any carputers competing in sound quality events?

emdzey01 · 02-02-2005, 07:40 AM

well, everybody here agrees that carputers (no head units) can rival head units for sound processing and accurately reproducing the encoded sound (the sanctioning bodies in sq events supply a 24bit encoded cd)...

well, have any of you competed in sq events? and if so, i would like to know what setup you use, and if you won any awards, and any problems that you encountered while preparing and during the competition

what sound card do you use? does it have rca outputs or did you use a line to rca converter?

what amps did you use?

what separates did you use?

what sub did you use? was it ported or sealed?

anything else you used?

thanks.

WhiteRabbit · 02-02-2005, 12:28 PM

I used one to eliminate the need for a photo album, so I could use a slide show. didnt work at all. the presentation turned out awful, all the pictures were to be viewed at once.

realistically, an in car computer will run into three problems in the SQ circuit.

#1 is aesthetics. its a pain to make an in car computer look stock! and thats how you are gonna get the most points most easily. Im not saying dont go nuts with the paint and fiberglass etc etc etc! but if you make yoru car look stock, the judge has less to be picky about, easier to get your full points, and everything just looks classier. not easy with a clunky computer!

#2 wiring. the iasca judges are taught to look for wire loom, color coded whether its power or signal or accessory, ziptied every 6 inches with every ziptie faced the same direction, and secured to the vehicle securely. again, realistically, you can get your full points with zipties screwed down to the frame. but think of all those wires! if the judge cant see your wiring job, you lose all your points. even if its the neatest job in the world. travel locations, security, safety, and termination. you have ot have it all for all your points!

#3 functionality. this is perhaps the most most important. if your car isnt easy to use, you lose points. I've lost points in the past for relocating my radio down low. And you can't argue with a judge. Nevermind the glare up high prevents me seeing the radio, located down low has poor ergonomics since I have to take my eyes completely off the road to see it. minus 2 points. so you can imagine if you have to change dvds or cds in the trunk only, or your wiring is a mess, or you have a bulgy carpet, or your wiring is everywhere, or you dont have anything properly terminated (heatshrink gets you more points than E-tape) it can be very VERY difficult to score full points versus your buddy who came with a simple nakamichi radio integrated into his car!

as for the rest of your equipment choice, that wont change your score one way or the other in relation to an in car computer.

my best advice is hide EVERYTHING, be able to change CD's from the front, take pictures of EVERYTHING you cant see, and make it hardcopy! make your car look stock. If you HAVE to eliminate the radio, make sure its really really easy to change CD's, volume up and down, track advance and fast forward, no waiting long periods of ime for programs to load or whatever, you want cd and track navigation to be fast. if you can use an aftermarket in car cd player, hide the screen. its unneccesary baggage.

and have fun, its more fun to take a halfassed car and do poorly while having fun than seriously competing with something that isnt seriously competitive and getting disillusioned with the aspect of SQ!

and if you are really really serious about starting to compete in sound quality, start with some reading about the theories behind sound stage and imaging. MP3 forum here really loves to talk about noise static, recording quality, tonality, etc. But noone here talks about the other factors that affect your in car sound quality that have nothing to do with recording conversion, sampling rates, factors that quite frankly affect sound quality far far more than topics discussed at this forum!

I suggest as an introduction to the theories of a sound stage to check out audionutz' tutorials located over at the www.elitecaraudio.com website. He has many instructive tutorials from "SQ setups and the theories behind them" to horns and AP enclosures, advantages or disadvantages to certain ways of installing, and how we can best optimize our stereo to our listening tastes.

and when he says dont worry about height when setting up kickpanels, dont listen. imaging your kicks centered high rather than simply centered saves you a boatload of work later, I promise!

greenwire · 02-02-2005, 05:38 PM

24 bit encoded CD? How does that work?

CDA = 16 bits per sample, 44.1 kHz sampling frequency.

The frequency response of a sampled signal stops at half the sampling rate. read: if your sampling frequency is 40 kHz, the highest frequency sound you can accurately reproduce is 20 kHz.

Most people can only hear up to about 20kHz, with that extra couple kHz of headroom 44.1 kHz is usually fast enough to get the right bandwidth.

kickercivic1 · 02-02-2005, 06:07 PM

f the competing then. to many rules. i have better things to do in life then trying to impress a bold head dude trying to check my car out.

