The system is finished. <BR>What is the best way to adjust my amps and which one should I start with (sub or 4channel)??? <BR>

i would start with the highs.

my receiver also has an equalizer.

This is the fun part. I just finished my system as well and spent hours trying to fine tune the sound and was never satisfied. I think it is best to isolate each channel you are trying to tune. I did get my tower speakers tuned. I turned my sub off on faded everything to the rear channel. I'm having a hard time tuning my interior speakers. To be honest when I turn the crossover off(just on the interior speakers) I seem to like it better. When I try to use the crossover on the interior speakers it sounds hollow to me. Anyway, Good Luck.

If i start with my highs.... should i have the sub amp off??

Here is a good place to start. <BR> <BR><a href="http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/caraudio.htm" target="_blank">http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/caraudio.htm</a>

yea. or all the way down. its a matter of hearing it setting it where you want. all personal preference. <BR> <BR>Lance - i'm not sure what you mean.

Start with your highs first. Flatten your EQ. Turn the gains all the way down on your amps. Now, put in the best sounding music you like to listen to. Crank up the volume on your head unit until you hear distortion from your speakers(there is a chance that you may be able to crank it all the way up without distortion). Now back the volume off a notch to good sound again. <BR> <BR>If you EQ has a volume knob, make sure it is down all the way while adjusting the head unit volume. Then crank it up until distortion like the head unit. <BR> <BR>Now crank up your amp gain until your speakers begin to distort. Then back off a notch. Remember the gain position and turn the gain all the way down. <BR> <BR>Now crank up your bass amp gain until you hear distortion from the sub. Back off a bit. <BR> <BR>Now turn your head unit down and turn the gain back up on your highs amp. <BR> <BR>That's it. Fine tune the gains to your liking. <BR> <BR>Thing to remember: Gain controls on amps are not volumes, rather level matching controls. The goal is to reach the maximum output of the head unit, eq, and amps at the same time. <BR> <BR>I hope this helps.

Tuneman, <BR> <BR>That helps a lot. My amps also have EQ and FREQ controls. What do I do with those??

Flatten the amp EQ at first. You may not even need it since you have an EQ at your head unit. The FREQ controls should be set at the manufacturers specs for the speakers. Set to high pass for the highs and low pass for the lows. A good sub crossover FREQ is usually around 90Hz. Higher and it'll get muddier and boomy sounding. Lower and it'll get tigher and quieter.

I have 4 ways speakers and a sub. The sub really cranks when the stereo is loud, but when it's lower, i dont think i hear much out of the sub. I have the 4 speakers only on highs, should I put the amp on full range and get a little bass in the speakers too or just use the sub for bass??

Don't run the amp full range, the speakers can't produce the low range very well anyway. What I find works best is to have your speakers crossed over somewhere around 100hz(little higher or little lower depending on the speakers) You will have to play with the gain, subsonic, and crossover frequency on the sub amp to get a sound you like at all volumes.

my receiver has a pretty good equalizer with tons of adjustments. Should I just use that? <BR>Also, the gains on the amp aren't set too high. I could never really get any distortion out of the speakers.

I always think it's easier to use the adjusment on the amps, you can use the eq on the deck, but if it loses power they are usually lost. When you are adjusting the eq on the speakers, pull the rcas out of the sub amp so you are only listening to the speakers and vice versa on the sub. Then do finally tuning with everything playing.

i was using the deck to fade from from to back. <BR>should I pull the rca's instead???

typicaly 6.5s wont put out anything lower than 100hz just distortion and noise.so set your hpf acordingly somewhere between 80/120{mine is @100}. lpf 80/100 {mine is @80}