[V8] Re: V8 Digest, Vol 14, Issue 8

[Roger M. Woodbury]

  > You could not make a worse choice IMO about your stereo design. I have 
yet to be
> in a car with a sub woofer that sounds good to everyone in the car. The 
> Bose
> system is a reasonable and sane design that allows everyone to hear good 
> sound
> without blasting the rear seat with un-comfortable or even dangerous 
> levels of
> sound pressure. Sure there is "better" sound available but it quickly gets 
> to be
> impractical for a variety of reasons.
> Not to mention that you have to give up huge amounts of trunk space for 
> speaker
> enclosures and amps and such. Add to that the in-ability to listen to the 
> stereo
> with the motor turned off for any length of time without draining the 
> battery.

Nope.  You misunderstand what I would do, and it is probably my use of the 
terminology.  I would use a non-directional bass through crossovers and 
separate amp located in the rear, most probably the original rear speaker 
enclosures.  This is NOT a boom box taking up space in the trunk, nor would 
the amplifiers take up usable room elsewhere.  The purpose is not to make 
the car leap tall buildings in a single 10,000 hz thump, but to provide the 
bass missing from the front speakers.  The overall effect will be true 
symphonic sound, with the orchestra in front of the two front seat 
passengers.  The bass is merely a part of the whole, and compliments not 
dominates the sound.  Thus huge speakers and speaker enclosures are not 
necessary.

In addition, we seldom if ever have more than just two people in the car, 
and when we do have more than that, it is for short distance where 
conversation is the rule, not music listening.
>
 > .
> As a former stereo installer, I can tell you that the factory head unit in
> almost any car is far better than most aftermarket junk. They are 
> repairable and
> replaceable for many years after the car is built. Aftermarket units are
> typically junk if they have a problem after the short warranty runs out.

I have no argument with the overall quality of the OEM head units, 
especially as used in most high end cars.  Certainly from the standpoint of 
longevity, they are normally superior to all but perhaps the best of the 
"high end" aftermarket unit.  However, the Blaupunkt system in my '87 
Porsche 928S4 was dead when I bought it at eight years old (61,000 miles and 
NO Florida or hot life experience), and the Audi/Bose head unit in my wife's 
'94 Audi failed at seven years and 39,000 miles after living all those years 
and miles in Kansas City.  To be sure, the failure of that radio was limited 
to the volume control knob, but it failed about 1/3 into the first state of 
a 3500 mile road trip, and repairing it (which would have been preferable to 
replacement) was not an option.  Hence the replacement with the Nakamichi, 
which hopefully will last longer than the OEM head unit.

In a previous life, my wife complained that the bass sound in her then brand 
new Audi 5000S Avant was lacking.  While she was away, I took the car took 
the car to a stereo shop and had them replace the rear speakers with larger 
ones, install a crossover and new amp, while retaining the OEM head unit. 
The results were amazing, and when she returned and drove the car the 
startled look on her face when she first listened to Barbra Streisand's 
"Somewhere" made the $450 in 1985 dollars money well spent.


> Speakers can often be improved for sound quality but they rarely last as 
> long as
> OEM - because OEM designs better take into account real world problems 
> like
> dust, moisture, sun, etc.

I flat don't believe this.  Aside from longevity, I doubt that OEM systems 
are more than compromises.  The factory cd player in my Chevy truck is 
excellent, but then the overall noise level in the truck is such that it is 
hard to really hear well at normal highway speeds over any surface.  The 
Ford has an excellent radio and maybe the cassette player works, but I have 
never tried it.  The radio pulls in signals fairly well, but with 
inconsistent volume which is probably due to the age of the radio and the 
fact that the previous owner replaced the OEM radio antenna with a stubby 
rubber one.  But it does work, which is all that I want.  Now having said 
that I "flat don't believe".....I fully agree that there is an enormous 
amount of pure rubbish being sold on the aftermarket in the guise of "high 
end" stereo.  I have replaced dead head units in several cars using Alpine 
cd receivers.  They were really outstanding, and the dealer who sold them to 
me was even able to change the color on one of the units to nearly match the 
color in the car.  Seems that Alpine used to provide colored capsules that 
could be put over the lights in the face units to match the interior.  They 
did this, so I was told, so that their units would appear the same as BMW 
and a couple of other cars.  Now, Alpine units all look like jukeboxes from 
a cheap, New Orleans whore house, and I wonder if the quality of the product 
inside the box has as much class.

I think that spending a LOT of money on auto stereo systems is a total 
waste.  There are so many ambient sounds inside an automobile that have 
nothing to do with sound reproduction, that unless the car is sitting still 
in the middle of a sound room built in the middle of a desert, however good 
the accoustical performance of the head unit, the tape or cd player and 
speakers really is, will be indiscernable to the human ear.

> You can add lots of power too - but the usual result is a system that 
> might
> sound OK to the driver but is punishing and these days downright dangerous 
> to
> the rest of the passengers (driver included).


Of course.  POWER is not the solution.  Proper symphonic sound distribution 
is what I would want to gain, and that requires only complimentary 
non-directional bass from somewhere in the car.  The most logical place is 
in the rear, and huge amplification is not necessary.  In fact, in my wife's 
car the head unit has preamp output as well as amplifier output which is how 
the rear speakers work with the aftermarket front speakers...preamp out goes 
to the rear Bose speakers.  But this same head unit would power both front 
and rear speakers and then balance and fade would be equal and simplified.

> I say dump the money into a top notch home stereo where your inventment 
> will
> mean something.

Along about the dawn of time I bought a new system for home.  All of that 
equipment was McIntosh.  I have not had a single second of thought given to 
replacing any of the pieces.  In fact, I bought a nearly identical system 
recently and am using the preamp from that system while I get the my 
original preamp retuned.  My speakers are interesting things called Triads, 
and I have thought from time to time that a bigger powered subwoofer would 
be neat, but not neat enough for me to spend more money on something that 
works really well for us in the space that we have for listening.  We 
actually listen quite a lot, and it is a pretty good thing that the nearest 
neighbor is 300 feet away through the woods.....

Oh, yes.  And I bought this Mac stuff used from the dealer in Portland. 
They can repair it, but it means that I have to truck the stuff 150 miles 
for a qualified repair shop.  I am very glad that I didn't buy any of this 
stuff new.  What I bought is currently bringing what I paid for it on eBay. 
That's as close to an "investment" that this stuff will ever get.

Bear in mind that my listening needs are very, very simple.  I listen to 
classical music almost to the exclusion of anything else.  Here in Maine 
there is ONE classical music station and it is pretty much possible to 
listen to that one station all along the coast.  However, 35 miles inland, 
there is pretty much of anything else aside from Country and Maine Public 
Radio, which is nearly entirely talk and whining talk at that.  Thus, if I 
can listen to the classical station most of the time, I'm happy, and if I 
can't, then there is little wrong with the roof open and the sound of the 
Maine wilderness.

>> Roger