# Pioneer DEH-80PRS vs. Pioneer Premier DEH-980BT



## Brian Steele (Jun 1, 2007)

I recently replaced my Pioneer Premier DEH-980BT with the DEH-80PRS and I thought it might be useful to share my thoughts on the difference between the two units for anyone else who is currently contemplating the switch.

First of all, I purchased the 980BT back in 2009 for $399.99. The 980BT does not offer any built-in USB connectivity (back then, the emphasis was still on using spinning shiny disks for playing music), so I also purchased the CD-UB100 for $99.99 to provide this additional level of connectivity (the UB100 connects to the 980BT via IP-Bus). The combination works very, very well, but there are a few reasons why I decided to replace them with the 80PRS.

First of all, the 980BT takes too long to play any music for the UB100, particularly when you have a significant number of tracks on your USB stick. I've consumed almost 6 of the 8GB on tap on the USB stick I was using with my 980BT, and it was taking up to a minute before any music starts to play. This was the primary reason why I opted to replace the 980BT with the 80PRS. Secondary reasons were that the control knob on my 980BT was starting to look a bit worn (almost all the chrome coating was worn off) and the remote control had ceased to function. The main reason though was the USB playback issue. 

I chose to go with the 80PRS for two main reasons: (1) it appeared to offer a slightly better audio control feature set than the 980BT, and (2), it has a newer and hopefully better USB interface. The 80PRS does offer some other advantages though, these being:

1. Audio settings are saved even when the battery is disconnected (with the 980BT, all settings are erased at the loss of battery connection, and there are a LOT of settings!).
2. EQ can be done individually for Left and Right channels (but unfortunately not Front/Rear, which would have been even more preferable for me).
3. Ability to mute each channel.
4. No external "boxes" (with their own power requirements) are required to read USB drives.
5. The "Automatic Sound Levelizer" feature.
6. The internal amplifier can be turned off.
7. The "Sound Retriever" function (which actually produces decent results with some music).


Missing from the 80PRS however are the following features that the 980BT has:

1. BBE - which could be nice for some older music (particularly from the 70's)
2. Compression / BMX - admittedly I hardly used this feature.
3. Full colour OEL screen - oh boy, the screen on the 980BT is SIGNIFICANTLY better than what the 80PRS has. An order of magnitude better.
4. IP-Bus connectivity (but then again, is this really required now?)


I made some other observations about the 80PRS during the install:

1. For now I prefer the control layout of the 980BT. The control knob of the 980BT is basically a rotating and rocking and push-button control combined into one unit, and it only took a few minutes to get used to it. On the 80PRS, this has been replaced with that rotating control and a separate rocking control, and getting through the setup menus is now a bit more difficult. 

2. The EQ option can be selected, but not adjusted, by hitting the EQ button. This is a pretty strange, and non-intuituve approach. It seems obvious that hitting the EQ button and then using the control knob should allow you to modify the EQ settings, but no, that's not the way it works. The "EQ" button is not involved at all in changing any of the bands for any of the EQ options. Instead you have to hit the control button and then cycle through the audio options to get to the EQ settings. Furthermore, the displayed curve for the Custom1 and Custom2 EQ options when you hit the EQ button does not match the actual settings you may have in place for those options.

3. Track playback from USB key appears to be in a different order to what I experienced with the 980BT. With the 980BT, playback was in alphabetical order. With the 80PRS, playback order depends on what time the track was actually copied to the USB key.

4. EQ is actually in 2dB steps, according to the manual. So setting a particular band to "-1" means that you're actually applying 2dB, not 1dB, of attenuation. Strange that they would this approach, on a deck that's appears to be targetted at less-wealthy enthusiasts. I'd prefer 1dB increments, or display the actual amount of amplification or attenuation.

5. In the case of the 980BT, the RCA jacks are located on a pigtail. For the 80PRS, the RCA jacks are on the back of the unit. I prefer the 980BT's approach, as it works well for tight locations. It also allows you to remove the deck quite easily for troubleshooting purposes.

