Hey
What's noise floor got to do with frequency response, distortion, resonance, dynamics (turn it up), etc..
Maybe it can't be great on all specs but it can be better on most!
Cheers,
Jeff
I'm all for nice car audio, especially if you spend a lot of time behind the windshield.
For true Class A at decent power levels, I think overall efficiency is the killer. How many alternators are you going to hang off the engine?
My understanding of the SS Class A amps is that they were very heavily biased AB amps (?)
Car audio is fun
though!
For true Class A at decent power levels, I think overall efficiency is the killer. How many alternators are you going to hang off the engine?
My understanding of the SS Class A amps is that they were very heavily biased AB amps (?)
Car audio is fun
though!I’ve been pretty happy with my old Nakamichi pa300 that I went through for in the car. I just replaced most of the caps with much better parts, cranked up the bias and made a fan for it.
My cars are much quieter now than in years past, and I hadn’t considered it really until recently.
The jbl titanium tweeters sound great now, and the factory deck has a bit of dsp which helps with imaging or whatever, left the drivers in the oem locations, disconnected the old rear ones.
Sorry, not a Pass labs product, but there’s some historical significance I suppose.
My cars are much quieter now than in years past, and I hadn’t considered it really until recently.
The jbl titanium tweeters sound great now, and the factory deck has a bit of dsp which helps with imaging or whatever, left the drivers in the oem locations, disconnected the old rear ones.
Sorry, not a Pass labs product, but there’s some historical significance I suppose.
I actually planned building a 2 channel F5 amplifier back when i regularly worked in car audio. I ended up getting a power supply PCB, an old chassis and built F5 boards but never ended up building the amp. I was going to use it on a pair of image dynamics horns I had installed in my car.
Realistically unless you are running a fully active setup with compression horns or high sensitivity mids I would take a look at other options.
Realistically unless you are running a fully active setup with compression horns or high sensitivity mids I would take a look at other options.
Show us what FirstWatt amps in cars you built bigfishe. Curious as to see the results.
I remember my first car audio setup I bought step by step when I was 18 years old (I was jobbing in my freetime to get the money):
Harman /Kardon CH161 with compact cassette
Harman / Kardon active crossover (I think it was named CXO-1)
2x Harman /Kardon CA260 poweramps
1x Harman /Kardon CA240 poweramp
MOREL silk dome mid/tweeter
ETON Midbass
JBL Subwoofer
This was in 1986 - I had such a lot of fun with it....
And this in my first, cheap FIAT. I think the value of the car audio system was higher than the value of the used car
Does it make sense? I can't answer this - I did it.
Greets
Dirk
Harman /Kardon CH161 with compact cassette
Harman / Kardon active crossover (I think it was named CXO-1)
2x Harman /Kardon CA260 poweramps
1x Harman /Kardon CA240 poweramp
MOREL silk dome mid/tweeter
ETON Midbass
JBL Subwoofer
This was in 1986 - I had such a lot of fun with it....
And this in my first, cheap FIAT. I think the value of the car audio system was higher than the value of the used car
Does it make sense? I can't answer this - I did it.
Greets
Dirk
I remember my first car audio setup I bought step by step when I was 18 years old (I was jobbing in my freetime to get the money):
Harman /Kardon CH161 with compact cassette
Harman / Kardon active crossover (I think it was named CXO-1)
2x Harman /Kardon CA260 poweramps
1x Harman /Kardon CA240 poweramp
MOREL silk dome mid/tweeter
ETON Midbass
JBL Subwoofer
This was in 1986 - I had such a lot of fun with it....
And this in my first, cheap FIAT. I think the value of the car audio system was higher than the value of the used car
Does it make sense? I can't answer this - I did it.
Greets
Dirk
Dirk, you must have been doing well with your free time, that was $$$ car equipment. The H/K stuff alone was likely more than the FIAT!
All of that would have been in the $2500 range in $US back then.
That CH161 (I'm impressed you remember the model#'s) was an odd design, DIN sized with shaft mount 3-hole provisions, too. It was a little complicated to mount, and way up there on the cost ladder.
I still have a couple of H/K 260's
I have heard a lot of audio systems. And in 1985 or 2019 I cannot agree that Car audio is inferior.
Car Audio can be and for most serious people who installed it is better than many home systems.
Why?
Car can be at 120 DB playback where engine noise and PS noise is not a problem.
Try this at home when neighbors are asking you to turn everything off and fuses are going out. And Police show up.
Car can be tailored to best sound with subwoofers and crossover and bi-tri amping.
Home- almost never this amount of adjustment. Bi Amp if lucky- tri amp almost never.
