sound quality between carputer going through the HU and carputer going to amp

lookinco · 08-03-2005, 05:32 PM

Is there a big difference of the sound quality between going through the headunit for sound, and going directly from carputer so amps?

My headunit is the Pioneer P7500dvd with 5.1 output. Right now my carputer is hooked up to the headunit but the sound output is only 2 channel intead of 5.1 surround. My headunit then use dolby digital to make the 2channel sound from my carputer into 5.1 surround.

Is the 5.1 surround sound from my headunit going to sound different then a true 5.1 surround sound directly from the carputer to the amps?

Is the difference very noticible?

Will using a line driver between the carputer and headunit make it less easily to distort at higher volume? It allows me to turn down the volume on the carputer, am I correct? Right now I set my volume to 75% with my carputer and when I turn up my headunit it starts to distort.

RedGTiVR6 · 08-03-2005, 05:46 PM

the distortion can be any number of things from your speakers to your amps, to your head unit....

what speakers are you running right now? what amps?

have you had the gains properly set on the amps by someone who knows what they are doing?

the more conversions the signal makes before you heazr it the more 'tainted' it will be if you will....

I'm taking it you are wanting 5.1 sound in your ride? do you have all the speakers, etc set up for 5.1?

lookinco · 08-03-2005, 05:55 PM

Currently I have Polk Audio Components front and back. Clarion center speakers. JL 13W6v2 sub. Amps are JL300/2 and JL500/1

When I listen to CD from the headunit, there are no distortion when I turn up the volume. However when I am listening to the carputer CLEAYLY something doesn't sound right.

Ascension · 08-03-2005, 06:21 PM

You didnt tell us what sound card you are using on your carputer?

lookinco · 08-03-2005, 06:36 PM

soundcard is Sound Audigy 2 NX in Shuttle PC.

-zip- · 08-03-2005, 07:01 PM

First, nice set up! Can I borrow a screen?

It could be a number of things but lets start with your Audigy NX. If you are running digital, set it down to 48 from 96 Hz.

1. USB cable to the Audigy NX make sure it is 2.0 and that it is in fine working order, what distance are you running?

2. Make sure it is dedicated, no USB hubs if possible and unplug any 1.0 USB devices that are on the same USB line meaning any 1.0 on the card or header that is inside your carputer.

3. Make sure you have the latest drivers from Creative Labs, they did an update about 6 months ago that really affected the NX's performance for the better.

4. Turn off all VIS, background apps, etc to give max processing power.

5. Confirm that the internal USB hub is 2.0 inside the carputer and the drivers are correct.

Turn off CMSS, EAX or anything that affects the Audigy's processing as as starting point.

You could also try to use Line out to Aux RCA's instead of Digital to see if that is the problem, again if you are running digital.

It sounds to me that it is a USB issue off the start.

lookinco · 08-06-2005, 04:37 PM

My soundcard is actaully the Audigy2 ZS, it's PCI and not USB. Also right now I am not using digital, I am only using stereo output from the soundcard going into the AUX of the headunit.

I am wondering if adding a line driver between the sound card and the AUX of the headunit would decrease distortion.

sivart321 · 08-07-2005, 02:26 AM

Try hooking the computer soundcard output directly to the amp. The aux-in of the headunit might not be the greatest perhaps? Do you have a mini phono/rca cable running from the computer all the way to the headunit? That can't help either.

lookinco · 08-07-2005, 05:00 AM

Right now I have a miniphone to RCA splitter right after the soundcard, then I have a long run of RCA cables up to the headunit.

I want to connect the soundcard directly to the amps, the problem is how do I connect my headunit to the amps together?

-zip- · 08-07-2005, 11:27 AM

errr the link to your site shows these specs:

Computer setup:
Shuttle SN41G2V2
XP2800
160GB harddrive
1GB RAMM
ATI AIW 9600PRO
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX<<<<<<<<<<<<
Linksys wireless-G network card
OBD-II scanner ( In progress )
GPS NAVI ( In progress )
Running MediaCar and Frodoplayer

Seriously dude please change that, I wrote a friggin novel to help the troubleshooting process.