Try changing out your door speakers, sound deaden the front doors, and change the tweeters.
Regarding the time delay and making sense of it..... It is shocking that with all the genius technology in this unit, Alpine flopped on doing internal time delay measurements. If you were to put in your own measurements, their instruction is that your furthest speaker is your Zero, and then every other speaker distance entered would be the difference between your furthest speaker measurement, and the measured speaker from the listening position. So, in your measurements, your front Right tweeter is the furthest and gets marked as Zero. It makes sense then, that the closest speaker would show the largest measurement, and the highest time delay. But, most other DSP calculate this internally just by you adding your speaker measurements in raw form.Initial Set Up
Once I finished up the physical installation, the Alpine software was installed on the laptop and the laptop plugged into the DSP via USB cable. The software sees the processor and establishes a connection.
Here's the main screen. I selected the high-level inputs as the main source, and enabled Bluetooth as the secondary source.
There are a bunch of configurations already in the software for typical input set ups. Select one of those, or create your own. This was easy - I selected 4-channel input which corresponds to the factory radio high-level output.
Output mode selection is similar, I selected Front 2-way + Rear + Sub since I'll be using separate amp channels for dash tweeters and front door woofers.
Next, the Mix screen lets you map each of your input source channels to each DSP/amp channel. It looks complex because that's a LOT of sliders, but it is really straightforward. You're essentially telling it which signal goes where.
The Anti-EQ screen allows you to see and correct anything odd in the output frequency response of the factory radio. Put on a pink noise track, and the DSP shows you a frequency response graph in the RTA section at the bottom of the screen. Before I went through this, I had enabled Flat EQ via ForScan, and turned off Speed Compensated Volume in the factory radio. I had also set Occupancy Mode to All Seats.
The response graph shows a gradual decline across the whole frequency spectrum, but does not show any significant dips/peaks/holes in the response. That was outstanding. It does look like the DSP analyzes each input channel independently and shows you the graph for one channel at a time (see the blue lock with the checkmark in it in the upper left pane above).
If an issue shows up, you can make corrections on the EQ in the top pane, and you can do it in either graphic or parametric mode. Any corrections made are saved into the unit's memory and I believe they are applied to the signal first, before freq changes through the Auto-EQ or manual EQ functionality. One oddity though - it looks as though any manual corrections you make would need to be made to each input channel separately. I couldn't find any way to make a change to the graph and have the DSP apply it to all 4 channels.
Next up was measurement by the AutoEQ functionality. You can install an app on your iPhone (no Android) and use its internal mic to do this wirelessly. Or, you can use a mic & cable plugged into the processor. Alpine sells the mic/cable kit for an additional cost, or a Dayton calibrated mic & generic TRRS cable can be purchased for half of what the Alpine kit goes for. I used the mic & cable connected directly to the DSP.
The processor plays a bunch of sweep chirps over maybe a minute or so and asks that you move the microphone around as it measures. I expect that's to give it a better sampling. The graph above is mine, but keep in mind this will vary greatly, even if you have the "same" vehicle. While the Mav will have peaks/valleys common between everyone's trucks (glass/plastic reflections, carpet absorption), a lot of other things cause variation (cloth seats vs. vinyl is one example, but it'll mainly be everyone's different choice of speakers). In a nutshell, peaks & valleys are bad, straighter/smoother lines are good.
Once you have that response graph, the DSP calculates what it needs to do in order to correct it. The tan line in the graph shows the curve it wants to acheive, and the blue line shows the correction it applies to acheive it. The correction is roughly opposite of the issues that it measured. Before the DSP applies this correction, the user has the ability to drag that yellow line to manually tweak the target response. It's a hell of a thing to watch the real-time changes to the other lines (EQ and predicted) as this is done.
The upward jog in the yellow line as the frequency enters subwoofer range is put there by the software and is easy enough to change to your tastes. I expect it does this so that there is some headroom for adjusting the sub level from the remote display panel.
Next up is time correction. The YouTube set up video from Alpine references Tracerite.com. Measure the distance from your head to each speaker and enter them on the form. It will then calculate the millisecond delay for each driver.
These were my actual measurements. The tweeter distances do take into account the path length from the tweeter up to the window glass and then a 90 degree angle toward the driver's seat since they have reflected instead of direct output.
Each delay time is entered into the software. Ignore the distance shown on the screen as it isn't accurate and doesn't seem to apply. I have no idea why. Just like all the other settings that can be modified in this software, you are able to hear the effect of each change real-time which is outstanding.
I assigned different delay groups to all the left speakers vs. right. I've been playing around with trying to subtly shift where the image center is. By default, it sounds a bit toward the center of the vehicle and I'd like to hear how it sounds directly in front of the driver. The Tracerite site gives instructions for that shift, but I'm seeing if the delay group functionality will do it. When the drivers are in a group, any manual change you make to the delay for one driver applies a similar change to the other drivers automatically, but on a percentage basis. That's seriously cool. Not sure if that will do what I'm looking for yet and I'll need more tuning time to experiment with that.
