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Amp and auto EQ amp from kicker


Gripless

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I was looking for a Alpine imprint or H800 unit but this seems way better and works with the factor stereo.

Plus the H800 requires a seperate amp.

 

can also run from speaker inputs or RCA and remote on lead like normal. 
could be an option for Macintosh systems as well???

 

video in action not the best but enough to hear the difference. 

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-qxE6Ew4Q2ha/p_206KEY1804/Kicker-KEY180-4.html


https://drivingsound.co.nz/product/kicker-key1804-key-smart-amplifer-acoutstic-correction/

 

 

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This amp has been at the top of the options for my new setup. The auto setup using the mic to actually read the sound characteristics of the car is super cool to be bundled with a moderately priced amp.

 

A separate processor is well past what i’d consider as I'm only after a reasonably basic system and don't think I'd actually make use of it properly so I've been tossing up this and a standard mini amp behind the dash from Sony or Alpine pushing 45-50w rms.

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Yeah imprint is the same but $500 if you get the mic to DIY

 

well i ordered one just now so I’ll see if it can fix these speakers. 
need to grab some short RCA cables to link it all in

 

i also like the idea of the kicker making it flat and then using the head unit eq to make it more how i like. That way super easy to change and won’t need the mic again.

 

the H800 does that as you drive so is real time and way better but about $1000

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Massive audio nerd opinion: The auto-eqs, auto-time-alignment... they all suck. They either just outright suck, or they make the car a one-seat-wonder, where it sounds good if you are in the driver's seat and 5'10 tall but the rest of the cabin is a muddy mess.

 

They also miss the fact that by and large "flat" sounds kinda s*** anyway, at least to my ears. Bump everything below about 150hz, -3dB notch at 2khz, roll off from maybe 12khz up, perfecto.

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2 hours ago, boon said:

Massive audio nerd opinion: The auto-eqs, auto-time-alignment... they all suck. They either just outright suck, or they make the car a one-seat-wonder, where it sounds good if you are in the driver's seat and 5'10 tall but the rest of the cabin is a muddy mess.

 

They also miss the fact that by and large "flat" sounds kinda s*** anyway, at least to my ears. Bump everything below about 150hz, -3dB notch at 2khz, roll off from maybe 12khz up, perfecto.

Yes and i own way way way way to much audio gear.

 

time alignment is s*** unless you can change the seating location, pioneer did that with theirs. 
 

Flat is ok if your speakers are flat response but generally lower end ones aren’t 
 

Compared to home speakers car speakers are really s***.
Making them flat at the amp is good since the head unit can still make the personal touches. 41 band eq in amp to get rid of the speaker issues has to help the harsh response jumps. 
plus parametric in headunit can make personal touches. I have 5-7 bands there. 
 

when I had awesome speakers in the car and auto eq with the old pioneer hedunit it sounded really good. But that was $1299 a pair components. Which are now in a swift I don’t own somewhere. 
 

have very similar eq to you on my pc with APO eq which is free.
for headphones something like
massive cut at 35 and below -24db headphone suck down low

Wide bump at 50hz +3db curve looks like ported sub response tail ends about 100Hz

wide bump at 400hz vocals 1.3db depends on headphones I’m using. 

Notch at 1.66kHz but very narrow Q. Seems to be an area most speakers spike up a bit.  Moves between 1-2kHz depending on headphones. 
Roll off over 12kHZ

 

but don’t need it as much anymore with the burson DAC headphone amp it’s super accurate and detailed. Heaps of the eq issues are the bloody op-amps so replacing those is worth it. 

Edited by Gripless
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Ok it’s tiny. 
length is only as Car stereo is wide. 
1.5x stereo wide

0.75 stereo height

 

can squeeze it behind glovebox but it’s a weird angle and need to make little 4x4 cm flap to keep heater vent blowing on the very edge. 
 

when it stops raining I’ll pull the drivers side under steering wheel and there should be way more room. 

it’s so small likely you could stuff it behind the centre vents but then you can’t get to it and that plastic gets a bit hot. 

Edited by Gripless
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Just had a thought, well two.

 

First these would mount behind the mechless double din units

 

Second you could mount two of these amp side by side in line with car by cutting the top and back off.

Leaving a nice shelf and the door to hide the front RCA block with the controls forward iso you can put the mic in or adjust the options.

you could cut a few extra holes in the bottom to allow more air flow.

 

 

1110868993.jpg

 

 

https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-stereos/other/listing-2746320292.htm

 

You can run these as a bi-amp with the builtin auto crossover and the auto EQ works it all out.

So bi-amp first as front mid and tweeter with auto EQ

and second amp for rear coaxial and sub without auto EQ and still has sub control from headunit.

 

Edited by Gripless
swap image to pocket one, not drawer
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Behind/below the HU is what my plan will hopefully turn out like. My Sony double din one which is full depth in the top half has nothing down low so should have a heap of space for the amp there. 

 

No idea on heat rejection but guess D type amps are pretty good in that department anyway.

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you can definitely get it in there, pull the centre vent soft plastic duct and there is space below it. 

The metal rails that hold up the dash are wide enough to get the amp between, not sure how bad the plugs will get bent long term.

 

there are no fins on the amp so it can't be expected to get very hot. I may cover the bottom of the vents in dynamat to keep the heat away.

Edited by Gripless
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so far just hooked up and running all flat, and f*** me it sounds better already.

Did not know the headunit amp was so bad, its a nice alpine one and it was better sounding than the pioneer it came with.

it was ok at 40% or less volume but broke up after that.

 

The headunit I have has internal amp off option and full tone bypass.

Seems though no wave file support so waiting for MP3 pink noise to download.............................

 

and it is all in an setup and sounding even better... other than amp not mounted.

 

crossover on amp set to 60Hz for the auto EQ and then headunit changed from full while auto EQ was running to high pass at 100Hz.

 

So much more mid bass and smoothed out the upper range. It is already better than I could manage with the parametric in the headunit. Vocals are a little les clear on some tracks but that's just the way they were  mixed when recorded.

 

Gains are set super low even though with testing it didn't clip through 70% of the range.

Which is where I gave up as it was way too loud (with ear plugs in) gain if it was a clock goes from 7:30 low through to 4:30 at high.

I've left it at 9 o'clock (~20%) which allows it to be quite loud at 25 out of 35 max on the headunit volume.

 

Bonus this should make it stay cooler and it went from icy cold metal to slightly cool like plastic. 

 

Had to pull the subwoofer gains back as it was booming since the external amp gain is different from the built in one. Still have one touch access to sub gain control in the headunit so setup to +5 out of +15Db so can turn it up or down depending on the song. 

 

Is it perfect, No.

Is it worth it, yes. Given the cost of the amp and the features are included for little extra cost and its all-in-one design.

Is it better than hours of try to tune the headunit (I have a basic analyser), yes. A little bit of tailoring it to personal taste with parametric in headunit should result in a nicer sound.

also switch to disable time alignment if you don’t like the single seat config. 

 

Down sides

It is flat which isn't idea, but even EQ or presets in a cheap headunit may help.

Being a class D it will never ever sound great, class D is cheap and efficient at the cost of quality.

 

 

If you have a headunit with auto EQ like pioneer etc then still ok for the amp only but Sony make twice the power for $100 less.

 

Somewhere I have alpine silk domes in a box the bi-amp option looks good to try in the future.


also after I finished mounting it a listened to the speakers and it seems to have reduced the treble at the rear. Not sure if this is auto eq feature or not but it makes the sound seem more forward and sounds pretty good. 

Edited by Gripless
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