Ordered MS-8. Any advice to optimize?

[CWI]

Originally Posted by rray

I got my MS-8 today, but could not quite fit it, so I decided to upgrade to a pair of Punch P3S 12"' subs, and Power T400-2 amp which will give me back of box space to mount the MS-8, amps, and cap.

If space is still tight I'll leave the cap off or relocate it somewhere else.

I stopped by my local shop and ordered everything, and they said they I can pick it up Friday after work, so it looks like I'm ready for a fun weekend, and next weekend I'll put the Punch 200-2 Amp and Prime R2S-1X12 12" in the wife's Thunder Chicken.

Sounds like a nice weekend spent intimately with your Camaro. Enjoy. The MS-8 makes a huge improvement. I just haven't had the time and energy to spend on getting mine adjusted right. Still getting distortion in highs and mids. Need to pull the door panels and try a couple different xover settings on the Focals to see if I can get it right.

BTW rray, you won't need the cap. I am close to 3000 watts and have had no problems pushing two 12" Type R subs with 1100 watts each. No elctrical power problems.

[darkrider01]

Originally Posted by CWIweldace

Sounds like a nice weekend spent intimately with your Camaro. Enjoy. The MS-8 makes a huge improvement. I just haven't had the time and energy to spend on getting mine adjusted right. Still getting distortion in highs and mids. Need to pull the door panels and try a couple different xover settings on the Focals to see if I can get it right.

BTW rray, you won't need the cap. I am close to 3000 watts and have had no problems pushing two 12" Type R subs with 1100 watts each. No elctrical power problems.

Why not run your Focals active? I'm ditching my passive crossovers this weekend. I'm going to have the T400-4 running my tweeters up front and the T800-4AD running the mids up front and my 6x9's out back.

[rray]

Well, I got the MS-8 installed, and get as far as setting up the outputs ok, but when I try to test them at the following screen, I can only hear a test tone from the sub.

So I continued anyways, and put on the headmicrophones, and when I am supposed to hear the tone sweeps, all i hear is the bass sweep. When the calibration is done, I cannot hear anything, no mater what volume I set on my head unit.

I reset the system and started over 6 or 7 times, trying including the input part where you use the test CD, (which the manual says to skip if you use low level inputs from an after market head unit), but each time I get to the test each speaker with a test tone, I only can hear a tone from the sub channel, not FL, FR, SL, or SR. (that's also wierd that they call RL and RR, SL and SR)

I have FL and FR of the head unit out connected to MS-8 line level inputs 1 and 2,
and have line out 1, 2, 3, and 4 connected to inputs on a T400-4 to drive the T2652's and T1693's, and outputs 5 and 6 to a T400-2 to drive a pair of P3 12's. (I upgraded to Power series amps for cleaner sound per Darkriders suggestion.

I know I must be doing something wrong, but I have read and re-read the manual, and cannot figure out what.

[rray]

Well, I figured out my previous setup problem, I had a loose power cable to the amp. That fixed I can't properly configure rear speakers.

I discovered I have to configure for side speakers in order for the rear speakers to show up in the setup, but if I don't configure the side speaker outputs, then I do not get the done option and cannot exit that screen.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Robert

[rray]

Success! I depressed the reset button on the bottom of the unit, then did a factory reset onscreen, connected then configured the speaker outputs like this: FL=out1, FR=out2, out 3 and out 4 empty but configured to SL and SR, RL=out5, RR=out6, Sub1=out7, Sub2=out8.

All tones were heard from all speakers, and the auto calibrate succeeded. The first time I calibrated tones at -20bd, but sound output was too quiet for the volume settings.

The next time I calibrated tones at -35db, and the volume is good, but the subs are too boomy, and I can hear some hiss between tracks. Now comes the fun of getting just the right tune. It's kind of hot inside the car, so I'll work on it again tomorrow morning.

No problems with any ground noise or amp on/off thump, so that's good news.

I looked for any firmware updates on the web, but found none, has anyone messed with firmware updates yet?



-Robert

[darkrider01]

Originally Posted by rray

Well, I figured out my previous setup problem, I had a loose power cable to the amp. That fixed I can't properly configure rear speakers.

I discovered I have to configure for side speakers in order for the rear speakers to show up in the setup, but if I don't configure the side speaker outputs, then I do not get the done option and cannot exit that screen.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Robert

Read the manual. Page 30. When you only have rear speakers, you configure them as sides. If you have sides and rears, then you get sides and rears.

