Thread: Alpine PXA-H701 Questions

the 900 is a sick piece...... I want one but there really impossible to find....

....AND huge $$$$

I remember googling it a couple weeks ago and finding one...but, like you said, it was expen$ive as hell

once in a while they cross ebay, but even there your looking at a couple grand easy.... I think list is something like $3,800..... that's why I think the 700/01 is such a bargain.....

Originally Posted by Merzbow

The H701 is da bomb. Any AINET head unit can turn it on remotely and control its volume (from what I'm told), but only the IVAs and the DVAs can change its settings from the HU.

Merzbow - be careful - not all DVA's can control an H70X - for example my DVA-7996....

Any of that auto tuning is going to be garbage. That is a reading from a microphone at one specific point in your car - last I checked, you ahve two ears on your head

The H70X is probably the best bang-for-the-buck item for 12V audio in a long, long time

I got a 700 just recently. Is it true that there is no pre-amp built in? The manual says to set your headunit to the loadest volume that doesn't clip and then to use the controller to adjust the volume. That kind of sucks in my opinion as I'm still using a headunit for the moment. When the controller volume is left high and you use the HU volume you get a high noise floor at low HU volumes.

It doesn't seem to be a problem using the digital out from the PC. So the 700 doesn't have any kind of pre-amp adjustment? Do you just have to treat it like any other component in the signal chain and adjust your amps gains to match it?

Another question, can anyone say for sure what the presets save and don't save?
I've noticed you can save different x-over and EQ settings, but not input settings. I was wanting preset 1 to use the analog input for my HU and preset 2 to use the digital input for my PC, but it doesn't seem to do that.

There's no way to name the presets is there?

For each preset can you have both a graphic EQ setting as well as a parametric EQ setting and then flip back and forth between them?

I have it set up for 2 channel use now, but was thinking of making it 5.1 by adding some extra speakers and amps. Does anyone know if this unit can take 2 channel sound and convert it to 5.1 or is 5.1 only used when you play a DVD movie or DVD audio?

Anybody here using it in a 5.1 setup? How does it sound?

the 700 is a pre-amp & ideally you should adjust the volume through it if it's not connected to an ai-net head, but you can do it with the head unit, just have to fine tune your gains & balance the system, but with multiple inputs you may be better off using the 700/01 as master volume control with all seperate sources pre adjusted (pc & head)

don't bother to keep going into the menus to switch inputs, what I do is modify the usb cable to my soundcard.... interupt the 5v power & the soundcard turns off, & "shuts the lights out" on the toslink.... when the alpine doesn't see light anymore on the digital in, it then reverts back to the rca inputs automatically...... when you turn the 5v back on..... sound card powers & then output lights.... the alpine will automatically switch back to the optical in.......

so basically a switch can be used to switch the inputs.... temp it out for testing, as I'm doing this with a direct ai-net head connection, but it should work the same for you... just unplug the soundcard & see if it switches automatically for you too.... this will solve a lot of your issues I think, as far as presets & inputs

no way to name presets... each preset can use the parametric OR the graphic, both can't be used at the same time at all, let alone in the same preset.

the alpine can upsource a 2 channel input to 5.1, you can do this with stereo input, no problem

5.1 in a car is much more difficult to acheive than it would first seem. from another post:

Originally Posted by turbocad6

true 5.1 surround in a car is extremely difficult.... the reasons for this boil down to ONE main issue..... and that is the fact that all 5 drivers should have the same acoustic propertys & the same response.... the same timbre...... & should all cover the same freq. spread as each other............

here lys the problem...... it's easy to get relatively full freq coverage with the left & right fronts..... the door cabin will allow usable frequencys down to 80-100 htz with even mediocre drivers..... but to have the center match this with the same intensity is very difficult... you will need a relatively large enclosure to be able to reproduce the lower frequencies & have the same response...... very difficult with a stock dash.......

now most guys will argue that the center is only for voice & it doesn't make a difference...... this is simply not true....... there is other information also on the center channel...... even skipping this fact for a moment & focusing on voice.... & even though most voices energywill be originate in the 650- 1.8k range..... there are other artifacts of a voice that are called reverbs.... basically every sound has reverbs that reach far below & far above the original sound....like a ripple when throwing a stone into standing water.... a tone at 400 htz has reverbs that reach both far above & below said freq....

what this translates to is simple..... say your watching a 5.1 movie with densel washington standing on the left & speaking..... most of the voice energy will be coming from the left front speaker...... now say while talking he moves to the center of the screen..... dolby will put most of the voice energy to the center speaker.... he then moves right.... again the energy is transfered to the appropriate drivers.......

