers. Again, adjust the left-right balance until you enjoy the sound. Also, take note of these settings.
If the balance settings are the same on both the front and back speakers, that’s fine. You can leave them as they are. If not, you will need to find a balance between two different settings. Find the right quality audio balance for both front and rear speakers.
Step 4: Confirm The Tone
Now, relax and listen to your music for a while. Did you notice the presence of all the notes? Low, mid, and high notes – are they all present and balanced?
If not, take notes of what is lacking before making any adjustments.
For stereos that have equalizer presets, like equalizer and bass booster or equalizer sound booster, test the preset to see if they make the sound better. Fine tune the sound with the bass, mid-range, and treble control knobs. Adjust other EQ adjustments if need be.
Try different cuts of EQ presets until you are satisfied.
The high notes should be very clear but not penetrating too much. The mid-range should also be clear and smooth. The bass should boom moderately without causing too much vibration.
Tuning Speakers and Removing Noise Disruptions
A few adjustments to your speakers can also help improve your stereo system audio.
Like tuning your stereo, open one of your favorite songs and start making this adjustment.
Adjust Tweeters
Direct the top of the tweeter frequencies to have a direct path to your ears from the driver’s seat by using a tweeter mount or waveguides.
Try to point the tweets in different places to get the best sound. Make sure you adjust the tweeter level settings on your component crossovers until you get the perfect sound.
Adjust Rear Fill
While your front speakers should provide the best mid-range and high frequencies, there shouldn’t be a clear difference that will make be aware of your rear speakers. The rear speakers should add depth to the sound coming from the front speakers.
Adjust the Subwoofer
If your stereo or amp has a built-in crossover, set your high throughput filters to the lowest frequency that your speakers can handle. Then raise the crossover point until you hear the bass notes clearly, but they still sound like they appear in front of you.
To reduce noise
Audio enhancements, such as Dynamat, can enhance your entire stereo system.
Dynamat absorbs vibrations caused by speakers, cars, and road noise. Dynamics can also reduce the vibration from the subwoofer with strong bass sound and minimal distortion.
Take full advantage of your new car stereo system with these tuning tips. And remember, always trust your ears as you will be tuning your car stereo to suit your music and the sound you prefer.
Again, adjust the fade controller all the way forward. Then slightly increase the background volume with the fade control until the music has a satisfactory depth, but it sounds like it is coming from in front of you.
For head units that allow you to control the tone difference between the front and rear speakers, tun the rear speakers to have a smaller treble than the front speakers. This helps the music to sound like it is coming from the front speakers, even if the volume is high.
If you’re serious about enjoying your music, you should know how to set a car stereo EQ properly.
Your stereo’s performance will depend heavily on a variety of factors, so it’s important to get to know your equipment and figure out the best options for you.
Hopefully, that should answer your question about how to set your car stereo EQ. For further assistance or to ask any questions about car stereo EQs, please feel free to contact me, and I’ll be happy to help you out, so don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need more information or assistance.
If you want to understand what a car stereo EQ does, the best way is to read the manuals for all your amps/speakers first.
Then, if you need to adjust the EQ–I’ve found that it’s best to start a little lower than the specs say on most of my gear.
By this, I mean that if the subwoofer’s frequency response is from 35-150 Hz and I want to adjust its bass while playing an audio CD or something–I’ll usually start at 50 Hz rather than at 35 Hz–and then fine-tune the subwoofer’s bass using my ears by adjusting it higher or lower until it sounds good.