Help my tune my Wetsounds Syn-6, my sub sounds like a gorilla fart

Alright I need some help with my stereo. I made a REALLY STUPID mistake by not letting JonyB set up my stereo as I thought I could do this myself to save a trip and some time. Someone kick me in the balls if I ever try that again.

So I've got the EXACT same setup as I had in Mariah in my Saltare. 4-XS650's in boat, an XS-12 sub, all powered by a Syn-6 amp, with a WS-420 EQ.

Now it did real good in my Mariah with a small sub box, no port. It hit very solid and very clean. This one does not.

Now in the Saltare I've got room to build the Wetsounds spec box, and I did. Now the sub sounds weak as hell, and distorts when cranked.

Start of ideas:

1) The Deck: Deck has 6 RCA outs. Front, rear, and sub. I'm running the one set of RCA's into the WS420 from the REAR rca outs. I'm thinking about running the sub RCA's straight from the deck and bypassing the WS420.

2) The amp's tuning. Which I'm guessing is my problem. JonyB and worked on it for a while to get it actually put out some sound finally. At first it barely made any noise. After turning down the gain on the components it helped, but the sound was awful. Doesn't hit well, and distorts very easily.

3) The box. I've built it to Wetsounds specs for a sealed box. My guess is ported would be better, but since Wetsounds put a 5-year old in charge of the schematic for boxes, you have to have a professional builder make one. I don't know how to make baffles and vents for boxes. I just play with my wood. So saying, "port the box" won't help. The last one wasn't ported and sounded leaps and bounds better than this one.

Please help. Here are the pics of the amp's controls.
The gains on channel 1-4 are down, and the Sub bass boost is actually at 1 o'clock now. And the Freq HZ for the sub is at 3 o'clock. The lower Freq HZ dial on the bottom for Channel 5-6(sub) is where it's at now.

Sorry you are having so many issues. I have never heard anyone have an issue with the box specs either! My opinion is try keep it simple. The ported box has widthxheightxlength and shows what size port and how long.
http://www.wetsounds.com/media/produ...ser_Manual.pdf

So is the box the sealed size like in the manual?

My suggestion would be to take it to jonyb if you have the time. If you are having so much issues this time around. It might wind up saving some time in the long run.

If you want to keep trying. Take a look at the tuning guide I wrote in the Ws-420 manual. Make sure to follow that. Make sure the eq is flat. make sure the radio is flat. make sure your ipod or mp3 is flat and eq is off. then follow the set up guides. since you are having issues with the sub. i would start there first.

i am not sure i am following you here. "And the Freq HZ for the sub is at 3 o'clock. The lower Freq HZ dial on the bottom for Channel 5-6(sub) is where it's at now." There is only one Freq HZ for the sub. It is the one next to the bass boost. It should be set at about 80 HZ to start with. So turn it all the way down to the left and back up till it is pointing at the Z in HZ. The buttons should be pushed in for Low pass and Mono. Also, make sure the sub is actually hooked up on chs 5-6 bridged. And what XS-12 do you have? A dual 2 ohm or dual 4 ohm. If it is a dual 2 ohm, it needs to be wired in series for a 4 ohm load and then bridged on chs 5-6 for 600x1. If you dont have that wired up right, then no tuning is going to help. Also, if you have a dual 4 ohm, then you will not be able to use the amp to it's fullest. Bass boost should be used sparingly. Also, if you have the remote level plugged in. Un plug it for tuning. The remote level is a remote gain and is not a bass boost. once plugged it, it will remotely turn the bass gain up and down. but it will never go past where it is set on the amp as a safety feature. Once you have the bass set. Unlpug the RCA's and tune the in boats. Freq looks like an OK start point for those. Make sure to turn the gains all the way down to the left and back up. There is more detail in the set up guide for step by step.

Once it is all set, plug all rca's back in and listen to it as a whole. Then you can try different music and tweak a tiny bit on the 420 here and there. remember that eq's are used for fine tuning and a little bit will do wonders up or down but too much can really affect the sound. Also, when tuning. make sure the eq in boat volume is all the way up and the sub bass knob is all the way up but the ring on the sub is at about 9 oclock. so turn it all the way down and back up about 1/4 to a 1/3. This also might be something you have way off. You may have it all the way up and are centering the eq on a really high freq.

Then after all that. If you still cannot get it sounding good. Then sub location could be a large factor. Each boat will sound different. where is the sub? is it open and firing into the drivers feet. is it side firing? Is it in a closed off storage area? if it is not amount of tuning or power will help it. So overall system design is very important

Tim
Wet Sounds

now thats friggin customer service right there kids

Thanks Tim, I was hoping you'd chime in. I love my Wetsounds, and will always have them in my boat. I just know I'm doing something wrong. I hope nothing I said was an indication of negativity towards Wetsounds. Thanks for your insight, I really appreciate it. And yes, as someone said, that's top shelf customer service. Another reason all you see is WS all over the water. Below I added my responses to your suggestions. It's okay to tell me if I'm insane, I build rockcrawlers, not stereos.

JonyB is about 2.5 hours away. I would if it wasn't such a pull.

Originally Posted by wetsounds1

So is the box the sealed size like in the manual? Yes, to the exact specs.

