karalisd

Hi all,

After spending a couple of weeks reading and learning a lot of stuff about car audio, I finally need some help.

My OEM subaru sound system is 4 speakers, 2 tweeters and a sub.
I am not going to change them for now.

My goal is to remove the head unit, control everything through the pc and have 4.1 audio, using the center channel as a virtual speaker for the SOHO card, so that I have no echo in phonecalls. I wouldnt want to go above 500 euro for everything between the pc and the speakers, but if what I need is for example 600 I wont say no... Just to get a feeling about my budget.

Since I want a multichannel setup, DAC is out of the question right?

So I need a USB 5.1 audio card, an audio processor and an amp, right?

But this means 1/8" to RCA cables which is a no-no about quality, right?

So I end up to a usb to SPDIF card, a processor with SPDIF IN, and an amp.....

But if I use the SPDIF, will I be able to feed the SOHO card? This card basically needs to know the outgoing singal so that it can cancel it out from the Microphone incoming signal, to eliminate echo...

I am truly confused! not much experience in these things, and my car pc is almost finished but has no sound.... Which compination of card-processor-amp would best fit?

All help is welcome...

Best regards from Greece
Dimitris

MP3Car.com

 

soundman98

as far as I know, there is no soundcard, amp, and processor setup that could be done for only 500 euro(but it would be great if i was wrong).

1/8" jacks are fine for a audio setup and will leave more money for a better quality amp and sound card. I recommend using 1/8" stereo to rca jack adapters, so that you can run rca cables back to the amp(s).

the best advantage to using a digital signal(spdif) and processor is that the signal has less chance of picking up noise(toslink cables will never pick up noise). the use of a sound processor is so that it is one less thing the computer will need to do, and should give slightly better sound quality, but might not be very noticable while using the factory wire and speakers.

even if you are still only using the factory speakers, it would be best to run new speaker wire from the new amp to all the speakers.

karalisd

Ragarding prices I have a basic setup in mind.

creative X-fi surround for 60 euro, rockford 360.1 for 200 euro and JBL 5355 for 270 euro, local prices, for a total of around 500.

How about conecting a soundcard directly to the amp? Some tuning can be made here by the pc...
How can I know if the presence of a pre amp is necassery?

glukin

I also have 6 speakers in my car from factory.
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/work...-7-v6-cdx.html
Pretty sure you have an amp hidden somewhere as well. If you do it could be a pain to intergrate as my factory amp likes balanced audio input and sounds really rubbish if you feed it with something else.
I have done it pretty simple as input on the amp is simple 4 channel balanced.

soundman98

i guess i was thinking US Dollars...

The pre amp is not absolutly nessesary, it is personal opinion if you decide that you need it or not.

I have been testing my setup using a variety of programs that allow me to tweak the audio before it ever leaves the computer, the biggest issue with this route is the processing power of the computer--slower processors can get their resources eaten up very quickly.

my setup as of now (7-1-09) computer audio--> Virtual audio cable-->Asio4all-->Console-->creative X-fi usb-->speakers

using all of these togather, i am able to use vst plugins(Console is the host program) to change, and manipulate the audio any way i want before it ever leaves the computer, and using the asio4all driver allows me to digitally rewire the creative unit to output any signal i want on any output channel.

look in the wiki area-- there are a couple of articles about this very thing.

I am a little confused at your amp selections though, as the Rockford amp is a single channel sub amp, and the jbl is a 4.1(4 speakers and a sub) system amp.

you will probably need to look at installing highpass crossovers for the tweeters(if there aren't any installed from the factory), but typically, these would connect to the same output channel as the front speakers.

MP3Car.com