question about stereo tuning
 

Ive been doing my own stereo's for probably 15 years as a hobby, but want to get better at tuning. I can usually make rap/hip hop sound pretty good, but rock seems to be more challenging especially with this stereo. Do you guys go back and eq everything differently when you listen to rock or are you able to tune the system good enough initially that you can set it and forget it and all music sounds good. My specific system is (6) 8" home audio rc80i polks and (4) mirage mkII 4 being run by a jl hd 600/4 amp in our houseboat. i have a 100amp 12v power supply connected to a yellow top optima for extra capacity with the bass. the subs are jl w0 12's being powered by a 600watt rms soundstream amp at 2ohms. The head unit is last years top of the line pioneer. i just cant seem to make it sound clean enough with any type of rock. I'm not sure if its more the crossover points or eq that needs adjusting but i could use some pointers. help...

So you've got six 8 coax and 4 full-range outdoor boxes, right. Are they all powered off the 600/4? If so, all at once or through a switch box?

How is the system laid out and where are the subs in relation to the other speakers? Are the 8's and the 6.5 boxes on separate halves of the amp so they can be crossed over a little different? Is the 600/4 set to "Hi-Pass"? Do you have an EQ in the mix?

all of the speakers are powered by the 600/4. two rc80's,on the front deck, two on the back, 4 in the house, and 4 of the mirage's on the top deck. the 4 mirage's and 2 of the rc80's are on two of the channels and the other 3 80's are on the other two giving the final impedance to the amp @ 2ohms. at each location i ran the wiring through volume control nobs so that the volume can be adjusted from front deck, back deck, inside or upstairs independently. I have the high pass set at around 120hz to try and get more volume output from the speakers. I'm not using an eq at the moment although with the lack of clarity i'm getting i'm debating it. i set the ipods eq to flat and run the head unit with a bass at flat usually scoop the mids down a bit and the highs at flat as well.

also to clarify these are 8ohm speakers so i paralleled the three of them to get down to the two ohm load at the amp. the subs are inside and sound pretty good and i also have another wireless sub i have for the top deck that

If im reading this correctly, it sounds like you have 6.5's and 8's wired together and sharing an amp chnl and each zone of the houseboat is off one chnl of the amp. If so:

1) its not the best idea to mix dissimilar speakers on the same amp chnl as they do not sum and share power the same.
2) the 6.5's and 8's really need to be x-overed differently to get the most out of them. They need to be on different halves of a 4-chnl to do this.
3) if a single amp chnl is a different zone of the boat, then you have lost stereo.

I would consider powering each zone with its own amp and using a simple RCA POT on each one as you volume control. If the zone has both 6.5 and 8" speakers, then use a 4 chnl. It is only has 6.5's or 8's, the use a 2chnl