Distinctive Surround Separation (For Car)

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marpow

2K Club - QQ Super Nova
QQ Supporter
Joined
Jul 9, 2015
Messages
7,684
Location
San Mateo CA
As I get my ducks in a row for my car surround build one of the things I will need to produce is a list of ripped tracks on my SSD USB drive for myself and tech to listen to for testing.
I know that a signal noise while DSP testing is a great first step. But I also need real life.
Surround at home is much easier than in a car because of the small enclosed area.
I want to have a play list of tracks that are stereo and surround does not matter if it is 4.0 or 5.1.
The surround choices will automatically choose the accompanying stereo choices.
Suggestions would be a song that starts out strong rears before going to fronts or vice versa.

Like the Gentle Giant- Free Hand song titled Just The Same, where the clicks start rear right to left front. Very easy to tell it is surround even if just briefly.

I know here in QQ you guys will have lots of ideas.
 
Pink Floyd: Money. Dark Side of the Moon (Alan Parsons Quad mix). The cash register sounds go around the room.

The Guess Who: Hold Onto Your Life. Greatest hits Vol 1. The end effects and vocals go around the room.

Edgar Winter: Frankenstein. They Only Come Out At Night, Q8 conversion. The synth at the end circles the room.
 
Here's what I used to evaluate the new Acura system:
  • Allman Brothers - "Midnight Rider"
  • The Band - "Up On Cripple Creek"
  • The Beatles - "Come Together"
  • Blue Oyster Cult - "OD'd On Life Itself"
  • Chase - "Open Up Wide"
  • Pink Floyd - "Have A Cigar"
  • Santana - "Black Magic Woman"
  • Ultravox - "New Europeans"
 
Staple Singers/The Weight/The Last Waltz/DVD/A
You'll think they're singing in the car

The Who/1921/Tommy/DVD/A
Great surround

Jethro Tull/Cross Eyed Mary/Aqualung/BDA
You'll be Cross Eyed, after one listen
 
I finished my conversion to FLAC where needed and made my choice for the test drive. Took your suggestions and added some of my own.
All are FLAC and all are, 2 tracks, one stereo and one MCH from the same disc source. All our 5.1 except Sanataa 4.0.
1. Money-Pink Floyd (converted from SACD)
2. Black Magic Woman-Santana 4.0 (converted from SACD)
3. Midnight Rider-The Allman Brothers Band (Flac BD-A)
4. Come Together- The Beatles (Flac from BD-A)
5. Sympathy For The Devil-The Rolling Stones from 2 different discs. (converted from SACD)
6. Summers Cauldron-XTC (Flac from BD-A)

I could go on and on, when I started searching based on your help, I found too many that would be good test tracks. One common demonator I found is when somehow drums folded into the opening of the tracks, with this very easy to tell when stereo vs surround.
I am open to some more, but for testing the new build I think this will be pretty good.
 
As I get my ducks in a row for my car surround build one of the things I will need to produce is a list of ripped tracks on my SSD USB drive for myself and tech to listen to for testing.
I know that a signal noise while DSP testing is a great first step. But I also need real life.
Surround at home is much easier than in a car because of the small enclosed area.
I want to have a play list of tracks that are stereo and surround does not matter if it is 4.0 or 5.1.
The surround choices will automatically choose the accompanying stereo choices.
Suggestions would be a song that starts out strong rears before going to fronts or vice versa.

Like the Gentle Giant- Free Hand song titled Just The Same, where the clicks start rear right to left front. Very easy to tell it is surround even if just briefly.

I know here in QQ you guys will have lots of ideas.
Mark, is this for your new red hot rod?

And, what gear is in it to play the surround songs?

Sorry if you've talked about this in another thread already, I just don't remember.
 
Thanks for asking J-Pup.
THIS IS THE UNIT
We did a test run yesterday, just for placement, fits real nice in the glove box. Comes with a RF remote and I was worried that I would have to have the glove box always open. My tech took it apart, we are going to mount the little screen, so I can see what's playing on the console, and good news the remote sensor is actually built into the screen.
All amps, subs stuff like that are going in trunk.
I will keep you posted as things develop. I stumbled on to this whiz kid in Belmont.
 
Thanks for asking J-Pup.
THIS IS THE UNIT
We did a test run yesterday, just for placement, fits real nice in the glove box. Comes with a RF remote and I was worried that I would have to have the glove box always open. My tech took it apart, we are going to mount the little screen, so I can see what's playing on the console, and good news the remote sensor is actually built into the screen.
All amps, subs stuff like that are going in trunk.
I will keep you posted as things develop. I stumbled on to this whiz kid in Belmont.
Sweet man! So then do you use that rear PC-USB input for your SSD?
 
Sorry J-Pup I was away over night.
Good question. I think the goal is to use the two USB ports in the center console box.
I am wondering if the tech, being he has separated the screen/RF sensor from the unit, if he can now wire from the trunk, instead of glove box? That would be cool, he will have to add longer wires from glove box to screen so why not trunk to screen?
My understanding is that all stereo audio SiriusXM/AM-FM/ will come from source UConnect display and go through new amps speakers, etc.
HiRes stereo FLAC ripped 24bit files and ripped FLAC surround files will come from the SSD.
If I have to use the back of decoder I will, but undetermined as of this writing.
Thank goodness he is smart, because he has immense experience, enough to tackle this project, he also said NOBODY asks for true surround (discrete) in car. I guess that is why people buy the Acura.
I am being cautious as I told him I would rather have great stereo than shitty surround and he said he can do it.
GO NINERS.
 
