Audiocontrol DQX User Manual

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DQX

Stereo One-Third Octave
Digital Equalizer/Crossover

Owner’s Enjoyment Manual

AudioControl

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22410 70th Avenue West • Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043 USA

Phone [phone] • Fax [phone]

www.audiocontrol.com

AudioControl®

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Owner’s Enjoyment Manual

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Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Key Features and Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Quick Installation Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A Guided Tour of the DQX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Placement and Mounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Power Wiring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Audio Wiring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Level Matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Navigating the DQX menu screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Equalization Adjustment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

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Setting the DQX crossover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Graphic versus Parametric Equalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Owner’s Enjoyment Manual

AudioControl®

Owner’s Enjoyment Manual

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Introduction

Welcome to the world of AudioControl’s perfor­mance digital signal processing . A magical combi­nation of AudioControl’s lengthy experience in
performance signal processing design combined
with state-of-the-art Digital Signal Processing
(DSP) technology. You now have in your posses­sion the DQX, an extremely powerful thirty-band,
one-third-octave stereo and parametric digital
equalizer with a 24 dB/octave Linkwitz-Riley
crossover. Whether you are a die-hard sound-off
competitor or simply enjoy great music, you will
definitely appreciate how the DQX makes your
performance autosound system sound even better.

Now before you start salivating too much just
thinking about the benefits of the DQX, take a
few minutes to sit back, have a latte’, decaffeinated
if necessary, and read through this manual. It
contains lots of useful facts and information - ­and besides, we spent a lot of time writing it!

KEY FEATURES OF THE DQX

Here are some of the cool features that are en­closed in this magical box:

• 30 bands of constant-Q equalization

• Dual, fully-adjustable Parametric

• equalizers

• Three-way 24 dB/octave electronic

• crossover

• Eight non-volatile memories

• 24 bit digital signal processing

Owner’s Enjoyment Manual

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AudioControl®

FEATURES AND HIGHLIGHTS

Constant-Q equalization controls: Car

interiors vary widely in size and acoustic make­up. In addition doors, kick-panels, and rear decks
don’t make the best location for speaker place­ment causing your high performance speaker
system to sound somewhat lackluster. The DQX
offers thirty precise equalization controls spread
equally across the audio spectrum at one-third
octave increments for maximum control. Each
equalization filter utilizes a precise constant-Q
topology, traditionally utilized only in the highest
performing professional audio products.

Parametric Equalization Controls: In
addition to the thirty, one-third octave controls,
the DQX also offers two, fully-adjustable paramet­ric equalization controls. With the DQX’s para­metric controls you select a center frequency, dial
in the ideal bandwidth and apply the appropriate
amount of boost or cut. The precise filtering of the
DQX allows you to select bandwidths as narrow as
1/12 octave!

Programmable 24dB/Octave Three-way
Crossover: With digital programmability, the

three-way electronic crossover in the DXS easily
configures to almost any high-performance
mobile audio system. By simply pressing a few
buttons, you can select almost any crossover
frequency imaginable. The 24dB/Octave
Linkwitz-Riley (a couple of real nice audio engi­neers) design is normally reserved for the best
home and professional systems, but now this
state-of-the-art crossover is yours in the DQX.

Programmable Frequency Match (PFM)
Filter: This programmable low cut filter allows

the system designer to custom tune the bass
response of the speaker system. Smaller woofers
can be protected against the voice-coil-charring
bass they are too small to reproduce. Tuned
(Ported) subwoofers benefit by having the fre­quencies below their tuning cut off to reduce
distortion and save system power.

Non-volatile memories: The DQX has the
ability to allow the user to set and store up to
eight different system (equalization/crossover)
settings in individual memory locations.

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Owner’s Enjoyment Manual

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24 bit Digital Signal Processing:

AudioControl’s digital signal processors use a
special 24 bit DSP (digital signal processor) that
was specially designed for equalization and other
dynamics processing. In addition, matching 24
bit A/D - D/A converters are incorporated for
maximum sound quality.

Bulletproof Warranty: The most important
feature of all. Every AudioControl product is
selflessly designed and manufactured by the
occupants of our rainforest factory. We take every
effort to ensure that you will have many years of
enjoyment out of your DQX. To ensure the perfor­mance of this new Digital product, we highly
recommend that you allow your authorized
AudioControl dealer to perform the installation.
Not only do they have all the right knowledge
and tools, but in the unlikely chance your DQX
should stop working, we will back it with a lim­ited five years parts and labor warranty. Should
you choose to install it yourself we will still give
you one-year parts and labor warranty. To activate
your warranty, you need to FILL OUT AND SEND
IN YOUR WARRANTY CARD!

We also recommend that you save your invoice or
sales slip as proof of installation and ownership.
Not only is it necessary for warranty purposes, but
should your DQX “disappear” one day while your
car is parked at your local latte’ stand, you will
find insurance companies very unforgiving
without proof of purchase.

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AudioControl®

QUICK INSTALLATION
INFORMATION -

For those of you short on time, but high on ambi­tion, we offer the following section to speed up
your installation of the DQX:

1. The DQX needs to be installed in the signal path
between your source unit and your external
amplifier(s). If this is not obvious to you, quickly
pack up your DQX and run to your nearest autho­rized AudioControl dealer to have them perform
the installation. You will thank us later.

2. Physically mount the DQX in a location that
keeps it away from soda spills, food crumbs, and
curious fingers. However you will want to select a
location that allows you to see the display and
access the equalization/crossover controls during
setup.

3. Hook up +12 volt power, ground, and remote
turn-on. If you need to know more, then read on.
Heck, if you don’t think you need to know more,
you should still read on, because you can never
know too much.

4. Adjust the “Input Level” control on your DQX
to match the source unit’s output and then adjust
the “Output Level” controls to match with your
amplifier inputs.

Note: You will want to turn the gains on your
amplifiers DOWN to maximize your systems
performance.

5. Select the desired crossover points for the
“Mid/Hi”, “Lo/Mid”, and “PFM”.

6. Now comes the fun part. Set your equalization
controls to where your system sounds the most
balanced yet dynamic. More about this in the
section titled “Adjusting Your Equalizer”… and you
thought you would not have to read the rest of
the manual. Hah!

7. Last but not least, you will want to save your
system settings in one of the eight memory
locations.

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Owner’s Enjoyment Manual

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Figure 1: Basic DQX System

Owner’s Enjoyment Manual

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