WhiteRabbit · 02-02-2005, 06:51 PM

the benefit is to have someone with better ears than you critique your car. the best advice for my car ive gotten from the iasca judges. And they are usually able to tell me difinitively many issues I didnt even think I had with less than five minutes in the drivers seat.

there are always rules, dick judges, commutes to shows, snob competitors, people who like to bring you down. *shrug* its fun! first place or last, its worth my money every time I can get out.

kickercivic1 · 02-02-2005, 10:09 PM

I guess you also have to have $2000-$5000 invested just in your highs and mids and amps. I dont live in my car so i dont have to have of everything, but i always enjoy going to contest becasue it amaze me how some of the cars sounds.

miztahsparklez · 02-08-2005, 03:37 AM

its all in the install =P you can have the most expensive components in your car, but if they sound like ***, then well you better go rethink your install. an install of a speaker can definately change the way it sounds and performs.

i have 1 12" sub, in a custom vented box. people think the world is going to end when they ride with me. i cant say much about my fronts and rear speakers, they are mounted in the factory locations, but hey they sound pretty decent, no distortion at the least, and with sound proofing my doors added me some more midbass. of course i am running 3kw total to all my speakers.. and thats RMS power not maximum.

ive been in cars where its just amazing hearing how things sound. you will never appreciate listening to music on a factory stereo again after youve heard sound from these systems... however some of it is just crap and doesnt sound good at all.

i went the audigy 2 nx route cause i know i love my music. i also picked up some good quality stereo to rca Y adapters pretty well made and they look cool too. the audigy sounds great using my headphones + headphone amplifier. so im expecting great results in the car... im just hoping there wont be any alternator whine or anything

RedGTiVR6 · 02-08-2005, 08:19 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

I used one to eliminate the need for a photo album, so I could use a slide show. didnt work at all. the presentation turned out awful, all the pictures were to be viewed at once.

one reason that I can see that this wouldn't work would be because the judges like to have control over what pictures they see....one reason I will ba having one binder for the presentation and one for pictures of stuff that I did that you can't see without taking apart part of the car.

Quote:

realistically, an in car computer will run into three problems in the SQ circuit.

#1 is aesthetics. its a pain to make an in car computer look stock! and thats how you are gonna get the most points most easily. Im not saying dont go nuts with the paint and fiberglass etc etc etc! but if you make yoru car look stock, the judge has less to be picky about, easier to get your full points, and everything just looks classier. not easy with a clunky computer!

while I will agree with you to some extent here, I deffinately don't agree completely. Take my car for instance.....all it takes is a bit of creativity. You can find ways to make things look stock and ways to hide a lot of things.

Quote:

#2 wiring. the iasca judges are taught to look for wire loom, color coded whether its power or signal or accessory, ziptied every 6 inches with every ziptie faced the same direction, and secured to the vehicle securely. again, realistically, you can get your full points with zipties screwed down to the frame. but think of all those wires! if the judge cant see your wiring job, you lose all your points. even if its the neatest job in the world. travel locations, security, safety, and termination. you have ot have it all for all your points!

I can't speak for ISACA, but only USACi (Since IASCA doesn't hardly exist down here in Texas). This simply isn't the case. The judge HAS to give you teh benefit of the doubt on stuff like this. If you want (and it's what I am doing) you just take pictures of all of the stuff that isn't readily visible. Thus the need for a second binder of pictures IMO.

Quote:

#3 functionality. this is perhaps the most most important. if your car isnt easy to use, you lose points. I've lost points in the past for relocating my radio down low. And you can't argue with a judge. Nevermind the glare up high prevents me seeing the radio, located down low has poor ergonomics since I have to take my eyes completely off the road to see it. minus 2 points. so you can imagine if you have to change dvds or cds in the trunk only, or your wiring is a mess, or you have a bulgy carpet, or your wiring is everywhere, or you dont have anything properly terminated (heatshrink gets you more points than E-tape) it can be very VERY difficult to score full points versus your buddy who came with a simple nakamichi radio integrated into his car!

again, maybe this is just IASCA, but in Basic in USACi this stuff doesn't even exist. In USACi though, in higher classes, running a computer and running it right will let you get multiple creativity points over someone who took the easy way out using just a radio. I've never been one to enter a certain competition just because I thought I would win. That's no fun! I enter with what I have to see how far I can make it with what I have. I like to change the way people look at this stuff....IMO, there is nothing really interesting about a regular radio and speakers....

Quote:

my best advice is hide EVERYTHING, be able to change CD's from the front, take pictures of EVERYTHING you cant see, and make it hardcopy! make your car look stock. If you HAVE to eliminate the radio, make sure its really really easy to change CD's, volume up and down, track advance and fast forward, no waiting long periods of ime for programs to load or whatever, you want cd and track navigation to be fast. if you can use an aftermarket in car cd player, hide the screen. its unneccesary baggage.

I will agree here. In every car that I have looked at that can have a screen molded or placed somewhere in the dash, I have been able to find a place to hide just about anything....but it isn't always easy....just gotta look.

Quote:

and have fun, its more fun to take a halfassed car and do poorly while having fun than seriously competing with something that isnt seriously competitive and getting disillusioned with the aspect of SQ!

totally!

Quote:

and if you are really really serious about starting to compete in sound quality, start with some reading about the theories behind sound stage and imaging. MP3 forum here really loves to talk about noise static, recording quality, tonality, etc. But noone here talks about the other factors that affect your in car sound quality that have nothing to do with recording conversion, sampling rates, factors that quite frankly affect sound quality far far more than topics discussed at this forum!

the reason they aren't discussed here is because most people here could give a care less about true sound quality. People here just want to hear their music and be happy with it....going much beyond that is pointless for most here.

As for my set-up, just check my sig, I've listed everything on my page.