I have a pioneer 880PRS HU on order and am adding it to my eDi 6000s comps up front and a sub in the trunk (all amped of course). My OE rear speakers are still in place but I have no amp running to them now and will likely not hook them up at all to the new HU. I am planning on running the auto time alignment and auto EQ function on the HU for a baseline and tweak as necessary from there.

My question is: Can I run this function without a rear pair of speakers, that is just the front pair and the single sub?
I see in the manual that a potential error code: "ERR:Rear-Lch,ERR:Rear-Rch," meaning "The microphone cannot pick up the measuring tone of a speaker." Nowhere, however, does it explicitly state that a 2+1 channel system won't work.

I appreciate your help as I am always learning and want to make good with what I got.

Thanks in advance.

 

don't use the auto EQ. the auto T/A does real good job but the auto EQ sounds like poop to me. i tune by ear.

 

yep tune it so it sounds good for you

 

Oh, okay. That's what I ideally would like to do but I didn't know if I could perform them separately and if not, whether I could keep the auto T/A settings while creating my own EQ.

Nevertheless, can I do Auto T/A with only a pair of components and a sub (no rear channel)?

I'm not confident that I can really get the timing alignment down too well.

 

i'm not sure what it will do in standard mode itfyou have no rears. i'd just try fading them out completely then run it.

 

yeah, rears suck anyway.

 

to the OP: do you plan to use this head unit active eventually or just passive?

 

Active or Passive? For at least the next year, I will not have the money for any more additions so I will stay passive.

In all reality, by the time I have money to be going big on the system, I will be getting a new car.

 

why but that HU just to stay passive?

 

I still may go active in the future but in a different car. For the time being, I am only running a pair of components in the doors and a sub in the back. Besides, I hate the way all of the lower end units across any line look. The PRS decks from pioneer are the only ones that have any visual appeal to me. I even thought about the 980 BT because it has bluetooth built in and high speed USB/iPod interface but couldn't get past the ugliness of it.

So back to the original question: Will auto T/A work with only one pair of components?

I have 65 watts x 2 running the 6.5's in the front. Would it be totally useless to put my OEM 6.5's & tweeters in the rear location of the 5.5's and power from the HU? (This would be my only solution for having rear channels.

Before you ask, I have 0 (zero) interest in buying another amp and/or set of speakers for the rear just to get a 4+Sub setup.

 

you'll be fine with just fronts and a sub. i'm pretty sure it'll still do the t/a without rears. b4 you run the auto t/a try turning the rears off in the hu's options.

 

i'd do fronts active before fronts and rears passive

 

Thanks Tcguy. I'll do that. I wasn't even planning on wiring the HU to the speakers but I guess I can fade the rears out.

Now to jack my own thread.

Nebster, I agree with you but I only have a four channel amp right now and half of that is bridged to power my sub. If and when I want to go active, how much power do I run to the tweeters if I am running 65 W to each midrange and 150 to the sub? How can I find out how much power my current tweeters can handle? Right now, I am just sending >80hz (HPF on the amp) to the component crossover and letting that handle the power and frequency distribution. If only a small amount (ie 18W) of wattage needs to go the tweeters, would it be possible to power them off of the HU and then use my amp for mids and lows?

I really appreciate all that I have learned on this site and the great contributions everyone makes. It's refreshing to see so much constructive thought as opposed to other sites that tell you to just get an SI or STI.

 

One other thing.

What is a good resource for broadening my understanding of audio system design? On the web or in the bookstore, where can I find good hard data?

 

honestly you just need to test it out. i'll be feeding my tweeters around 100 watts each and my mids about 150 each. you could get a little two channel amp for like 100 bucks that will do 65 watts a piece x2 and that would do it awesome. or you could buy a dedicated sub amp for the sub. that would work as well.

either way i think putting in a rear fill would not be so hot, i'm not a fan of the sound it produces.

honestly the best thing you can do for audio is two things. forums and this site : www.bcae1.com and go to www.diymobileaudio.com/forum for the forum. this site is ok, there are a couple of people that know whats up but in general its OMG ALPINE RULEZ kinda thing. i recommend reading the whole site (i know its stupid long and will take a while) but its all fantastic info and join up on DIYMA because there are a ton of people that know whats up, mostly when it comes to active car audio.

I think that answers everything, if not lemme know and i'll do the best i can

 

Thanks a ton! That answers everything except: Where can I find a nine.5 for free?

 

lol good luck 350 is as cheap as you'll see them

 

i did that with my 880 and it worked very well. i had the tweets on the hu and the mids on a 2 channel. the tweets got plenty loud.

 

I know. It hurts to sit and stare at that price in the web browser. Still I do it a couple of times a day. I hate not having a job.

I think I'll do what you did tCguy. eD tells me that the midranges and tweets individually run at 6ohms. I imagine that won't be a problem for the HU as it will put out to 4-8ohms. Your 880 handled it right?

 

yes, it will work but it will be putting out a couple watts less at 6 ohms than 4. my tweets and mids were still 4 ohms even w/o the crossover. so i can't say how it will work with 6ohm components. but really, it shouldn't make much of a difference.