6. The faceplate and remote control have a rather cheap feel to them, compared to the 980BT. The background graphics options are pretty poor IMO and not really suitable for what the display is actually capable of doing. IMO the "meter" background options are particularly horrible, and the overall impression I got was this component of the user interface was "rushed". There is the option available to turn the display off, and I might end up opting for that - it's that bad IMO, compared to the 980BT. Yes, you've got several "colour" options available, but this in no way makes up for the generally poor display.

7. The power/speaker connector of the 80PRS is just slightly different to the 980BT, so swapping one deck for another required some surgery with an adapter. Why not standardize on this connector? It's not like Pioneer have added any additional capabilities to it - it's the same old blinkin' power/ground/acc/remote/dimmer arrangement, dammit!

8. One nice plus - the Auto EQ mic plugs into the front of the 80PRS. With the 980BT, you had to unplug the "hands-free" mic to plug in the Auto-EQ one (which in turn meant that you had to make sure that the pigtail for the "hands-free" mic" was located somewhere that was easy to access, unless you enjoy tearing down your dash every time you wanted to try using the Auto-EQ (e.g. if you changed a speaker or two). OTOH, that faceplate looks like all it needs to get scratched is a good hard look at it, so I think I'm going to be very careful when plugging anything into it.

OK, SO HOW DOES IT SOUND?

All in all, the 80PRS sounds great. In fact, fantastic. And it better had, given the trouble I had to go through to install it in my Tucson. And I've done only a bit of manual tuning at this point. I'm going to try the Auto-EQ option tomorrow and do some before/after measurements to see what the results look like. I wasn't really happy with the 980BT's Auto-EQ feature - hopefully the 80PRS does a much better job.

In summary, if you currently have a 980BT, and you're not that into USB playback (or you're not trying to play tunes from a library that's a few GBs in size), my suggestion would be to hang on to the 980BT for the moment and await Pioneer's next iteration of the 80PRS that hopefully addresses the display shortfalls. IMO they could have easily sold this unit for an extra $50~$100 with a better display and faceplate, considering that its current price is only 60% of the 980BT/UB100 combination, and it's much more versatile wrt USB. 

I'll post up the Auto-EQ results tomorrow. For the moment, I'll leave you with an image showing both decks, the PRS80 on top and the 980BT below.


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## cnut334 (Oct 17, 2009)

Good review!


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## Brian Steele (Jun 1, 2007)

I had some time to test out the Auto-EQ functions of the 80PRS today. Before I get into the results, I think it would be best to outline what the 80PRS has to offer in terms of EQ. First of all there are four "preset" EQ curves - "Super Bass", "Powerful", "Natural" and "Vocal". There's a "Flat" setting (which I assume is self-descriptive) and then there are "Custom 1" and "Custom 2" settings. "Custom 1" is applicable ONLY to the source currently selected (in other words, if you switch to another source, then the EQ also changes), and "Custom 2" is applicable to all sources. 

None of these are really "system" EQ settings. In other words, you can't use "Custom 1" or "Custom 2" to correct response anomalies in your system, then switch to using one of the preset curves to suit your listening preferences. The closest you can get to this is to use "Custom 2" to fix anomalies AND meet your listening preferences, or "Custom 1" on each source to do the same thing if your sources differ significantly.

That's where the "Auto-EQ/TA" feature comes in. This IS the "system EQ", and once it is enabled, it supposedly addresses the frequency response anomalies in your system, and then the previously-mentioned EQ settings can be used solely to adjust the response to meet your listening preferences, which, if you're like me, can vary depending on what I'm listening to, or when I'm listening to it.

Well, at least theoretically that is how it's supposed to work. In practice, there's only so much the Auto-EQ/TA function can do, and if your system suffers from gross response anomalies, it's not going to be able to correct them.

Anyway, below are the results I achieved when I ran the "Auto-EQ/TA" function on my system.

First of all, here's the un-EQ'd response of my system prior to using the Auto-EQ function:










You'll note that it's pretty far from flat, with dips at just under 70 Hz, a broad dip between 500 Hz and 1kHz, and another dip just about 2kHz. The response above 10kHz or so can basically be ignored (limitations of my measuring system). 

