Nice. I have to admit I have never heard of this car, but it sure looks nice! Congratulations.
ROLL CALL: Who has surround sound in their car(s)?
- Thread starter JonUrban
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Nice. I have to admit I have never heard of this car, but it sure looks nice! Congratulations.
it's basically a Volkswagen!!!(like the "Spanish" SEATs)
Absolutely and none the worse for it. The engine is a slightly less powerful version of the Leon Cupra but with 4 wheel drive. And it is scarily quick! Actually Skoda should not have named it Superb, although it is, they should have paid the BBC and called it Tardis because the interior space is huge. The only other car with this much space is a Mercedes S Class.
Your post prompted me to have a look at the Seat, VW and Audi UK websites. I don't think any of them offer true 5.1 systems. VW have Dynaudio and mention 7.1 but that would only be for movies and, as the screen goes blank when the car moves, what would be the point? Audi have Bang & Olufsen but talk about 3D sound from any source so seemingly not discrete. However, given that I cannot find out the full spec for mine who knows what the other systems really offer. Anyway, I shall only be listening to mine and, by way of example, Amin Bhatia's Interstellar Suite does sound good. Of course, this will all be bad for the environment as I shall be spending more time driving around!
Thanks Jon, I am quite pleased with it. It is the most technically advanced car I have driven and the quickest (I have a petrol, sorry gas, version) and it's also the quietist (between tracks on the 5.1 of course). I am going to need a lot more SD cards though!
Only Jaguar has a B&W surround system
The Skoda is cheaper, whoops no that's not the word, better value!! Actually, it's ridiculously good value for money and especially refined, it's just not British like the Jag!Only Jaguar has a B&W surround system
Does it have the generous warranty like a VW...over here in the US...after the diesel scandal they now give 6 year 72,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty service...that's twice as much as some car companies....
Not the same length of warranty, although 3 years and 60,000 miles is still quite good. I think VW are more scared of the US legal system than our judicial wig wearers. Also, Brits can be seriously distracted from extensive legal action if offered a nice cup of tea.
Unfortunately you are correct...although what VW did was wrong...the individual states over here sued them for obscene amounts and collected...it seems that is our recent legacy
The 3D sound in the Audi B&O system in my '17 A4 can be turned completely off, giving a discrete 5.1 sound.
That said, while I don't like the sound with the 3D effect on the highest setting, I do leave it on medium because it really works well with stereo source material. With surround material, it seems to act more as a crossover between the various speakers at a particular speaker position (Lf, Rf, C, LFE, Lr, Rr).
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What has always puzzled me is that for almost the past 20 years, the higher end cars have bragged about having 'X' amount of speakers all over the car, and big amps and fake surround synth and stuff, but if they have all of that, how hard would it have been to add a DVD-A or SACD player to the car? I mean, crap, you had a CD player, you had 16 speakers, you have everything else, all they needed was to split the amps and upgrade the player to SACD. That's it.
When I think about it, the way Sony has operated over the past 40 years, it's a wonder that they did not muscle in on Detroit or other car manufacturers to get SACD in the cars. The fact that they did not speaks volumes about just how little they were behind their own format. Another missed opportunity (and I'm not letting the DVD-A folks off the hook either. They needed to get their stuff in the cars as well)
When I think about it, the way Sony has operated over the past 40 years, it's a wonder that they did not muscle in on Detroit or other car manufacturers to get SACD in the cars. The fact that they did not speaks volumes about just how little they were behind their own format. Another missed opportunity (and I'm not letting the DVD-A folks off the hook either. They needed to get their stuff in the cars as well)
Unfortunately that is the "Sony Way"....in the past they did a great job at engineering/inventing products...only to drop the ball on marketing and distribution...they spent years on research and development of blu ray only to fail miserably in marketing the technology...blu ray COULD have been the answer to so many applications...with the great storage potential...but Sony made it expensive and people had to jump thru hoops to license it and then their "so called" deal with the studios didn't work out...DVD was supposed to be over years ago and blu ray was to be the only game in town.....but Hollywood STILL is releasing these shitty DVD releases...
Sony's handling of formats will be their legacy...and it isn't a pretty one..
An update on the 5.1 system in my Skoda Superb. I now realise that it will indeed happily play DTS encoded files but only from a DVD. For some reason it will not look at a DTS CD so I shall have to convert Santana, Eric Clapton, The Moodies, etc. into 5.1 Flac files (which is currently beyond my technical ability but something to look forward to in retirement whenever that is!). I am still not entirely sure that it won't play MLP files. The menu on the touchscreen is quite clever as it pops up as your finger gets near but, this then covers much of the on-screen menu of the DVD making it impossible to select some of the options. Queen's A Night At The Opera seemed to play MLP but it's hard to tell. But since it defintiely plays DTS perhaps I shouldn't torture myself trying to sneak up on the proximity sensor!
