Phoenix Gold Phorum

brand spanking new to this site. Ive had a PG zx500 in 98, upgraded to Ti600 in 2002, been working like a champ ever since.

My current setup: (yeah its old school)
Alpine IVA-C800
PG Ti600
JL Audio 12W7
MB Quarts Reference series mids and highs
Optoma Yellow Top Battery

Ive been out of the car audio game for a long time. Its kind of funny how i got the audio itch again. One weekend, after some drinking, accidentally punched my screen. Went on ebay to find a cheap replacement, found one bundled with Alpine DVA-5205.

So I decided to look into sound processing, since I never had the cash back then to do it. The EQ on the IVA-C800 is terrrrrrible. Im looking for an Ai-Net EQ to help with this.
Ive been thinking about the
Alpine ERA-G320
Alpine PXA-H510
Alpine PXA-H600
and of course.....
PG Basscube
PG Line driver

Those particular parts seems pretty aged, so i figured i could get a good deal on them since im a poor grad student.

So will the Alpine ERA-G320/PXA-H510 so what the bass cube can do?
And if i do get one of the alpine EQ, is it alright to add in the bass cube to it?

Let me know what you guys think, you guys got a great community here

The basscube is a one-band parametric bass EQ... basically just remote variable frequency bass boost, with a subsonic filter (cuts off inaudibly low bass frequencies to increase power available for audible ones).

Is that your only goal? Being able to make the bass louder/quieter? If so I highly recommend an LPL instead. It's dirty cheap and you plug it straight into your amplifier. With that you can remotely adjust the gains of the amplifier, which, as long as you use it responsibly, doesn't produce distortion like bass boost does. However, it also lets you drive your amp into clipping, beyond it's output capabilities. Clipping destroys amps and speakers. So obviously you don't want to leave it cranked all the time, because you would be driving square waves through your equipment. Of course bass boost has the same issue as well, but it will produce distortion on any signal (you're synthetically adding sound where it is not). Also it only boosts a frequency range, while using the LPL boosts the entire subwoofer level.

If you're looking for a real equalizer, to use in conjunction with an RTA (real time analyzer) in order to make your system play flat, then you would want something like the PG EQ215 or EQ230 instead. Audiocontrol is another brand I would recommend.

I have no experience with the Alpine units, so i'll let someone else comment on that.

Also, the PG line driver just increases your signal voltage, so you can run lower gains on the amp, yet still have the same volume. The benefit of this is that when you install the line driver in the front of the car (where it belongs), then you have a higher voltage RCA traveling to the back. This means it will pick up less noise along the way, resulting in a cleaner signal. For just a sub, I wouldn't bother.

What are you powering your quarts with? If only the deck, you would benefit greatly from using another amp to power them.

thanks that was informative!

No unfortunately i dont have an amp powering the quarts, i never got around to it. Is there a reasonably priced amp, that you guys could recommend, preferably a pg amp bc im partial to them!

Another question just sprang up in my head, i never understood why its better to use a 4 channel amp to power your surrounds. I understand theres a dedicated channel for each driver, but could you also use a 2 channel amp? what are the pitfalls for using a 2 channel amp to power say 4 surround drivers?

if u are gonna get a processor that willwork well with your iva get the pxah510

it does 5.1 and has a simple parametric eq.


you can run a two channel amp for your front stage it s not a problem.

but if your running rear fill a four channel will probably save u space and u will have more control over speakers