with a wimpy center speaker his voice WILL CHANGE as he moves across the screen..... this can be extremely annoying & will ruin the reason you went 5.1 in the first place..... you would get much better results using a processor that does a phantom center image..... basically creating a center by summing the left & right.... without handing the info off to an inadiquate center driver......

it doesn't matter too much even if you use the same speaker in the dash that your using in your doors.... unless there in similar enclosures they will not do the same job..... the end results are inacuracys & loss of information that should be there, but can't be reproduced by a wimpy center channel....

the best attempt at an acurate 5.1 in a car will either have major modifications to the dash to allow both a proper sized driver & enclosure, as well as angleing the speaker twards the center of the car....... I won't even get into the problems with having the center point straight up to the windshield & delivering both off axis sound AND reflected sound at the same time.......

OR.... downgrade the left & rights to match the center....... draw back there will be loss of overall energy & bass localization in the rear.....

bottom line.... a phantom center will almost always sound better & more accurate than an unmatched inadiquate center channel driver.....

Originally Posted by turbocad6

the 700 is a pre-amp & ideally you should adjust the volume through it if it's not connected to an ai-net head, but you can do it with the head unit, just have to fine tune your gains & balance the system, but with multiple inputs you may be better off using the 700/01 as master volume control with all seperate sources pre adjusted (pc & head)

don't bother to keep going into the menus to switch inputs, what I do is modify the usb cable to my soundcard.... interupt the 5v power & the soundcard turns off, & "shuts the lights out" on the toslink.... when the alpine doesn't see light anymore on the digital in, it then reverts back to the rca inputs automatically...... when you turn the 5v back on..... sound card powers & then output lights.... the alpine will automatically switch back to the optical in.......

so basically a switch can be used to switch the inputs.... temp it out for testing, as I'm doing this with a direct ai-net head connection, but it should work the same for you... just unplug the soundcard & see if it switches automatically for you too.... this will solve a lot of your issues I think, as far as presets & inputs

no way to name presets... each preset can use the parametric OR the graphic, both can't be used at the same time at all, let alone in the same preset.

the alpine can upsource a 2 channel input to 5.1, you can do this with stereo input, no problem

5.1 in a car is much more difficult to acheive than it would first seem. from another post:

It doesn't SEEM like a pre-amp as my older Rockford EPX2 allowed you to adjust the input level so that you would get max volume just befor clipping the input. It allowed for max volume without increasing the noise floor. The 700/701 doesn't seem to have anything like that. With no input level control it seems to act like any other cheap processor that requires carefull matching of the gains. In other words it woun't allow my HU to get enough volume without turning up the gains on the amp. I just expected better of the Alpine is all. It won't be a real issue once I ditch the HU and use the digital PC input.

I'm using a PCI sound card, so I can't turn it off. Again, it shouldn't be a problem once I ditch the HU.

I really don't want to use the volume on the controller because I don't know how to interface the controller with my wireless steering wheel controls. I also don't have a location to mount the controller except in the center console. I should be able to control the PC's volume with a wireless remote tied into the steering wheel controls so I plan to go that route.

I only use the Graphic EQ, but it looks like you could set both types of EQ on a preset and then switch back and forth. Are you saying it won't do that? It doesn't really matter to me as I don't really care for parametric EQ anyway, but I thought I would ask.

Anyone want a controller that lights up green and amber buttons? I thought the amber would match my red-ish Pontiac dash lights, but it doesn't. If someone has a blue buttoned controller and want's to swap, let me know. If not, I may open it and add some blue LEDs.

I might try and build a dash pod like on the subarus to hold the controller and that unit could also hold a speaker. Viola! Instant center channel speaker enclosure. I'll probably use the phantom center though. Seeing as how the center channel has it's own EQ curve, it seems like a different sized speaker could be made to sound pretty close to the main left and rights. I don't know, I need to get the PC in there first.

Originally Posted by unixxx

*Finally, is the European version the same as the American one as the European site is the only one that actually has the manual (for the European version).

I've seen some 700 controllers with blue lights and some 701's with green and amber as well as one picture where the main display is red instead of blue. As far as the button color, I'm thinking they might have used different colors on the Euro versions. I can't explain the red screen unless it was custom.

These units seem to excell with the digital inputs, but have limitations if your going to use an analog input. Still, I think it is worth getting.