Now, here's the response of my system after I ran the "Auto-EQ/TA" feature:










Even though there are still a number of dips and peaks, the response is now a lot smoother than the un-EQ'd response.

At this point I put on some music and had a listen. Something did not sound right. So I had a look at what TA adjustments had been made by the "Auto EQ/TA" feature, and they turned out to be the following (in brackets are the settings I'd manually set using other measurements):

1. Left Front - 150 cm (142.5 cm)
2. Right Front - 115 cm (98.75 cm)
3. Left Rear - 387.5 cm (146.25 cm)
4. Right Rear - 205 cm (103.25 cm)
5. Subwoofer - 313.25 cm (130 cm)

Now, 387.5 cm is just under 13 feet, and there's no way that the rear speakers are *that* far away from my in my Hyundai Tucson. I adjusted the TA settings back to what I originally had, and the imaging cleared up significantly. But now the bass was off a bit. Turned out that the "Auto EQ/TA" feature changed the filter settings I'd put in place for the rear speakers and subwoofer. Putting them back in place cleared up the bass significantly. I also increased the subwoofer level by 2dB. The FR now looks like this:










I suspect I can smooth out the 100 Hz to 500 Hz region by choosing a different filter point for the rear speakers, which I will attempt this weekend. 

In summary, the Auto-EQ/TA seems to have improved the FR, but it also dialled in some wacky TA settings, and I'm not sure why. Phase issue between front and rear speakers perhaps? I've already checked this, but will check again this weekend just to make sure.


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## CDT FAN (Jul 25, 2012)

Nice posts. I enjoyed reading them.


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## jmontoya21 (Apr 8, 2010)

the DEH-80PRS REPLACED MY CDA-9887 with IMPRINT and i never looked back.
thanks for sharing. i did not know the specifics about the custom 1 and custom 2 setting.


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## Brian Steele (Jun 1, 2007)

jmontoya21 said:


> the DEH-80PRS REPLACED MY CDA-9887 with IMPRINT and i never looked back.
> thanks for sharing. i did not know the specifics about the custom 1 and custom 2 setting.


The "Custom 1" and "Custom 2" thing caught me a few times with my previous deck (which has the same arrangement for these EQ options). I'd accidentally select "Custom 1" for my tuning, using pink noise through the AUX inputs, and then when I switched to listening to my USB-based music library - hey, where did all my adjustments go? 

I experienced the wonky TA settings as well when using Auto EQ/TA on my previous deck. I'm using the exact same speakers front and rear, but the last time I checked the rear speakers appear to have a significant bump at midbass frequencies that does not appear in the output from the front speakers. This might be throwing things off a little. I'm going to take a closer look this weekend at exactly what is going on (e.g. examine the changes to the output of each channel) when the "Auto EQ/TA" function is used.


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## ZAKOH (Nov 26, 2010)

I run 2-way active front stage with DEH-80PRS and Hybrid Audio Imagine speakers. For some reason, after running auto-eq, the bass response just doesn't sound very satisfying. Perhaps the issue with bass being flat, as in your graphs. I always increase subwoofer level by 7-8dBs from the base level. Strangely, the head unit chose 125Hz HP for my front speakers and 80Hz LP for subwoofer. I would have preferred at least 80Hz HP for speakers, they don't seem strained. However, the filter settings for the bandpass and tweeters were spot on (6.3KHz at 12dB, which I discovered sounds best by trial and error as well). Imaging, mid-range clarity, and treble clarity are amazing after running autoeq. I still fine tuned the left woofer and tweeter time delay to match my taste.


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## Golden Ear (Oct 14, 2012)

If the 80PRS's crossover points on the highs went lower, like down to 300hz then I probably wouldn't have gone with a separate dsp. But since they don't and I have widebanders on my dash crossed at 300hz I had to get one. The auto eq and TA do a pretty good job but definitely need some user tweaking afterward. Just my $.02


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## Brian Steele (Jun 1, 2007)

ZAKOH said:


> For some reason, after running auto-eq, the bass response just doesn't sound very satisfying. Perhaps the issue with bass being flat, as in your graphs.


