Carputer integration with HUGE car audio system, help please - Page 2

ColdPhreze · 10-27-2004, 02:58 PM

acutally, the preamp out from a pc is better than most head units. I replaced my sony headunit and sound quality improved quite a bit. My brother replaced his Alpine head unit, and once again, quality improved quite a bit.

ash · 10-27-2004, 03:15 PM

Quote:

How do you do this? Dual monitor setup?

(Corect me if i am wrong) The MII 10000 has onboard vga and composite/S-video out. You can run the Vga to your 7'' and the S-video/composite to a splitter and then to your screens. It's all onboard the motherboard

turbocad6 · 10-28-2004, 12:46 PM

I have found that most pc soundcards, internal or external usually have an output voltage in the 2v range, whereas a high end head unit will be at least 4v & some are as high as 8v. this makes a real difference when you are running multiple amps. & I don't think pc hardware manufactures ever consider this as a probability, (there's a business oportunity for someone inclined to do that) you can add line drivers to help remedy this, I have done one with an external usb soudblaster extigy & it worked well., the side benifit of a setup like this is that that particular soud card will also funtion stand alone, without the pc if necissary, & you could play a different source through it with the pc off & still have volume control through it among other features.

at this point in time I still think that an all out competion system is still better of being based on a hybrid system as oposed to a full pc front end, maybe this is just my opinion, but I have had a lot of experence with both pc car installs & competition in car audio, for whatever that's worth. check out this thread for more input on this:

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/car-audio/35156-can-carputer-replace-high-end-av-dedicated-system.html

DiB · 10-31-2004, 10:13 AM

I have a loud system in one of my cars; 152db loud. I would think about using one of those usb flash drives as your system HD. It will be a bit slower then normal but all the vibrations from the bass wont affect it unless you build a custom HD harness to deaden the vibrations on a normal HD. I know this is one reason for me going to a carputer, my cd changer can't run without skipping.

For your connection woes you might need a better EQ, or a line driver, or if you still have a free pci slot there are a nice selections of sound cards that can output to almost any connection type. I run all zapco gear so I just run one of their inline amp cables from the av brain to the amps. With the right sound card and eq/signal processor it's not hard unless you want perfect sound which costs several thousand.

Look at some audiocontrol products if you aren't already familiar with them.

rmjjensen · 12-04-2004, 05:37 PM

Well, if you have such an extreme setup than don't mess with a sound card honestly. Just get something with a digital output and use a digital signal processor to split the signal the best. Why?

Pros
-You'll have a high preout voltage from the DSP
-You'll get the cleanest possible sound form the computer
-You're completely isolating the grounds from the computer and the audio system
-You won't get noise
-You have control of the volume
-You can plug a LOT of input devices into the DSP
-Signal Processing
-Dolby Digital/DTS Surround sound capabilities
-Built in crossovers/Equalizers in the DSP

Cons
-Expensive - but with all the money invested in the audio system you don't have a choice

I strongly recommend the PXA-H701 from alpine ...probably the best investment I made with my setup.

Good luck with everything. But I have strictly a computer in mine with no issues. Was able to reach 146dB with just the 2 subs I got. Don't worry - the computer hardware will still function, just make sure it's all SCREWED down!!