Wetsounds Install

[SuperSquirt]

Thanks Tim for such a great invention. It makes lakefront homeowners much happier and angrier at the same time. I finally hooked it all up and turned it on yesterday, and it didn't take me long to tweak everything. I got everything installed correctly using new monster cables. Everything turned on fine and sounded great (crossovers set and gains just right).

Question for Tim:
My only problem is the actual Treble-Mid adjustments for my tower are way too sensitive. If I leave everything flat on the Alpine unit and leave the volume at 0, I get some humming from my WS 485's ONLY when I turn up the treble and mid on the 420 (from normal). Now, if you're listening to music you can't hear the humming, but when volume is off is does get annoying. Is this just frequency sensitivity by the HLCD? Is it normal, because the Polk Momos aren't making that noise?

My resolution was to leave the adjustments knobs all north for the tower and just use my Alpine to tweak the treble, which works fine.

[wetsounds1]

Thanks

What you are hearing is "gain hiss" You have a high powered line driver into a high powered amp. Then a very effcient compression driver. So anything on the line with no music playing becomes over amplified. And you may hear a hiss. Your in boats are doing it too but since the tweeter is so small and not as effceint. You would have to put you ear right up to it etc..

If you hear this. You have the gains on the amps up too high. When adding a ton of input voltage from a line driver. Your gains on you amps will not need to be up very much.

So try this. Take the line driver higher a bit on the 420. And back the gains down on the amps and see. Keep playing with it to you get the volume set at unity and no hiss.

Your amps should not be up very much. If you have the line driver up and the gains over half way. Your gain stucture is probably wide open which results in the hiss.

So it isn't anything with the mid/high. It is all in the gains. The freq of the hiss is centered around there. So when you boost that mid high, you boost the hiss.

So best thing to do is re set the gains. The set up guide is a start. And sounds like you got really close. A little tweak here and there and you should be set.

Tim
Wet Sounds

[SuperSquirt]

Understood, my gains are set slightly less of nom right now. I tried cranking up everything to max volume & 3/4 gain, and I couldn't get any of my speakers to distort. It about blew my eardrums in a closed garage.

What about if I add a HSE volume box to my current setup? Will it cause any danger to my amps using two line drivers and having a 4volt receiver?

[wetsounds1]

Talk to Mikeski. He has the HSE and WS-420 and no issues. Not sure if he had to re tune everyhting after adding the HSE.

When adding another line driver in the mix. You will want to just be careful with all the gains and not over drive everything.

Tim
Wet Sounds

[Mikeski]

Get the WS-420 dialed in before you add the HSE volume control. Use bypass RCA's if you have to. Once the 420 is dailed adding the HSE into the mix is easy. There were a batch of bad HSE's but I doubt you got one. Tim is probably dead on with amp gain being too high. You need to keep enough attenuation on the bottom side of the audio taper with the deck. I run my deck very close to max when things are rocking, from my experience the topside of the Clarion remains pretty clean when using the AUX inputs.

[Flipside]

Guys, a reputable dealer told me that using the 420 as an EQ gives a hiss in the speakers. He recommended that I use the Alpine head to control the Wetsound Pro485s and inboard speakers (i.e. front balance & rear balance adjustment to control the two). Are you experiencing a hiss?

[bchesley]

No hiss here. Not sure why anyone would say that. How much experience does he have with one. Has he ever set one up?

[wetsounds1]

Flipside, Do me a favor and email what dealer said that. twhite@wetsounds.com

Sounds like someone needs some educating.

As mentioned above. A hiss is "gain hiss" Meaning that the gains are not set properly. This can and will happen in any system with a high powered line driver. Not just the 420.

Anytime you add a high powered line driver. You are sending more voltage to the amps input stage. So in turn, the amp gains will not need to be up as high as they would with a low input like a radio.

Also, when using any EQ on a compression driver tower speaker. There is no need to boost the highs. As the compression drivers are very effcient. And you are already getting a lot of highs.

For instance, I see this happen a lot. You have a WS-420 with the gains up and then a high powered amp with the gains all the way up. Then a ipod with the treble boost on. Into a head unit with the highs up. Then the highs up on an eq or the 420 up. All going to a pair of HLCD towers speakers. Recipe for disaster.

That is why I made the set up guide. To help get the system set up properly.

You should not use an EQ on a ipod, leave the head unit flat, make sure to get the gains set to unity on the amps, and on the tower portion. You should not need much in terms of boost on the highs anyway.

Add to this that everything is in a boat that is always hard to get noise free as there is no true ground like a car. So another note is to make sure that all the grounds for the radio, eq and amps are at the same point.

Tim
Wet Sounds

[Mikeski]

no hiss here (except when my wife catches me checking out others...)

[Flipside]

Tim, thanks for the info and guidelines for set-up. Again, nice to have the supplier on these boards to set the record straight.

And Mikeski, don't bring the sand to the beach!

[emagine]

SuperSquirt,

What type and Where did you get the mounting bracket for the head unit and WS-420 to be placed in the glovebox?

[SuperSquirt]

Go to Crutchfield.com and look through their radio dash kits, they have hundreds. Look at them closely to see how you might want to install it. I went with an easy straight in 4 screws to mount the 88 Ford Mustang kit.

[emagine]

Thanks.