Alpine PXA-H701 Questions

**JasonWW** · 05-06-2006, 10:28 AM

I promised someone a few months ago I'd have some pics of my H700 controller and here they finally are. The H700 is green and orange. The 6 green chicklets buttons on the left are actually bulbs not LED's and have green gelcaps over them. I think they would be easy to change color.

I'm still trying to find a way to change the volume with a button. Anyone know about these rotary encoder things Alpine used?

**kujosan** · 06-01-2006, 07:05 PM

To those using an optical cable from the computer to the H70X:

When playing stereo music (winamp, RR, CF, etc...) does the music get upmixed to 5.1 and played across all 5.1 speakers? If so what does the upmixing, the soundcard, or the H70X ? Is one soundcard better than another in terms of optical out?

Thanks!

**3onDubs** · 06-01-2006, 07:07 PM

The H701 does the upmixing and all of the sound processing

There is nothing better than the H701 (for the price).

**JasonWW** · 06-01-2006, 08:13 PM

Some sound cards CAN upmix it, but it may use too many resources or too many CPU cycles which could slow the computer. There's not much point though. The H70X can upmix stereo using the Dolby Digital technology, so that's the better way to do it.

On 5.1 music or soundtracks you can use a player like Power DVD and set it to output 5.1 and it will.

On different soundcards, some have better S/N ratios than others, some have higher sampling rates and there are a few other little things, but overall, the digital outputs are going to sound much better than the soundcards D/A converters analog out. With analog outputs there are many more differences as far as sound quality. Digital tends to reduce those differences. Try a $30 Chaintech AV-710 for starters. You can try more expensive cards if you want, but the AV-710 sounds real sweet, plus it can hibernate well if you use that feature on yor PC.

**RyanW** · 06-13-2006, 03:56 PM

Hello,
I am new to the forum, but have the 701, 310 and 701 controller. The problem that I have is when playing DVD's, the audio output is significantly reduced as compared to any other media source. There is a single optical output from the 310 to the 701 and of course the AI-Net connection. If you mess with the levels enough, it comes out to be almost 10dB difference in output. (digital is that much less) Have any of you experienced this and if so, what have you done to alleviate the problem?
Thanks,
-RW

**RedGTiVR6** · 06-13-2006, 04:16 PM

first off welcome RyanW

what is the 310? is it the IVA-310?

I've not experienced this problem. It seems to lean more towards a windows setting, but I'm not sure.

Have you tried messing with all of the volumes on the computer? I'm sure you have, I just want to check first.

**RyanW** · 06-13-2006, 04:32 PM

Yes, the IVA-D310. I am not currently using a laptop to "feed" the 701, but I noticed a discussion on here regarding some of the issues, so I thought this may be a good place to ask.
-Ryan

**RedGTiVR6** · 06-13-2006, 04:47 PM

there should be a function to increase that sound level in the head unit. you might need to scroll through the menus, etc to find it.

Also, one thing to consider is that many times DVDs are quieter because of the dynamic range of movies.

music is fairly constant in volume, while movies are in quite the extremes. the compression comes into play here too.

**RyanW** · 06-13-2006, 04:55 PM

I have literally been through each option an the bottom line is the DVD output (either in DTS or Dolby Digital) is about 10db less than PCM output. You can have a DVD playing and switch between PCM and Dolby Digital while a song is playing and it will sound great in PCM mode and be inaudible in DD mode. This is with everything set equal on the levels. Even when you "boost" the DVD levels through the roof and reduce PCM levels down low, they are only getting "close", but the digital signal completely lacks low end. Weird stuff.
-Ryan

**RedGTiVR6** · 06-13-2006, 05:00 PM

very strange indeed, I'm running the optic signal from PC to 701 the analog to amps and I've not noticed this.

Did you install this unit on your own or did you have someone install it?