IMPRINT - Acoustical Problems - Review - Car Audio and Electronics Magazine

Experience music the way the artist intended. That's idea behind IMPRINT-a hardware/software combination that solves acoustical problems presented to your vehicle's audio system. What's more, it is also said to improve the soundstage, tonal balance and definition automatically. Just plug it in and it does all the work in a matter of minutes.

The Challenge
When an artist lays down a track, they know how they want it portrayed. When a recording artist masters it, he does so with the same intentions. But when we play it back in our vehicles, are we hearing the music the way the artist intended?

The sad reality to that question is usually not. In fact, the automobile is one of the worst environments to reproduce music. So how is one to get around the problems? First we have to understand what they are.

Acoustical Problem No. 1
An automobile's cabin is filled with an abundant amount of materials that reflect and absorb sound, causing peaks and dips in music reproduction. For instance, windows reflect and amplify high frequencies. Leather-covered surfaces like seats and hard plastic dashes and door panels also reflect and change certain frequencies. Carpeted areas in the cabin absorb and suppress mid frequencies.

Acoustical Problem No. 2
The seating positions in an automobile are skewed to one side of the vehicle or the other. This means there are different pathlengths from the loudspeakers to the listener, creating an unbalanced listening experience. One way to fix this issue is through time correction, but typically only one passenger gets to experience the sound correctly and usually that's the driver.

The combination of these acoustical problems makes it difficult at best to see the clear picture behind the composition. Instruments tend to transpire from different areas of the vehicle, never allowing for listeners to imagine the setting in which they are presented.

What is Imprint?
The need for acoustical environment equalization is very clear if we ever want to listen to music as it was originally intended. This led Alpine to come up with a unique way of determining the artist's directive. The basis is simple: What goes in must come out. By measuring and understanding the gap in sound reproduction in the vehicle Alpine was able to develop a corrective tool to combat the acoustical problems in the vehicle called IMPRINT.

The IMPRINT Sound System uses a hardware plus software platform that not only overcomes the acoustical challenges identified, but also improves the soundstage, tonal balance and definition of the music. Its design enables the engineering and system tuning to be completed in a fraction of the time of competitive systems.