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I am not the biggest SQ person, but what are everyones opinions on improving imaging, appaerent height, etc, for SQ purposes(not necissarily in any specific car)? I was just thinking about this and wondered what everyone thinks.. About digital time delay components, dash pods vs kick panels, phase coherence between high tweets and door midranges, wiring out of phase(mids and tweets), center channels, better SQ bass suggestions , and anything else I forgot..Pros and cons or favorite methods, etc..?
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ok ill throw out my prefrences..no time alignment unless done right i hate listing to a stereo in a tin can, kick panels and horns are my favorite set ups with a big mid bass up front for the "UFB" tweeters in kicks in phases tweeters on dash or a piller ..just the driver side out of phase ..add geat deppth and width...NO CENTER CHANNELS THIS IS NOT HOME AUDIO 5.1 SURROUND SOUND also with that i hate rear fill, best sounding car i have ever heard had a 6 1/2 and tweeer in the kick and a 1" tweeters on the A pillars in a mitsu eclipse all ID speakers and Zapco amps guys name is Jeremy Beltz awsome sounding car hands down ..this would be why he placed in the expert class at usac finals and iasca finals....
------------------ This is what happens when your password gets screwed up AKA HccaIntegra
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Buzz, proper imaging can only begin to happen with proper alignment of all the speakers in a particular system. Now, I'm not talking about digital time alignment or anything goofy like that. I'm talking about the physical mountings of the drivers. You'll notice most high-end systems have the tweeter about 1.5 to 2" behind the woofer, to allow for time alignment between the 2 drivers and the listening area. This also applies to car audio, although most people don’t think it does. Any system where your mids and tweets are physically mounted more than about 12" apart is going to suffer from some multi-path problems. Mounting woofers in the doors and then putting mids and tweets in the kicks also produces some multi-path problems, however, in this case, as long as you don’t break the 12" rule, the problems are negligible, and even the worst problems can be worked out with very little effort. The big thing in ANY system is pathlength. If you want the BEST SQ, you cannot do anything more important than making equal, maximum pathlength between your front speakers. Simply moving a mid/tweet 2" inches can make a significant difference, not only in individual placement of instruments across the stage, but the stage height, width, and depth. Not to mention the sonic qualities that are gained by moving the speakers further away from the listening position. I will assume most people knew that any speaker sounds better the further away it is from you, to a point of diminishing returns. Again, this phenomenon is due to the speakers coming in line with one another, acoustically speaking. Your question of DSP? Don’t particularly care for DSP units, I'm a purist, and believe you can get the best sound from a source, amp speaker setup than from a source, dsp, amp speaker setup, only because you now have another piece of equipment that induces noise, and how many times does that poor signal need to go through an ADAC? Center channels: recommended only when equal pathlengths between driver and passenger side are impossible, or those pathlengths are so short as to not reap any benefits from them. Cars that have a console going to the floor are prime candidates for center channels. Center channels can work well, depending on how the center channel speakers sonic signature matches the others in the system. I do suggest using a processor for this, as a true center channel is more than just a mono signal. Not saying that a derived mono signal cannot make a great center channel, they can, if certain things are remembered when doing one. Again, the quality of the center channel speaker becomes even more relevant when doing a derived mono center. Spend the extra money on the best single you can get. You will need a high pass x-over for it, set at about 600Hz, and on this I recommend an 18dB per octave, you get a really nice phase reversal and it usually helps make the center blend in better. You will also need a high powered L-pad to tune it in, stick your L-pad AFTER the x-over so it doesn't see so much power. Phasing in general should only be changed when it makes sense. I mean, if you try it, and it seems to work better with one channel or speaker out of phase electrically on BOTH sides of the car, then that is the way that system should run. My old car had the tweets both out of phase, that is the way it sounded best. I fixed a small timing problem that way. Better bass suggestions? Build the box that gives you the lowest f3, and doesn't kill your power handling. Most subs can sound very good to excellent, given the right box. Stuffing the box with a lb. per cu. ft. seems to help most subs play better, but does take away a little of the power handling. I personally like the sound of a sealed sub, for many reasons, smaller box, tighter low end below the f3, higher power handling below f3, ability to eq below f3, not to mention a lower f3 to start with. Not saying ported cant sound good, they definitely can, and just that I don’t like the bigger box requirements attached to a ported system. I just noticed how long this post is becoming... and I'm sure someone is dying to flame me... so for now I digress... Buzz; hope this gives you an idea of how I look at total system design and philosophy in general.... Of course, the views expressed above are not necessarily the opinions shared by anyone else in the industry, or even anyone related to the human race...
------------------ STILL waiting to hear a GOOD pair of HLCD's!!
If it dont fit, force it... if it breaks, it needed to be replaced anyway...
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Audiophyle When you measure pathlengths for speakers do you measure to the point of the cone, voice coil center of travel or ?.
Yes, a two inch move in tweets can make a big difference but I wonder about setting a tweet below the surface of the pod or elevating it above. Will a change such as this come "back into phase" with a few inch change?
------------------ Trans Am Sam ............ Powered by Rockford Fosgate. Fueled by Kenwood.
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Sam, I always measure from the center of the grille. Your moving of the tweets could very well bring them back into phase, it's impossible to say in a car. Try it, and if it sounds better, then it probably is.
------------------ STILL waiting to hear a GOOD pair of HLCD's!!
If it dont fit, force it... if it breaks, it needed to be replaced anyway...
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