[06nine]

After reading through all of these posts, I am wondering about a couple of things: Is it necessary to crank the volume to get the most benefit, or does the MS-8 sound good at any volume? And does Sirius sound as bad as the radio, even with the MS-8? Thanks!

[jeepguy_1980]

Originally Posted by 06nine

After reading through all of these posts, I am wondering about a couple of things: Is it necessary to crank the volume to get the most benefit, or does the MS-8 sound good at any volume? And does Sirius sound as bad as the radio, even with the MS-8? Thanks!

If you meant XM, then it has to sound just as bad. There is only so much you can do with a 44kbps signal.

[06nine]

Yes (XM). Thanks again.

[rray]

After the last cal I did this afternoon, I turned up the MS-8 volume to 0db (all the way up) and then used the head unit's volume control to see if it would affect that slight hiss I hear between track changes, and it actually did not change.

I am suspecting I can use either the MS-8 volume control, with the head unit's turned up to 40 out of 50, or set the MS-8 up to 0db, then just use the head unit's volume control, and get exactly the same results.

I'll do more of that kind of testing tomorrow.

-Robert

[rray]

Well, I got up at 6AM and being quiet in the neighborhood, started my tune, and now it sounds great.

I ended up setting the gain on all the amps to 2, filters to all pass on the T400-4 and LP on the 400-2 with crossover set to 125, then setting the MS-8 to -40db before doing the acoustic cal, and tuning only the front 2 seats.

After setting the EQ to tone down some mids around 400-800Hz and setting the MS-8 to -6db, I am able to adjust the volume up all the way on my head unit without any clipping, although comfortable listening happens at 1/3 to 1/2 volume level.

I have an Android head unit, and was streaming from Shoutcast's Audiophile Rock, Audiophile Jazz, and Audiophile Blues using Winamp Pro, and although it's really only 320 bitrate, not true 1411 bitrate lossless streams, those stations sound fantastic. (320 bitrate is the best I can stream using my phone as a wifi hotspot) There is NO detectible hiss between tracks.

When I disable Logic7 I can detect a slightly less wide soundstage (I have no center speaker) but I am undecided if I like it better enabled or disabled. With the MS-8 Defeated, my tweeters sound ringy at high volumes, and although the bass is punchier, I really like the processed sound better.

[CWI]

Question anyone with a MS-8 can answer.

If you turn of processing, to your subs still work? Mine don't, wondering if it's becaause it got dropped as I mentioned previously in this thread. Actually now I don't get any thing to the subs. I haven't had the time or interest lately to troubleshoot it as I am busy with other things right now. The amps have power, I just don't know where the signal is getting lost until I get a chance to troubleshoot.
Anyway, do you get subs when processing is off? If you do, I don't and this would be indicative of damage to the MS-8. I will have to bypass the processor to get my subs going unless it is the remote bass knob at fault.
It sucks not having enough time to do everything I have going on right now. Have ya ever felt like just tearing everything out and starting over?

[rray]

My subs work with bypass on, however everything sounds abnormally crappy. I think you need to do the cal with volume at -35 to -40 to get the subs to show up well.

When I did a cal at -20, afterwards I could not detect much sub bass, but bypass killed it even more. It acts like the cal sets up the gains for everything... bypass, on, or that theater 7 mode on too, all at the same time, then leaves you with the 2 effects on by default, or bypass to calibrate gains only mode.

I guess what I am saying is bypass only bypasses the effects and time correction, but not crossovers and gains. I don't know if this is fact, but after doing dozens of cals at different gains, that's what it sounds like.

Humor us and do a cal again, but set the volume to -40 when you cal, and your bass knob from the amp to mid setting, and this will make your bass much louder after the cal. Then test if the subs still cut out in bypass.

[TeamTCA]

You definitely have to adjust bass level at amplifier several times when setting up to get it right. The MS-8 sounds best when setup properly with LOGIC 7 processing turned on. All levels are effected when you defeat it. It takes several times setting this unit up and adjusting amp gains and levels between each other for it to eq/tune properly. If you don't have one already, I would strongly suggest installing a dedicated SUB LEVEL CONTROL KNOB, even if its a PAC LC-1 or similar (rca in & rca out). The MS-8 is too critical on bass level setup and you will want to be able to control the subs separately from what the MS-8 allows you too. Trust me. Done too many already with similar problem.