Alpine Parametric EQ Bandwidth Question

[Phoenixcolt]

Hey guys, I been getting my INA-W910 sound settings all fixed up and I have another question.

The last headunit I had was an IDA-X305 with the Imprint processor. I used all the manual settings. The Q factors(bandwidth) of the Imprint P.EQ were 1, 1.5, and 3. It showed a little picture of a wave getting more narrow or more wide depending where you settled.

The W910 has Q factors listed as 1-4 only. Can I assume that 1 is the widest Q setting and 4 is the most narrow? Or could it go the other way? The reason I ask is because the bass setting that is connected to the P.EQ is labelled Wide1-Wide4 which would make me think 4 is the widest setting.

I was going to run a test tone but quickly realized a test tone at one frequency probably won't help me.

Any of you have an Alpine unit with Q factors 1-4 and know which way narrows and widens the bandwidth? I am not sure if I will be able to listen to music and tell if I am widening or narrowing the frequency bandwidth.

[ttocs]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_factor

[ttocs]

under the pic on the lower right -

f, of a damped oscillator is shown on a graph of energy versus frequency. The Q factor of the damped oscillator, or filter, is f0 / Δf. The higher the Q, the narrower and 'sharper' the peak is.

[Phoenixcolt]

Ok cool, I assumed this was the case but then started doubting myself.

It's a bit misleading to me then, that the bass adjustment, which is connected to the first band of the P.EQ is titled wide1 through wide4.

[ttocs]

I was taugh Q was short for quality, or how well it filtered the signal. The higher quality filter will only allow a small amount of signals through where a lower quality will let a higher range of freq through.

[Phoenixcolt]

I was taugh Q was short for quality, or how well it filtered the signal. The higher quality filter will only allow a small amount of signals through where a lower quality will let a higher range of freq through.

Yeah, the way you described it makes sense. I have always thought of it as the width of the signal, so if the center frequency is 63 hz, a q of 1 allows the most spill over to frequencies below and above the center frequency where a max q, say 5 for instance, is the most focussed on the center frequency with the least spill over.