The FR produced by the "Auto-EQ/TA" function actually isn't that flat. The graph's scale might be giving that impression. If you look closely, it seems to slope upwards from about 1kHz or so down to bass frequencies. At around 50 Hz, the level is around 12dB higher. Seems similar to the "IASCA" curve posted in another thread.


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## nervewrecker (Oct 5, 2009)

So my remote fell a couple of times....a few times too much apparently so it stopped working a few weeks ago. This weekend I went hunting for a new remote and couldnt get the original, got a CD-R310 instead and to my surprise the att function works and when you hit the audio button it takes you straight into the audio menu. The only drawback is that you have to hit the multichannel button on the head unit itself to enter a menu as the remote has no "enter" button and you will have to hit the "answer" button on the head unit if you get a phonecall.


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## derrickm (Jul 9, 2009)

Excellent post.

I also just replaced my HU with the 80PRS, and I agree with everything you said. I've had mine for a couple weeks, and I'm still playing around with it so I like the sound at all volumes with windows up or down.

This doesn't seem perfectly suited us folks that run rears, as you said, the EQ is left/right only, and not front/rear.

It's kind of annoying that it adjusts the crossover settings every time you run auto EQ.

The display animations are horrible, and I immediately turned those off.

SQ is very good, and the auto EQ does appear to do its job. I like my tweeters turned down, so I had to install lpads so I wasn't relying on the custom1/2 to turn it back down after the AutoEQ turned 'em back up.

Thanks for the tip on the time alignment--I'll have to go check those to see what it came up with.


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## TheBetterMethod (Sep 19, 2012)

^If you run a front/rear setup can you set your crossover points the same for network 1 and 2? I don't have the 80prs, but I would be surprised if it isn't capable of that.


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## derrickm (Jul 9, 2009)

TheBetterMethod said:


> ^If you run a front/rear setup can you set your crossover points the same for network 1 and 2? I don't have the 80prs, but I would be surprised if it isn't capable of that.


In standard mode (not 3 way active) you can set the crossover frequency/slope for front and rear independently, but you cannot change the EQ for front or rear independently.


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## TheBetterMethod (Sep 19, 2012)

Ok, I see how that would be a problem.


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## 1fishman (Dec 22, 2012)

Great review. Another idiosyncrasy of the DEH- 80-PRS.

I noticed that the TA settings for a Mono Sub is way off. Another person mentioned this also. 

It seems that if you're running a mono sub (in the Mono Mode) the TA does not recognize it as one sub. So you have to correct both left and right channels. The strange thing is once corrected the Left is might be set to 253.75 cm and right to 353,75 cm. I ended up just muted right channel for a quick fix. 
FWIW


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## ndisgiidiy (Aug 17, 2014)

I have a quick question. I am considering this deck for my setup. My setup is a single amp that is 3 channel. One channel for a pair of subs, and the other two channels for my front left/right component speakers. I will have one set of RCA going from deck to amp (I am assuming from the front output on the deck), and then the amp will crossover the signals for high and low. My question is whether or not the Auto EQ will be of any benefit to me at all since I will not be using the built in crossovers in the deck that you guys keep talking about. Thanks for your help!


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## Golden Ear (Oct 14, 2012)

Using passive crossovers with this unit is going to limit what the eq of the headunit can do. It'll work, but it won't sound as good as it could. Why not get a cheap 2 channel amp so you can take full advantage of the 16 band eq? Something that'll put 50x2 to your tweets is probably good enough.


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## ndisgiidiy (Aug 17, 2014)

Golden Ear said:


> Using passive crossovers with this unit is going to limit what the eq of the headunit can do. It'll work, but it won't sound as good as it could. Why not get a cheap 2 channel amp so you can take full advantage of the 16 band eq? Something that'll put 50x2 to your tweets is probably good enough.


