Alpine PXA-H701 Questions

**disker** · 04-29-2007, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by JasonWW

You would need to add amps to the H701's outputs. Usually anyone spending $1300 or so for this source and processor can at least pony up for a simple 4 channel amp for like a 100 bucks. That will sound way better than the internal amps. I'm sure the 9861 has internal EQ and such, is it not good enough?

When it was in my wife's Saturn, it sounded amazing - but now that I have it in my Rodeo, I can hear many acoustical differences that the built-in EQ just isn't capable of compensating for. It still sounds good, just not as good.

I'm really looking for a way to decrease midrange and increase midbass - sub bass and highs are excellent but midbass is muddy and midrange too prominant.

Thanks for the quick response - I think I know what direction I need to go now knowing that the H701 will need external amps.

**JasonWW** · 04-30-2007, 07:43 AM

Maybe the speakers in the Rodeo are just not as good as the ones in the Saturn. You should always try and get the sound as good as you can without EQ and then fine tune it with the EQ as the last step. All the EQ in the world won't make a poor speaker sound good.

**disker** · 04-30-2007, 08:04 AM

Originally Posted by JasonWW

Maybe the speakers in the Rodeo are just not as good as the ones in the Saturn. You should always try and get the sound as good as you can without EQ and then fine tune it with the EQ as the last step. All the EQ in the world won't make a poor speaker sound good.

I appreciate the advice, but they are the same MB Quart 6.5s that were in the Saturn - so, it is due to vehicle environment and not speakers.

The problem is the 6.5's when installed in the door (factory hole was for 4" ) are not reproducing the midbass as clear as they did in the saturn and are producing too much midrange - what I really need to do next is dynamat and fluff the doors (the doors in the saturn are fluffed and I believe that's one of the reasons they sounded better in there) to try to get a more neutral resonance chamber. One that lets the speaker talk without trying to throw it's own jumble back in with it. (kinda like getting Dick Chaney away from George W... LOL)

**JasonWW** · 06-04-2007, 09:13 PM

For those controlling their H701 through and Alpine deck, when you change the volume on the deck does the volume on the H701 controller change as well? It may be that none of you are using both as the controller wouldn't be necessary.

It's the lack of remote volume control on the H701 that is killing me right now. It seems clear that Alpine designed that unit to be the master volume control. Both with the PC using the SPDIF and now my old CD player using analog out you have to set the volume on the H701 fairly high so you can then control it with the PC or CD player. The problem is that at low volumes the noise floor is noticable. As far as I know there's no other way to remotely control the volume unless you buy an Alpine HU and they don't have any models that appeal to me. I may have to ditch the H701 for something else.

Have any of you guys seen any new devices from Alpine that can control the H701's volume?

**turbocad6** · 06-04-2007, 09:39 PM

once you connect this processor to an ai-net unit you would never know it has it's own level control, all control is through the head, they work great togeather... there HAS to be ONE ai-net head in existance that you can live with, the alpine remote controls everything... alpine really does make a nice system...

**bblitz** · 06-04-2007, 10:09 PM

Is there any benefit of using a USB sound card for the optical out to the H701 for multichannel processing? Does the pc's optical out need any processing? I see most of the USB soundcards are just pass-thru anyway. (I will be using an Alpine DVA-9861 head unit for my highest quality stereo and DVD play).

thx, barry

**turbocad6** · 06-04-2007, 10:48 PM

yes, a big advantage going optical into the 700/01 from the pc..., another advantage will be searching bit perfect in the audio section, there are a few monster threads that'll explain the benifits there, that & lossless storage & your 100%, the volume would all be controlled from the 700/01 display though with bit perfect.

even if you just run standard windows resampling you should still go optical.

**bblitz** · 06-04-2007, 10:59 PM

Maybe I wasn't clear. I will be going optical out from the pc to the h701. Is there any reason to do so using a usb sound card with optical out versus just the pc's motherboard based optical out?

**turbocad6** · 06-04-2007, 11:15 PM

oh, I didn't realize that's what you ment... I'm not 100% sure as I didn't do a lot of research on the subject, but I'm pretty sure it should be fine with the onboard optical out...

**JasonWW** · 06-04-2007, 11:22 PM

Originally Posted by bblitz

Maybe I wasn't clear. I will be going optical out from the pc to the h701. Is there any reason to do so using a usb sound card with optical out versus just the pc's motherboard based optical out?

There may be a difference in sound quality. It all depends on what sound chip the PC has vs. the sound chip the USB sound card has. I have a PCI sound card Chaintech AV-710 (?) and I compared it to the built in Optical out of my motherboard. The sound card sounded much better in my opinion.

Also, the sound card doesn't need any processing at all, just a clean SPDIF output.

Bit Perfect is for when you play a CD on the PC. It seems you would rarely do that since you have the 9861.