Sorry J-Pup I was away over night.
Good question. I think the goal is to use the two USB ports in the center console box.
I am wondering if the tech, being he has separated the screen/RF sensor from the unit, if he can now wire from the trunk, instead of glove box? That would be cool, he will have to add longer wires from glove box to screen so why not trunk to screen?
My understanding is that all stereo audio SiriusXM/AM-FM/ will come from source UConnect display and go through new amps speakers, etc.
HiRes stereo FLAC ripped 24bit files and ripped FLAC surround files will come from the SSD.
If I have to use the back of decoder I will, but undetermined as of this writing.
Thank goodness he is smart, because he has immense experience, enough to tackle this project, he also said NOBODY asks for true surround (discrete) in car. I guess that is why people buy the Acura.
I am being cautious as I told him I would rather have great stereo than shitty surround and he said he can do it.
GO NINERS.
You sir, are one of the few brave souls venturing into the foggy lands of custom auto surround - I'll be watching this carefully :cool:
 
Build started yesterday and I do believe all will be great. Came up with a challenge today. My speakers are going to be JLAudio, separates, mid and tweeter.
Opened up the Challenger dash, and large grill is like a fake large grill. One option is to put the midrange under with hole in grill and mount tweeter on top of grill, or mount both on top. The center will not need to do this. But I started thinking, why not mount everything above, 3 fronts and two rears, now that would be real custom, maybe even add a 1/4" to 1/2" wedge to give a little tilt towards the listener instead of just firing up into the windshield.
This is fun, going where no others have gone before.
Here are 3 pictures so you get the idea.
66449330913__6EAD0B33-DDA5-4060-9905-8B732935C773.jpg
66449331847__B1113991-2C07-431C-9748-9EAD59E475BD (1).jpg
66450000904__96561131-2981-4CDB-8320-9A35F1F4BAB6.jpg
 
I have my completed list of speakers I will be using.
JL Audio
The door and rear deck speakers mounted behind factory grill.
The front dash speakers all mounted above factory grill with 1/2" wedge to add a little tilt towards listening position rather than pointing straight up at glass windshield.
Front left:
Door: c7 650 cw 6.5 inch woofer
Dash: c7 350 cm 3.5inch midrange and c7 100 ct 1inch tweeter
Front Right: Same as above.
Front Center: c7 350 cm 3.5 inch midrange and c7 100 ct 1 inch tweeter
Rear deck: c3 570 Coaxial System: 5 x 7 / 6 x 8-inch
Sub Woofer in Trunk: Stealth Box
Right and left side panels on Challenger-deleted. This is being done so when the music is playing in surround there will be no sound coming from right behind my head. The hope is when the surround music is playing I will hear the true separation of the surround music. When stereo is playing there will be just enough fade that it should sound great.
Two Amps: VX600/6i and VX700/5i
5.1 Decoder: The key to the whole job. 5.1 Decoder Broke open the unit and will put the screen that is remote activated center console and unit will be either in glove box or trunk, need to test if the long length of wires to trunk will be OK?
Sound Damping: Stinger Road Kill Hopefully this won't kill the roar of exhaust, too much?

Wires, fuses, etc. I'll post more when I know more.
 
Finished the design of the front left and right speakers. Midrange and tweeter on custom 1/2" wedge. Now both speakers will be above deck. Tried a black paint option of wedge, but ended up with a black wrap to match dash, looks pretty killer and doesn't spoil any of the original front dash look.
Below are pictures for the front dash speakers. Template to finish. Custom 3D JL Audio C7 badge. Need to enhance the lettering.
66501637932__031B0913-057A-475D-AB9B-99FED753B01D.jpg
IMG_4430.jpg
IMG_4473.jpg
 
I have my completed list of speakers I will be using.
JL Audio
The door and rear deck speakers mounted behind factory grill.
The front dash speakers all mounted above factory grill with 1/2" wedge to add a little tilt towards listening position rather than pointing straight up at glass windshield.
Front left:
Door: c7 650 cw 6.5 inch woofer
Dash: c7 350 cm 3.5inch midrange and c7 100 ct 1inch tweeter
Front Right: Same as above.
Front Center: c7 350 cm 3.5 inch midrange and c7 100 ct 1 inch tweeter
Rear deck: c3 570 Coaxial System: 5 x 7 / 6 x 8-inch
Sub Woofer in Trunk: Stealth Box
Right and left side panels on Challenger-deleted. This is being done so when the music is playing in surround there will be no sound coming from right behind my head. The hope is when the surround music is playing I will hear the true separation of the surround music. When stereo is playing there will be just enough fade that it should sound great.
Two Amps: VX600/6i and VX700/5i
5.1 Decoder: The key to the whole job. 5.1 Decoder Broke open the unit and will put the screen that is remote activated center console and unit will be either in glove box or trunk, need to test if the long length of wires to trunk will be OK?
Sound Damping: Stinger Road Kill Hopefully this won't kill the roar of exhaust, too much?

Wires, fuses, etc. I'll post more when I know more.

Holy Shit man, you are going for it.
 
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