I think this is pretty much it for initial set up. Next up, adjusting the sound to personal taste.
There's no need to spend more than $75-100 to replace the rear speakers, since they just provide rear fill. You can get some pretty good components in the $150 to $300 range to replace your fronts. I think the optim8 currently runs about $800 bucks. If you aren't installing it yourself, the install and tuning costs will vary widely from shop to shop.
After installing mine, I'm going to guess that it's because of the plastic reinforcement ribs I had to trim inside the door to accomodate the diameter of the magnet or just the general shape of the woofer's backside. That definitely seems like it would be a limiting factor in determining what fits.
I called crutchfield on some of the fitment issues they listed. Some of the speakers that aren't too deep still don't fit because the magnet is too wide.I'm not exactly certain why Crutchfield lists the 2 polk 6.5" components (MM and DB series) as not fitting the Maverick. I don't think they are overly deep. I put a set of MM 6.5 components in my wife's SUV that our son is now driving like 10 years ago and the cones and tweeters look the same, not to say for sure that they actually are the same.
I generally like silk or other fabric tweeters, but my current components have plastic tweeter domes and I like them a lot. I listened to them at a local shop before buying. They're on sale now - possibly going closeout, as there has been a new model (ASE165) for well over a year now, maybe 2. https://www.crutchfield.com/S-uG78Qc1yecI/p_091RSE165/Focal-RSE-165.html
Any issues with rattling since a lot of the materials are plastic? Been thinking about upgrading some speakers for a nice rich sound but I'm hesitant as I get some occasional rattle with the stock speakers. Thanks.EQ Screen
Next up is the main EQ screen. As the last part of initial set up, this screen is the best place to set up your crossover points. In the left pane, you'll see your driver configuration. Click any individual driver and you can adjust its frequency response curve, low- or high-pass filters, its crossover point, crossover type, crossover slope, and phase (if it's the sub). The Sync button lets you copy an applied change (change LF tweeter, then copy to RF tweeter). It also lets you tie two opposite-side drivers together to apply a single change to both if you'd prefer to do it that way.
After the initial configuration has been done, I'd expect that 90% of all other changes for personal listening tastes will be made on this screen.
Making EQ adjustments is done similarly to how the crossover settings above are made. Click any individual driver in that left pane and you can adjust its frequency response curve. The Sync button lets you copy an applied change and it also lets you tie two drivers (L and R) together to apply a single change to both.
The frequency response graph pane can be used in standard graphic EQ mode, or you can use it in parametric mode to have control over the Q (the width) of frequency band and the center of frequency band you're adjusting.
One surprise, and some functionality I didn't expect - there are a HUGE number of parametric bands available on this EQ screen, 31 actually. That's not typical. Ususally if a unit offers parametric control, you have to make do with a lesser number of bands. Not here. It has huge flexibility. But with that comes something odd. Use the standard (non-parametric) functionality and you'd expect that the band width (Q) would be very narrow and would minimally affect the level of adjacent bands. Well, it's not narrow. It's really wide, on each band. So wide that I doubt I'll use it, even though I specifically wanted this functionality. Maybe I'll get some screen captures at some point to show a comparison.
Below each band is a bypass button so you can enable/disable the change and easily hear the audible effect. By default, the main pane on this screen will show you an outline in it to represent the frequency range that the selected driver (upper left pane) is reproducing.
At that point, it seems like I'm limited to making changes to the EQ for that specific driver only. Example: if you have the CH-1 selected in the upper left pane (my LF tweeter), you can't drag the curve to increase the level at 70hz. To do that, I'd have to click CH-7 (my sub) in that left pane first.
Click the buttons for multiple drivers across the top right (that say CH-1, CH-2, etc), and it will overlay different colored outlines to the display showing you their frequency range being reproduced.
I have not been able to find a way to drag the curve to adjust a frequency's level and have it be applied to two different drivers. For example, my tweeter/woofer crossover point is at 3000hz. If I want to add a few db at 3000hz, I can't drag the curve and have the DSP apply it to both drivers even though both are technically reproducing that frequency (although at a lower level due to the crossover roll-off slope at that freq). I've had to make the change to each driver independently, or, I've had to make the change to the overall system correction on either the Anti-EQ or Auto-EQ screens which doesn't feel like the best way to do this.
On the bottom right pane of this screen is where settings are either saved to the DSP or loaded from the DSP's memory. While you can hear any change that you make real-time, you do have to specifically save to the processor's memory. Presets can be named, and once they're saved to the processor, they are selectable from the unit's control panel installed upfront. And it's absolutely outstanding that a preset seems to encompass every setting this software allows you to change.
Next up - how does it sound?
No, don't let a few rattles stand in the way of enjoying the sound system and vehicle more. Most are easily solved.
Appreciate the info, I'll keep that in mind upon improving my speakers.
No you'll have to fully bypass the B&O system for any decent audio quality.
