Building a sub box
Drifting
Joined: Nov 2016
Posts: 1,820
Likes: 411
From: Somewhere in the middle of Kansas
As far as DSP, I went with the AudioControl DM608. Why did I choose the the AudioControl DM608? Basically I chose it because I found it for what I thought was a great deal for $400 brand new on eBay. Was it worth it? Well I'll give you some of the pros and cons.
Pros: It is pretty easy to use. The software was easy to install and easy to learn. If you are wanting to run your system active, a DSP is a must have and a great asset. The 608 also auto tunes to give you a nice flat EQ to start with and then make adjustments from there. It has 6 input channels and 8 output channels and if thats not enough you can jump to the DM810 which is basically the same unit but with 8 inputs and 10 output channels. Price was also great and connecting it to my system was a breeze.
Cons: The biggest con was that it didn't change the sound as much as I had hoped. It still sounded like my Pioneer after I installed the DSP. I was expecting the sound to change a little more. I had heard good things about other DSP's brands and how they can make a bad or good system sound great. Maybe my expectations were too high but I didn't notice much of a difference with the AudioControl compared to the Pioneer. A slight improvement with the tuning capabilities, but I was hoping to not recognize my Pioneer and that wasn't the case. Maybe AudioControl is the Pioneer of DSP's? I don't know enough to answer for sure, but that is my take on it right now. Another con of the 608 is that I was hoping to tune each speaker individually, but with the 608 I had to tune the front speakers as a pair and then the same for the rear speakers. I had read that a firmware update corrected this, but I couldn't find the ability to do this even after running the update. The only other con applies to all DSP's, and that is that you need to be careful because you can blow a speaker if you are not familiar enough with DSP's, and I did blow a speaker. But on the positive side, it is what motivated me to build the sub box and finally upgrade to a full size subwoofer over the TW3 shallow I had before. And the 10W6 has been a nice improvement so far.
Pros: It is pretty easy to use. The software was easy to install and easy to learn. If you are wanting to run your system active, a DSP is a must have and a great asset. The 608 also auto tunes to give you a nice flat EQ to start with and then make adjustments from there. It has 6 input channels and 8 output channels and if thats not enough you can jump to the DM810 which is basically the same unit but with 8 inputs and 10 output channels. Price was also great and connecting it to my system was a breeze.
Cons: The biggest con was that it didn't change the sound as much as I had hoped. It still sounded like my Pioneer after I installed the DSP. I was expecting the sound to change a little more. I had heard good things about other DSP's brands and how they can make a bad or good system sound great. Maybe my expectations were too high but I didn't notice much of a difference with the AudioControl compared to the Pioneer. A slight improvement with the tuning capabilities, but I was hoping to not recognize my Pioneer and that wasn't the case. Maybe AudioControl is the Pioneer of DSP's? I don't know enough to answer for sure, but that is my take on it right now. Another con of the 608 is that I was hoping to tune each speaker individually, but with the 608 I had to tune the front speakers as a pair and then the same for the rear speakers. I had read that a firmware update corrected this, but I couldn't find the ability to do this even after running the update. The only other con applies to all DSP's, and that is that you need to be careful because you can blow a speaker if you are not familiar enough with DSP's, and I did blow a speaker. But on the positive side, it is what motivated me to build the sub box and finally upgrade to a full size subwoofer over the TW3 shallow I had before. And the 10W6 has been a nice improvement so far.
