Surround sound Car receivers

[seriousfun]

I bit the bullet and bought the Sony (along with a pair of MB Quart component speakers for the front, and I will use my existing Kenwood KSC-SW1 powered subwoofer).

It's being installed as I write this - hopefully by 3:00 PM I will be driving home with glorious surround sound In my '07 Toyota Yaris.

 

[JonUrban]

I bit the bullet and bought the Sony (along with a pair of MB Quart component speakers for the front, and I will use my existing Kenwood KSC-SW1 powered subwoofer).

It's being installed as I write this - hopefully by 3:00 PM I will be driving home with glorious surround sound In my '07 Toyota Yaris.

Good for you! Hope it sounds great.

 

[Rck60s]

What are yo using for the center speaker> The MB Quart?

 

[Q-Eight]

I bit the bullet and bought the Sony (along with a pair of MB Quart component speakers for the front, and I will use my existing Kenwood KSC-SW1 powered subwoofer).

It's being installed as I write this - hopefully by 3:00 PM I will be driving home with glorious surround sound In my '07 Toyota Yaris.

I'm looking at getting the same deck installed in my Tiburon as soon as it comes back from the body shop! :banana:

 

[seriousfun]

What are yo using for the center speaker> The MB Quart?

Phantom Center Channel!

After all my years preaching the evils of the phantom...

I have few options for a center channel speaker. My Yaris has all of its gauges in the center

(stock radio)

Alpine has a single-DIN speaker that would fit beneath the new head unit, and I think Eclipse has a small speaker that clips on the rear view mirror and bounces off the windsheild, but neither would match very well.

The Sony has a mode to mix the C with L & R, and to use DSP to fix the center image where the driver sits.

The Sony has a typical Sony confusing programmed-by-committee user interface. You must set the crossovers in three places or four places, for radio, CD, SA-CD, etc. Yes, the bass management doesn't work at the highest SA-CD resolution. Yes, it plays DTS or DD from a DVD-A when you insert the disc (with a long wait, but it goes through all the menus and plays the music). PLII works, and just might be fine for some, most, or all CDs and radio. The DTS track of Porcupine Tree In Absentia sounded great, Ray Charles Genius Loves Company SA-CD sounded great, a couple of CDs sounded fine, radio sounds fine.

I can get in with a tape measure to set speaker distances more accurately, and with a Radio Shack SPL meter and test tones to calibrate levels more accurately, but so-far it sounds fine. I probably will have to crack the door panels to turn down the tweeters a little - they are a little bright.

I'm very happy to finally have surround in my car!

 

[Rck60s]

If you dont mind me asking how much was the unit and what else did you need to buy in order to get it working? amps, sub etc...I am looking to do the same thing..I have a 2002 maxima and am trying to budget for this...how much all in including installation?

 

[seriousfun]

If you dont mind me asking how much was the unit and what else did you need to buy in order to get it working? amps, sub etc...I am looking to do the same thing..I have a 2002 maxima and am trying to budget for this...how much all in including installation?

The HU retails for $279. I got it for $189 plus $25 shipping plus CA tax from a seller on eBay (stereo2go I think). I ordered it around noon on wednesday, and it was here the next day (local seller, fast shipping, I must leave great feedback).

The quickest way to get into this would be to connect it to your four speakers and be done. You can set it to fold the C into R and L, and to mix the LFE into L and R. I added a powered subwoofer (Kenwood KSC-SW1, that I already had) - the sky's the limit here, and a discrete subwoofer is always better than none.

I replaced my stock door speakers - 6.5" two-ways - for MB Quart QSD-series 6.5" component speakers (again breaking my own rule that all main speakers should be identical).

Center channel speaker would be a big problem in my car, so I'm using the Sony's phantom center option.

The Sony has preamp outputs for all channels, so extra amps would give more headroom - I may add this in the future, but the budget gave way.