If you want to keep trying. Take a look at the tuning guide I wrote in the Ws-420 manual. Make sure to follow that. Make sure the eq is flat. make sure the radio is flat. make sure your ipod or mp3 is flat and eq is off. then follow the set up guides. since you are having issues with the sub. i would start there first. Did that, all Eq's are flat, and checked.

i am not sure i am following you here. "And the Freq HZ for the sub is at 3 o'clock. The lower Freq HZ dial on the bottom for Channel 5-6(sub) is where it's at now." There is only one Freq HZ for the sub. It is the one next to the bass boost. It should be set at about 80 HZ to start with. So turn it all the way down to the left and back up till it is pointing at the Z in HZ.Ok, I had it just past the "Z" and since there is a Freq dial on the bottom next to the Channel 5-6 imput bridged or not button, I figured that was another dial for the sub.

The buttons should be pushed in for Low pass and Mono. Was at that, actually made it worse, button on left is pushed in and has been. Button on the right with 12db and 24db above it is out, and made it louder. But that might have been before I turned all the gains down on the components. I'll try that again. .

Also, make sure the sub is actually hooked up on chs 5-6 bridged. Check, that one I did right. LOL

And what XS-12 do you have? A dual 2 ohm or dual 4 ohm. If it is a dual 2 ohm, it needs to be wired in series for a 4 ohm load and then bridged on chs 5-6 for 600x1. 2ohm if I remember right. My brain is fried from a newborn. I wired it up in Series. On the back of the sub, I put one wire connecting a postive on the top, to the negative on the bottom. Then ran the negative off the top, and the positive on the bottom out of the sub and to the amp, bridged.

If you dont have that wired up right, then no tuning is going to help. Also, if you have a dual 4 ohm, then you will not be able to use the amp to it's fullest. Bass boost should be used sparingly. Also, if you have the remote level plugged in. Un plug it for tuning. The remote level is a remote gain and is not a bass boost. once plugged it, it will remotely turn the bass gain up and down. but it will never go past where it is set on the amp as a safety feature. Ahhhh did not know that. Once you have the bass set. Unlpug the RCA's and tune the in boats. Freq looks like an OK start point for those. Make sure to turn the gains all the way down to the left and back up. There is more detail in the set up guide for step by step. The inboats sound awesome as usual. It's just the sub that is giving me issues.

Once it is all set, plug all rca's back in and listen to it as a whole. Then you can try different music and tweak a tiny bit on the 420 here and there. remember that eq's are used for fine tuning and a little bit will do wonders up or down but too much can really affect the sound. Also, when tuning. make sure the eq in boat volume is all the way up and the sub bass knob is all the way up but the ring on the sub is at about 9 oclock. so turn it all the way down and back up about 1/4 to a 1/3. This also might be something you have way off. You may have it all the way up and are centering the eq on a really high freq. Okay, yeah I've been adjusting the 420 while trying to tune the amp. I'd set the amp, then try and dial it in with the 420, then put the 420 back to zero, and tune the amp again. So I need to just set the 420, not touch it (much) and tune the amp from there?

Then after all that. If you still cannot get it sounding good. Then sub location could be a large factor. Each boat will sound different. where is the sub? is it open and firing into the drivers feet. is it side firing? Is it in a closed off storage area? if it is not amount of tuning or power will help it. So overall system design is very important. It's very open under the driver's helm firing towards my feet. Same as the last boat.
Tim
Wet Sounds

I got it dialed in. The tips you gave me Tim worked. I'm bumpin and thumpin!!!! Sounds great!!! Thanks for chiming in personally and helping me.

So what was it Eric? We had talked about the remote volume level and I didn't explain how it worked, but I do remember you saying it was turned up. Glad you got it worked out though!

It was a combination of things.

First I unplugged the remote, and that did help.

Then I set the WS-420 at the proper levels, and unplugged the in boat speakers RCA's. So I was running sub only. That helped a lot. I was then tweaking the sub at the amp only. I set the Freq to the level Tim stated and only adjusted the Gain. The bass boost did nothing so I've got it set to zero. But the gain let me dial in the sub to it's levels. I still think I could crank it a bit more, but it got to the point where it was getting a little distorted so I didn't go all out. Having a ported box would definitely help.

Once I had the sub dialed in, I unplugged the RCA and did the in boat speakers, and got them cranked. I then plugged the remote back in, and that helps me keep the speaker in control when the type of music changes.

It's sounding good now. Wife said she heard it clear on the front side of the house. From over 100ft away, with a fully insulated steel shop surrounding the boat, and a brick house. So yeah, I think it's loud enough.

Thanks for the help Jonyb, I'll be visiting you in the winter for the Wetsounds tower speakers and Sub/amp upgrade.

Tim, thanks again for the help.

Haugy, you ought to drag that boat up to Knox next weekend for the pwt stop!

Haugy,

Glad you got it rocking. Happy to help.

Tim
Wet Sounds

Back-tracking through the process now is there a way to recreate the gorilla fart if needed?

Chattwake, it's tempting. I haven't gotten much lake time with this boat. I'll have to see if the wife lets me have a pass.

David: I laughed my ass off. In reality, that's the best way to describe the sound. All you have to do is click the little button on the far right side of the amp that says 12db/24db above it. Click it out, and then crank the WS-420 freq all the way up with the sub level up. Turn on a song with deep bass, and watch the silverbacks come a running!! Or this may be a gorilla deterrent. I may need to patent this.