Just like the idea of keeping it simple, and having one amp to do it all is a nice thought. I already bought the amp and it shipped today:

Taramp's Amplificadores

I will be running either D1720C or MM6501 components up front (unless there is something better at the same price point at a max of $200), and a pair of BM MKIV subs behind my seats. Its a little Toyota MR2 2 seater, so not a lot of cabin space to fill up. Trying to determine what deck to go with at this point, as I have a Sony double din 64BT model with crappier out voltage. I am thinking of switching to single din with better voltage and cannot decide on a decently priced deck. This would be the most expensive deck I would consider. The thought of auto EQ intrigues me, but I think it might not be worth it now. What would be the best deck if auto EQ wasnt necessary? What about JVC Arsenal KD-AR959BS?


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## upgrayedd (Apr 19, 2011)

with a system so simple and no need for active crossover, just get the least expensive deck that has the features you want. my wife's van has a 4 channel amp and a $80 pioneer. I have a kenwood and all of their internal processing is garbage, but it does what I need and i like the look/feel.


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## ndisgiidiy (Aug 17, 2014)

upgrayedd said:


> with a system so simple and no need for active crossover, just get the least expensive deck that has the features you want. my wife's van has a 4 channel amp and a $80 pioneer. I have a kenwood and all of their internal processing is garbage, but it does what I need and i like the look/feel.


Should I still worry about the output voltage? Like try and stick with 4 or 5 volts etc???


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## upgrayedd (Apr 19, 2011)

more voltage isnt a bad thing but i wouldnt make it a factor for changing out head units. In my accord, i went through about 10 different head units. after matching gains the only one that really stood out was my alpine 7940 because its output was so high(over 4 in reality) that it would actually cause a few of my amps to clip with the gains all the way down. i had other 2 and 4 volt kenwood, pioneer, and alpine.


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## ndisgiidiy (Aug 17, 2014)

upgrayedd said:


> more voltage isnt a bad thing but i wouldnt make it a factor for changing out head units. In my accord, i went through about 10 different head units. after matching gains the only one that really stood out was my alpine 7940 because its output was so high(over 4 in reality) that it would actually cause a few of my amps to clip with the gains all the way down. i had other 2 and 4 volt kenwood, pioneer, and alpine.


So are you saying that decks that put out too much voltage ca be problems? The JVC I was looking at claims 4.8 and even this 80PRS has been tested to put out 4.8. So that could potentially be an issue if the amp doesnt like it? I have to read up on "matching gains". Not sure what that means or how to go about it.


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## upgrayedd (Apr 19, 2011)

You have a volume control, too much voltage is not an issue. I was more showing the example that In a decent setup, the sonic difference between 2 and 4v preouts is likely not going to be noticed. The main reason for high preout voltage in car audio is to overcome inducted noise, While this is not BS, I have yet to have any noise issues in lower voltage preouts as long as I used decent rcas.

In summary: If you are buying a new deck, yes get as much preout voltage as possible. If you are ONLY looking to replace the deck because of preout voltage, I wouldnt worry about it, or you could even add a line driver since you only have one pair running to the amp. This isn't 1994 and low preout voltages arent 500mv in most cases. Many are still in the 2v range. I have yet to have a noise issue with 1-2v preouts.

http://bcae1.com/ There is a section on amplifier gains and much other valuable information.


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## ndisgiidiy (Aug 17, 2014)

upgrayedd said:


> You have a volume control, too much voltage is not an issue. I was more showing the example that In a decent setup, the sonic difference between 2 and 4v preouts is likely not going to be noticed. The main reason for high preout voltage in car audio is to overcome inducted noise, While this is not BS, I have yet to have any noise issues in lower voltage preouts as long as I used decent rcas.
> 
> In summary: If you are buying a new deck, yes get as much preout voltage as possible. If you are ONLY looking to replace the deck because of preout voltage, I wouldnt worry about it, or you could even add a line driver since you only have one pair running to the amp. This isn't 1994 and low preout voltages arent 500mv in most cases. Many are still in the 2v range. I have yet to have a noise issue with 1-2v preouts.
> 
> Basic Car Audio Electronics There is a section on amplifier gains and much other valuable information.


Thank you for the info. I will check it all out.


