can a carputer compete with a head unit for sound quality?

**nubz69** · 04-25-2005, 12:03 AM

Originally Posted by CHUPACABRA

You must be out of ur mind!!

NONE of those external EQ/crossovers process digital audio anywhere next to a level a pc can. There isint even a house DIGITAL RECIVER that can surpass a well built and configured pc,dont let advrsetisments fool u or even some specs on web sites. Ive put in sound cards that cost up to $2500 in a customers vehical that would do somany things u couldent even use all the options if u tried.Just think of it this way most music is recorded using a DIGITAL computer system and if the sound quality was lower that thay would of stuck with reel to reel

And I dont see any HU of any kind providing support for HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO.
Im a technician of car audio and computer technology for 12 years,Trust me I wouldent be yanken $}{!% out my @$$

P.S. Why would u want to use 2 sound cards?

On the idea that car processors arn't on the same level of computer products I have to say that isn't exactly true. Although there are many good audio interfaces most of them are on par with the car audio equivilent until you start looking at higher end cards such as appogee,motu,RME and so on. You would be surprised at the qulity and brand of the different dacs and componanats that are in high end car audio equipment. I also have delt with studio,car and home audio with the jobs I have had. As for no cars having support for HD audio formats the F1 setup from alpine plays DVD-A along with HDCD format. There are also cars that come stock with DVD-A players. What does that matter though? If you have delt with recording you would know that a quality recording at 16/44.1 will sound better then the same recording done at 24/192 on a cheap sound card. The problem isn't about which type of source has the best quality digital out (low jitter, sample accurate) or analog out. The problem is that carputers have not reached a level that fits the car envrionment. Untill someone writes some software that allows you to use your carputer to setup an active front stage or at least tune the car with time delays and EQ it will be at the level of H/U's from the late 80's to early 90's because of the lack of features. As of now it is nothing more then a glorified DVD/MP3 player. Once it becomes tailored to the full needs of a car envronment it will become more common.

As to your P.S. With two sound cards and the right software you would be able to configure your car to have a fully active front stage and surround setup.

**0l33l** · 04-25-2005, 12:09 AM

Originally Posted by nubz69

Untill someone writes some software that allows you to use your carputer to setup an active front stage or at least tune the car with time delays and EQ it will be at the level of H/U's from the late 80's to early 90's because of the lack of features. As of now it is nothing more then a glorified DVD/MP3 player. Once it becomes tailored to the full needs of a car envronment it will become more common.

Sound Blaster (or Audigy) + kxProject dirvers. You get control of EQ and delays, and filters! Only works for PCI cards.

**nubz69** · 04-25-2005, 12:42 AM

That looks like it would work. How come this isn't incorporated into one of the front ends? I think I will try this sometime soon on an inhome active 3 way setup.

**0l33l** · 04-25-2005, 12:45 AM

Originally Posted by nubz69

That looks like it would work. How come this isn't incorporated into one of the front ends? I think I will try this sometime soon on an inhome active 3 way setup.

Well, it would need to be a separate application that would replace the program's mixer. Because as you know, creative PCI solutions aren't the most popular, so integrating this into a frontend would cut down on that frontend's base.

**nubz69** · 04-25-2005, 12:49 AM

I wonder if you could make a universal version that would work on all sound cards. We don't need low latency.

**0l33l** · 04-25-2005, 12:52 AM

Originally Posted by nubz69

I wonder if you could make a universal version that would work on all sound cards. We don't need low latency.

Nope... you can't make that happen. Hell, they can't even do it for the USB versions because its not an "EMU10K1 and EMU10K2-based soundcard".

**nubz69** · 04-25-2005, 12:54 AM

I saw that.

**0l33l** · 04-25-2005, 01:03 AM

Originally Posted by nubz69

I saw that.

Yeh

But I'm going with an Audigy 2 because of these drivers

**sansoo24** · 04-25-2005, 02:20 AM

Didnt Red take first in one of her sp comps? And as far as i know Red's got a pc and not a head unit. So that pretty much negates the idea of having someone lab test this. Hell that could be considered a lab test. If a PC plays music like late 80s or early 90s then it wouldnt even matter how it was staged it would still lose. RIght?

So then the fact that RED beat out cars with an HU in them is conclusive evidence that a PC can out perform a head unit.

**darkciti** · 04-25-2005, 02:25 AM

Everyone is going to hear what they want to hear. A lab test is the only empirical way to determine what each device is outputting. Based on the published specifications, I'd say that a good PC soundcard/chipset will sound _better_ than a car stereo chip (unless it's a carputer).

Mid to High end computer audio cards have very good S/N ratios, and other levels that make them superiour to car audio headunits (I'n my opinion). However, we all know that the car audio environment is utterly different from a quiet home environment (that's why car speakers are driven at 4 ohms, not 8 ohms).