Quote:
Originally Posted by Aremgi
Hi selmeralto, can you elaborate on what difference the Eton crossovers make? I have the Eton separates in the doors and coaxials in the rear and center. The highs are worlds better than the stock HK system, which were way too harsh in my opinion.
However there seems to be a significant suck out (missing sound) in the mid/upper bass now. I would have thought the stock DSP amp would have provided an active high pass but maybe that’s not the case, so the Etons are trying to push all the lower frequencies as well and are under amplified when trying to do so?
My first post, so thanks!
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I'm not an expert so take this for what it's worth.
The Eton B100 XHP is a high pass crossover which means that it allows information only above a specified frequency to go to a speaker. I
think the Eton crossover is directed at determining the kind of signal that goes to the tweeter only, not to both speakers - but I could be wrong about this. In any case, you can connect the speakers with or without the crossover and I found the crossover made for a much more natural and effortless sound than trying to run the speakers without the crossover.
As for your question about sucked out sound I guess I'd say two things. First, there's the matter of sheer volume. I don't know whether the HK system in the M2 Comp has some sort of crossover or pass system built in but I do know that the volume control needs to be turned up to make the Etons sing. This could be a crossover issue but it could also be that the Etons are just less efficient speakers. I suspect the latter because when I was using Etons without a crossover in my M235i, I had to crank up the volume.
But efficiency is not necessarily correlated with the quality of the sound. I have Magnepans at home. They are very inefficient speakers, requiring lots of watts @ 4 ohms and tons of current. But they sound glorious with good amplification. I think that the stock BMW/HK amp in the M2 Comp is good enough so that the Etons sound pretty good, certainly compared with the harsh and unnatural HK speakers. When I turn up the volume on the car system I don't detect any distortion or any sound that would suggest the amp is clipping.
Now if by sucked out sound you mean that the sound is diminished specifically in the mid/upper bass then I suppose, if you don't want to install additional equipment in the car, you'd have two options. First, you could compare listening to the speakers with and without the crossover and decide which sound you prefer. Or, you could fiddle with the tone controls (treble, bass, fader and L/R) to tweak the sound you like. That's what I did in the 235 and what I do in the M2 Comp. I don't remember my exact settings but I think I boosted the treble a couple of notches and I might have set the balance to the passenger side by a notch, the fader control to the back a notch or two and I might have taken the bass down by a notch. I then turned the volume up. But that's just me. There's lots of upper and mid-level bass for my tastes and I listen to the system at loud levels. But I don't listen to rap so if you're looking for bass slap that will rattle the trunk lid, my advice probably isn't worth much.
Don't know if any of this helps. Perhaps others more knowledgeable will weigh in.