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## Golden Ear (Oct 14, 2012)

Even tho you're running passive crossovers I would still recommend the 80prs. You won't find a better hu for the money and you'll still benefit from the eq at time alignment.


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## rton20s (Feb 14, 2011)

As Golden Ear said, I would still go with the DEH-80PRS. It provides the most flexibility and allows you to go active with only the change or addition of an amplifier, if you so chose. The only other units that I might consider, if I knew I wasn't going active would be the Alpine CDE-HD148BT and CDE-HD149BT.


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## Golden Ear (Oct 14, 2012)

The first thing I would try is going active off of the prs and using it's built-in amp to run the tweeters and your 3 channel amp to run the mids and sub. It should get plenty loud for you and you can take advantage of all of its features.


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## ndisgiidiy (Aug 17, 2014)

Golden Ear said:


> The first thing I would try is going active off of the prs and using it's built-in amp to run the tweeters and your 3 channel amp to run the mids and sub. It should get plenty loud for you and you can take advantage of all of its features.


Well, thats an interesting idea. So, run tweets off of 80PRS and mids and subs off the amp. Please bear with me here, but would the amp be able to tell the mids both ends of the cutoff? For example, can my amp tell the mids to start at 100Hz and also end at 3Khz? Ant then the 80prs can tell the tweets to go from 3Khz and up, or something to that effect?


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## Golden Ear (Oct 14, 2012)

Yes. The headunit will actually be telling the speakers which frequencies to play, not the amps. So it'll cross over the mids at around 100hz to 3kz, or whatever you set your crossovers to, and your subs can be crossed from 20-80hz and your tweeters from 3.5khz to 20khz, for example.


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## ndisgiidiy (Aug 17, 2014)

Golden Ear said:


> Yes. The headunit will actually be telling the speakers which frequencies to play, not the amps. So it'll cross over the mids at around 100hz to 3kz, or whatever you set your crossovers to, and your subs can be crossed from 20-80hz and your tweeters from 3.5khz to 20khz, for example.


Only problem I see is that the 80PRS only puts 15W rms to the tweets.


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## Golden Ear (Oct 14, 2012)

True. But in true DIY fashion you should try it to hear if you like it. What have you got to lose?


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## ndisgiidiy (Aug 17, 2014)

Golden Ear said:


> True. But in true DIY fashion you should try it to hear if you like it. What have you got to lose?


I might just do it  ....I am still waiting for my gear to arrive, so might be a little while to get it all in, but I am excited to hear it.


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## Golden Ear (Oct 14, 2012)

I think you'll like the result. The tweeters should still get plenty loud, but if not, the sq is a good trade-off, IMHO. And if it doesn't work out to your liking you can run the tweets off the passives off the amp.


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## saridi (Nov 8, 2014)

great review, very completed


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## Golden Ear (Oct 14, 2012)

ndisgiidiy said:


> I might just do it  ....I am still waiting for my gear to arrive, so might be a little while to get it all in, but I am excited to hear it.


Updates? Tried it yet? Inquiring minds must know


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## plcrides (Mar 21, 2014)

installed my 80 PRS tonight,sounds really good,and at this point i am pretty much clueless on tuning it.at the moment i still have boston pro series components with passive cross overs hooked up,tomorrow I'm unhooking the passive cross overs and i have a set of audible physics AR3'S that i am going to set on the dash to start aiming for my a pillar install.im curious to see what will happen when i take out the pass/x overs.


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## plcrides (Mar 21, 2014)

question,I'm going to unhook my passive cross overs and take them out today.for now i have a component set,a pair of tweeters in the sails and 6.5's in the doors.
will i need to change settings?

and this week i will be placing some 3 inch mid's by the a pillar to try aiming so i can fiberglass,do i need to adjust settings for these too? then when i find how to build pillars with fiberglass the tweeters will be hooked back up and same thing,do i need to adjust settings on the head unit.
i have a brand new 80 PRS
and i have a 4 channel amp for my front,each speaker has a channel.thanks for some help,I'm not familiar with this HU yet,haha at all.


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