It does have 6 inputs, a CD/DVD drive, a built-in hard drive, 2 SD card and 2 USB sockets. Each of these SD and USB inputs seem to like at least 64GB and possibly 128GB so that should be enough I guess!!! I cannot imagine watching a movie on it though as the screen goes blank when the car moves and sitting in the car for two hours on the drive at home might be thought a bit strange by the neighbours.
So in summary, this car plays DD, DTS, Flac stereo and 5.1 up to 24/96 as well as CDs and those other compressed digital files. And the brightness of the sound I mentioned before is considerably tamed by the hi-res music files. Now, I just need more roads.....
It does have 6 inputs, a CD/DVD drive, a built-in hard drive, 2 SD card and 2 USB sockets. Each of these SD and USB inputs seem to like at least 64GB and possibly 128GB so that should be enough I guess!!! I cannot imagine watching a movie on it though as the screen goes blank when the car moves and sitting in the car for two hours on the drive at home might be thought a bit strange by the neighbours.
So in summary, this car plays DD, DTS, Flac stereo and 5.1 up to 24/96 as well as CDs and those other compressed digital files. And the brightness of the sound I mentioned before is considerably tamed by the hi-res music files. Now, I just need more roads.....
The DVD-A people DID get their stuff in cars. Lots of us here have it. However, there has NEVER been a factory SACD player installed in a car.
salsdali
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
I'd love to be able to buy either a DVD-A or SACD aftermarket HU today. I would pay dearly but apparently idiot manufacturers don't want to take my money.
holland123
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pioneer-AV...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
The Pioneer AVH-P7800 is one of the best aftermarket head units ever made; plays DVD-A, DVD-V, DTS-cd, DTS -dvd, any homemade or retail disc, does not downmix anything, hi res to 24/192, Burr-Brown DAC's, my only problem with this one and it's sister the 7600, is you can not simply ground the parking brake video cable, you have to purchase a double tap overide sensor, whereas the kenwood xxv-05v or the 915dvd which is essentially the same unit can be simply grounded. this one for sale on ebay looks pretty good to me but you would need to make sure seller has ALL of the interconnect cables. because without all of the necessary cables, it's useless. put 6 channels of good quality power on this and you have one hell of a system. K
The Pioneer AVH-P7800 is one of the best aftermarket head units ever made; plays DVD-A, DVD-V, DTS-cd, DTS -dvd, any homemade or retail disc, does not downmix anything, hi res to 24/192, Burr-Brown DAC's, my only problem with this one and it's sister the 7600, is you can not simply ground the parking brake video cable, you have to purchase a double tap overide sensor, whereas the kenwood xxv-05v or the 915dvd which is essentially the same unit can be simply grounded. this one for sale on ebay looks pretty good to me but you would need to make sure seller has ALL of the interconnect cables. because without all of the necessary cables, it's useless. put 6 channels of good quality power on this and you have one hell of a system. K
markshan
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
I don't say this to dump on anyone. Really I promise. But I hear people talking about rooms that are too small for surround sound and can only have one sweet spot. How can you possibly set up a car so it is a good surround experience even for the driver, let alone him and passengers?
I've wondered about this for some time.
I've wondered about this for some time.
salsdali
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
computer correction of speaker distance, phase, volume, etc.
Computer software can figure all this out way better than a human doing it manually.
I've seen car stereos with "zones" so that the sound is sent to each zone differently. Some cars have like 16 speakers so this can be accomplished. Just depends how sophisticated your car and car stereo is. The vast majority of cars don't apply to this but the ones that do can easily be accomplished.
Larry,
I meant other than Acura. Heck I've been championing Acura DVD-A and 5.1 since my first TL back in 2004. Lord knows I've put my money where my heart was. However, it should have come around in 2000, and it should have been offered in other manufacturer's cars as well. It didn't have to be ELS, but the DVD Group (or whoever those people were) should have given sweetheart deals to Detroit and others to get the players in the cars for the format launch. Again, missed opportunity. Sour grapes, I know but you know how great it is to hear 5.1 in the car! Just think of how many 2004-2015+ Acura's are out there on the highway and their owners have absolutely no clue what capability they have.
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