Car has illusion of movment when music is playing- actually it is not an illustion, the thing is actually moving and stimulating senses.
Home has only bad illusion of movement. Not relevant for some tracks but very relevant for others.
Sure, the best home audio systems are better but you can rock out with a car system for much less and have it sound great.
I think all the assumptions about noise, glass windows (diffraction etc...) and limited power actually do not apply to modern car systems (even from 1985) as I have heard many car systems surpass home systems. I don't know why car systems get a bad rap- maybe just becuase many seek high SPL not overall SQ?
Car audio is almost always tweaked with every amp channel and crossover and speaker seperately adjusted to sound the best it can be but home audio is almost never tweaked, its preamp + amp + speakers + source and thats it with vol up or down.
But either way, a nicely set up car system will, in my view, be close to most home systems out there. For example, easy to get full bass to 20 HZ, unlike home systems. Also can EQ HF to compensate for windows where most home HiFi does not even have tone controls. Just saying there is more to this than most people think.
Also- if you calcualte the time spent in a car vs. the time in your specially set up listening room afer your equipment hit the ideal warmup period, most people would have more time in the car...just estimating here...
Car Audio can be and for most serious people who installed it is better than many home systems.
Why?
Car can be at 120 DB playback where engine noise and PS noise is not a problem.
Try this at home when neighbors are asking you to turn everything off and fuses are going out. And Police show up.
Car can be tailored to best sound with subwoofers and crossover and bi-tri amping.
Home- almost never this amount of adjustment. Bi Amp if lucky- tri amp almost never.
Car has illusion of movment when music is playing- actually it is not an illustion, the thing is actually moving and stimulating senses.
Home has only bad illusion of movement. Not relevant for some tracks but very relevant for others.
Sure, the best home audio systems are better but you can rock out with a car system for much less and have it sound great.
I think all the assumptions about noise, glass windows (diffraction etc...) and limited power actually do not apply to modern car systems (even from 1985) as I have heard many car systems surpass home systems. I don't know why car systems get a bad rap- maybe just becuase many seek high SPL not overall SQ?
Car audio is almost always tweaked with every amp channel and crossover and speaker seperately adjusted to sound the best it can be but home audio is almost never tweaked, its preamp + amp + speakers + source and thats it with vol up or down.
But either way, a nicely set up car system will, in my view, be close to most home systems out there. For example, easy to get full bass to 20 HZ, unlike home systems. Also can EQ HF to compensate for windows where most home HiFi does not even have tone controls. Just saying there is more to this than most people think.
Also- if you calcualte the time spent in a car vs. the time in your specially set up listening room afer your equipment hit the ideal warmup period, most people would have more time in the car...just estimating here...
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To me, car audio and home theater are both situations quite different from the
usual two channel enjoyment of music, and the aesthetic is different. With the
Adcom car audio it became clear that something that might sound very good in
a listening room was not necessarily going to be popular in a car.
usual two channel enjoyment of music, and the aesthetic is different. With the
Adcom car audio it became clear that something that might sound very good in
a listening room was not necessarily going to be popular in a car.
Certain General Motors cars had openings for 4 X 10 speakers in the dash, if you removed them, and placed nicer 4”, and tweeter, the tweeter could be aimed to reflect off the windshield to provide an astonishing imaging effect.
Sounded similar to electrostatic panels in a home environment. The evil glass can be used as an asset.
My current approach is to try and maintain the quality in the equipment as is expected in the home system, however my friends with the traditional loud-is-better approach haven’t caught on yet.
Sounded similar to electrostatic panels in a home environment. The evil glass can be used as an asset.
My current approach is to try and maintain the quality in the equipment as is expected in the home system, however my friends with the traditional loud-is-better approach haven’t caught on yet.
I installed some amazing sounding systems in the past by using Soundstream amps combined with Boston Acoustics Pro series speakers. A match made in heaven.
Class A 100, Class A 50, and Class A 5.0 amps were all used with the same speakers for comparison sake. I preferred the Class A 100. It had a more open and airy presentation than the more powerful Class A 5.0. Maybe due to discrete components in the pre-amp stage instead of an op-amp. And the LSE feature helped to tailor the bass to the smaller 6.5 inch speakers used in many cars.
Class A 100, Class A 50, and Class A 5.0 amps were all used with the same speakers for comparison sake. I preferred the Class A 100. It had a more open and airy presentation than the more powerful Class A 5.0. Maybe due to discrete components in the pre-amp stage instead of an op-amp. And the LSE feature helped to tailor the bass to the smaller 6.5 inch speakers used in many cars.
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