Is "professional" sound EQ available...or worth it?

[jeffandpamsmith]

I'm putting a primo sound system in. I'm planning on upgrading my sound system to the JL sub/box, Alpine PDX 4.100 amp, and most likely the Focal Access series 165 A1 component speakers. still thinking about a head unit (no gps).

Crutchfield has an Alpine series of head units that are supposedly optimized for iPhone/iPod use, that have an optional add-on analyzer with mike that allows actual electronic EQ and setup (ie one setting for windows closed, one for top down).

I haven't found any user friendly aftermarket products like this elsewhere, but wondered if auto stereo install shops did this? I know they exist for home theater...it seemed to make sense. I know what I thought sounded best to my ears was not even close to how good my HT sounded after it was done professionally. I wasn't sure if it made sense in cars (let alone an 8 1/2 foot car). I assume most everyone does it by ear, but I know with past cars, I was always messing with it and never sure what sounded best.

[vpkb1998]

Play around with the settings yourself first, learn & enjoy. Resort to a professional when all else fail.

[forestacademy]

Pro Auto Audio shops are a vanishing breed.

Their was a time no matter what car you had you could easly improve the sound system and their were plenty of folks willing to sell you gear.

Now the sound systems in cars are so good it has put most shops out of the car audio biz. Our Best buy around here turned the car install bays into a Guitar shop.

By making realy good stereo's standard the auto industry realy cut down on the demand for aftermarket audio and thus cut down on auto break ins.

Now that being said, the smarts radio is just that, a radio not a sound system.
If you upgrade and drop the top, any settings you do in a shop will be useless on the road with road noise. You could spend the money but the conditions will always be changing and you would most likely be waisting the money.

It's different with home systems. You tune for the room and things don't realy change untill you take out walls.

[NCC1701]

I can't answer your question since I've never used their services, but ...

This page ...
Basic Tutorial: How To Adjust A Room
and others found on the web might be of help. Although this one selling something, at a quick glance there appears to be some useful information there. Even the $20 disk is probably a useful thing to have.
Here's another one ...
Equalizers Frequently Asked Questions
I'm going back to them after work this evening for my own benefit.

[rexxxlo]

i use an alpine 9887 in my crx and i love it it has a processor called the imprint it is a small microphone that attaches to a standalone box that is just used (no need to install it )once or if you are like me you use it as much as possible

it runs from a indows based computer that runs a program that tells you where in the car to place the mic then sends out test tones to all the speakers to get the best crossover points and equalization alon with time correction to account for the distance differences between the left and right

in my car it is a particularly hard car to tune it has no back seats or reas speakers vry similar to the smart and instead of using a small dome tweeter and 5-6" woofer in each door i use a special horn loaded compression driver mounted under the dash to improve imaging and overall sound see link
Image Dynamics USA - Products - HCLD
and a custom formed fiberglass pod that places the woofer as far away from you as possible to hlp with time correction but the left to right differences are still big

the horn to mid woofer crossover point is moved out of the vocal range of most of the vocal region ,this is the norm with coax and component sets and from there the subwoofer is integrated in to the mix so each speaker has its own channel of amplification once you try it you wwont want to go back

its considerably more expensive as you need usually 2x the amplifiers but the tuning is a breeze ith the 9887 and imprint

doing it by hand required hours with a RTA and listening in a quiet garage to the same song over and over its usually a expenive thing most install shops would not have i have one and its rarely gets used

[Napoleon12]

^^^ wow. i bet that is some nice sound Q. image dynamics horns. very nice. some of the upper end pioneer have the mic too. plug it in let it do its sweep and it will eq the car for you. its your car and u drive it. it might sound great to you but to someone one else it might not. ( referring to the first post for my last statement)