Installation - to add the HU, door speakers, and subwoofer, was $230.00, which seemed reasonable, and took about four hours.

 

[Rck60s]

So you have had your unit for a while now...How do you like it? Does it play all DTS?

 

[seriousfun]

I'm loving it.

It's an imperfect solution, but what it does, it does well.

A couple of recent favs are the Zappa QuAUDIOPHILIAc (sp?) in DTS from DTS, and the quad (well, 4.1) Dark Side of the Moon in DTS. I've forgotten to play a DTS CD (I used to have a lot, but a bunch of them were stolen from a seminar I spoke at :-( ). One problem is that DVD-A discs with both DTS and DD default to the DD layer, and I haven't found a way to fix this default; if I had a video display, I could probably choose this upon insert. DD on the REM hits disc and a few others sound great, anyway.

Sometimes it takes a while to go through all the menus to find audio on a DVD-A, but it eventually gets there.

SA-CDs and CDs, of course, play upon insertion.

The CSO feature plays around with the Center Channel content a little too much, and seems to respond differently to mixes that have discrete C info than it does to others with C info also in R and L, but overall it's subjectively good (and necessary since I still haven't figured out how to fit a Center Channel speaker).

I calibrated the system using an SPL meter (and set the distance in cm). I had to goose the Ls and Rs about 3 dB for them to seem in-balance. I attribute this to the difference in quality, and how the front seats and headrests block the sound, and it gives me motivation to upgrade the rears to match the fronts when I can.

 

[Rck60s]

Thanks...I am searching one out here in Atlanta...I have a ton of DTS discs from bit torrent and I am dying to play them in the car as well as a bunch of SACD...

 

[timbre4]

I'm curious to the DTS CD playback question on this Sony unit.

I have a switching network and Panasonic portable to handle DVD-A (and DTS if need be so an SACD capable head unit seems like a good idea.

What of the ProLogic II effects on youe avg program material?

 

[seriousfun]

I played a few DTS CDs today. They play with no fuss upon insertion, and sound good. Moody Blues Days of Future Passed sounded great.

DPLII is what it is...I have it on by default, and in this situation it gets put to good use with 2.0 sources (radio, aux input from my Motorola Q phone/PDA, CDs, SA-CD, etc.).

How does your Panasonic portable play DVD-A? If it just decodes DD, the Sony head unit does this well.

 

[Rck60s]

I have a panasonic LA-95 portable that plays DVD-a 5.1 as well...Haven't thought about using it in the car though

 

[timbre4]

Mine is the DVD-PA65 (no screen) and it handles DVD-A, DD & DTS fine; even plays discs it's not supposed to. CDR/CDRW etc.

Glad to hear of DTS CDRs in the head unit and maybe I won't have to be converting SACDs as planned earlier..... !

 

[DaneelOlivaw]

Sometimes it takes a while to go through all the menus to find audio on a DVD-A, but it eventually gets there.

So it is literally reading the various menus to find the audio options it is able to play automatically? Neat! I was afraid a video screen would be needed to manually access these.

Also, concerning trying to play a DTS track on a dvd-audio disc: I checked out the manual & on page 23 it talks about being able to change (on most dvd discs) the audio format using the "audio" button on the remote control, just like with home dvd players.

 

[seriousfun]

So it is literally reading the various menus to find the audio options it is able to play automatically? Neat! I was afraid a video screen would be needed to manually access these.

Also, concerning trying to play a DTS track on a dvd-audio disc: I checked out the manual & on page 23 it talks about being able to change (on most dvd discs) the audio format using the "audio" button on the remote control, just like with home dvd players.

By pushing either the Play or Enter button on the remote control, I've been able to play the music on every disc I've tried.

I haven't been able to get a DVD-A to go to DTS instead of DD with that Audio button, yet.

 

[sspsandy]

When I mounted the center channel in my car I set it in the console between the two front seats. You have to dial it back so it's not too loud in your ear, but it gives more surround effect in the rear seats as well.