Kenwood 5.1 - Trouble Shooting
If your friend's cabinet sounds bad in your car, then face the cabinet in the opposite direction and try other positions in the trunk. I know that a VW Jetta is not one of those acoustic problem cars, because the Fusion Demo Jetta we built (see article in this issue) makes bass without any problem. In some situations, a cabinet placed nearer to the center of a vehicle rather than the outer limits will experience cancellation. This is most often discovered when opening the trunk or rolling down a window causes the bass to increase or decrease dramatically.
You may have noticed that I did not follow my usual rule of tracing a signal path in sequence from back to front. In your case, there are two areas of high variability, the recording and the subwoofer. If anything is likely to be wrong, it will be one of these two targets first. Once you have ruled those out, you can move on to the less likely targets.
The final likelihood is improperly set gain structure. Since you have your "gain all the way up" I can tell that nobody has metered and adjusted the level settings on your system. I also know that there is a good chance that both you and your friend's amplifiers will blow up, I just don't know when or which one will be first.
Hello, I am writing to get some help on this matter. My system consists of: Pioneer's AVX-P7300DVD, AVM-P8000R, CDX-P1270; a pair of the following: TS-C1653s, TS-A1795s, TS-A6999s, Orion's XTR 10"s; Memphis' 3-channel crossover; Orion's 225 HCCA and Xtreme 600.4; Stinger 1-farad cap; and a red top Optima battery under the hood of a
My question is this: is there any way to watch a DVD and hear music via the CDX-P1270? Also is there any other ways that I can get a better front stage sound? Thank you for your help.Name WithheldVia the Internet
Your P8000R hideaway control unit should be connected to the P7300DVD player and the P1270 CD changer via the appropriate buss cable. You can then select differing sources to allow you to see the DVD screen image, while hearing the audio from a CD at the same time. According to Andrew Murphy at Pioneer, this is a normal capability of the system. Time for another read of the owner's manual...
As for staging, one of the keys to achieving a cohesive front stage is to have as much of the signal coming from the front of the vehicle. This means having the majority of your speakers in the front, including the sub if possible (rarely is it possible, especially in a Beetle). You can also use a DSP or other signal processor with "seating position" adjustments to simulate a front stage. Introducing ambience into the rear speakers, would also create the illusion of a better front stage.
In your case, having a DVD player is an advantage. There are an increasing number of Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS decoders being made available for the automotive environment. Decoding a movie or even newer musical concerts that has been encoded in the correct surround format will be far more interesting to experience. Check out the Web for new offerings that came out since the Car Audio & Electronics' Directory issue was printed.