ecwrt

That's right. I've been reading up no this site for about 3 days now. It's AMAZING! Sooooooo much information. It gives me a headache. There are too many abbreviations to understand everything so one has to search and search for some answers.

Anyway, a little about me. I live in Fredericksburg, Virginia and I drive a 2001 Dodge Stratus R/T. I have turned it into my show car and have been in the show scene for 3 years now. I am an active member over on 2gstratus.org also. I have been thinking of a carputer for a little while now and I think this site will push me to do it.

At the risk of being newbie flamed I do have some questions....

1. I find a lot of "complete and ready to install" carputers on EBAY. They are small cases with everything you need (or so it says). Opus, motherboard, etc. From what I understand the Opus is the powerswitch that is crucial for engine starts and bass thumps. Would these "complete carputers" be a good option?

2. Should I just buy pieces and build one myself? Is that much more expensive?

3. Ideally I am looking for a system for just music, dvd's, navi and wifi. THE BASICS. I'd love to run my system through my computer also. Just curious if someone knew of a setup that would work well, and probably gonna need a soundcard in there.

4. Can you get soundcards with RCA's instead of the "headphone" jack? that would make things much easier.

Thanks for listening guys. I hope I don't get flamed tooooo badly. Oh, btw, pics of my car are on photobucket.com. Look up ecwrt if you'd like to see it.

Thanks,
Collins Wetzel

MP3Car.com

 

DarquePervert

1. The Opus is just a brand of DC-DC PSU that includes a startup/shutdown controller. The SSDC is the "powerswitch" that you refer to.
There are also comparable units from MPEGBOX, Mini-box and Carnetix. The Carnetix units are specifically for miniPCs and laptops.

2. It's usually cheaper to build yourself.

3. What do you mean by "run your system through your computer"? Are you talking about your audio system? If so, that's a bit backward.

4. Yes.

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pate60

it all upto you,

i'd go custom, especially if its going into a show car, isnt it all about CUSTOM?

ecwrt

yes i'm talking my audio system. 2 amps, 2 10" subs, 2 sets of speakers, well 3 hopefully by show season. If I do a carputer I want all the run through it without need of a headunit.

RedGTiVR6

As for how to control it without a head unit, look into an Alpine 701.

It's going to be your best bet.

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ecwrt

I just looked up an Alpine 701.

Isn't that a little over kill? And at like 500 bucks? That would cost almost as much as the whole carputer itself!

All I need the computer to do is push the sound to the amps so the amps can push it to the speakers. I was guessing that a 5.1 soundcard with RCA's would do the trink cuz I can get EQ software for the computer..........

Wouldn't that work?

CARistocrat

Here's one more newbie to the list! I think I am gonna become a car stereo freak after the need to tweak my stereo to do a makeover.

My first project - Adding an aux adapter for my '01 sienna - lets see how that goes! :-)

RedGTiVR6

The voltage out on sound cards in general is not high enough. (less than 2 volts). THis means that your noise floow would be quite low, meaning it would allow a lot of noise into your signal path. This is why most people who care about the SQ of their systems use something in line that will boost the voltage, among other things.

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J187

Hi ECW, glancing at your first post I thought I stumbled into match.com instead. JK. Anyway, you say you "show" your car? That could mean a lot of things, but if by that you mean that at times you show off the sound quality of your system in any way, then I urge not to get rid of your HU. Carpcs are great for entertainment and a little bit of diligence can render the difference in sound for day to day uses negligable. However, if it comes time to show off the SQ, you'll want to pop in a CD to a good quality HU with a strong Preout and let that system shine.

Also, I recomend you try building the sytem yourself. Really, the best part of the hobby I think is the customization and self-catering it offers. When I had my system and Carpc, I actually used the onboard soundcard and the mini jack w/ no problems and like I said, Negligable sound differences for daily driving. However, when It came to SQ competitions, the pc screen was used solely for show - displaying the specs of the system in a powerpoint show.

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W3bMa5t3r

Hey mate, welcome to the board!! I see two of our guru mods have already given you some info on your questions so I don't really have anything to add other than being in the area, if you're interested, we have monthly car meets for the DC metro area (though the last two were canceled because of weather conditions). Feel free to check out the meet/group site @ http://www.dccarpcs.com.
Hope to see you there and again, welcome to the board. Good luck w/ your project.

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ecwrt

well, my car is a "show car" , meaning I go to car shows, get it judged, etc etc. I don't enter audio competitions though...but I suppose I could.

I just want my computer to run everything. If it doesn't, it's not worth it to me. If I could run the carputer to the HU through the aux input and have it read the songs (if it will read the songs).... that would be ok.... but I'd rather just run the volume/eq's/cd's/mp3's ALL from the carputer.....

You say you ran the normal onboard soundcard with mini jacks with no problems......... but then someone said the sound quality and volume would be less....... how noticeable is it? I really don't wanna spend 350-500 on that Alpine 701. I don't even know why I'd really need one?!

Someone also mentioned an "inline booster"....... what are they and where can I get one? Are they recommended?


Oh, I WILL DEFINATELY CHECK OUT THE D.C. SITE AND MEETS. That way I can get some person to person information!

RedGTiVR6

I will 100% disagree with you on this. We didn't win two world titles in our car and make it into a magazine for no reason. We're not running a HU in our car at all, just the Alpine processor. I'm a STRONG advocate of using CarPCs WITHOUT head units.

I have to ask, since you mention competing, what organization and what class? What car? tell me about you!

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J187

You are certain entitled to you opinion, I would probably find it interesting I'm sure. I'm a bit old school in my thoughts - I'm the guy that thinks EQs are merely to mask flaws and correct inadequacies in the flatness of sound from a well pieced system. Anyway, I should probably preface this by saying I only offered my recomendation, whereas In my opinion, there is no substitute for a good quality HU and CD quality source sound. NOw, thats not to say quality sound cannot be achieved through the use of processing equipment and a good sound card. To be fair, I'm a bit outdated in my knowledge of current soundcards. By now, there are probably at least 4v cards on the market. I am of the mindset however not to use gains to make up the difference for lack of a source voltage... So, in the absence of 4 or 6 volt soundcards, I'd probably not be too reved up about filling the void with line boosters and such.

I have my opinions and you have yours, I do hope however that you realize that winning titles and being in a magazine doesn't necessarily lend credence to any claims.... do you think you would have been less likely to pocket those trophies with a McIntosh MX406 or a TOL Nak? I would say probably not, maybe you would have won more handily. Point is, winning trophies is great and I'm super happy for you to be honest, but it doesn't give any more validity to your opinions than someone who may not compete. IE - Art Turgeon once said to me, that noone would ever beat him without having more subs than him. I think at that time he had crammed like 21, 21" subs in that Blazer and hit like 167 or something.... Kyle Witherspoon set a world record w/ 2 subs. Even as a world champ, Art didn't necessarily know more than the next guy.

Any way, you asked about my competitions. To answer you, I haven't competed in a long time. Never in Iasca, I never really got to the point where I was able to leave anything alone long enough... . I did lots of smaller stuff I had a really nice 93 Grand Prix and a very good SQ 2000 Grand Prix. Last time I did any competition at all, it was in a 2004 Civic EX with an Alpine HU, 2 JL 500/1s, an JL 300/2, 2 10w6V2s, MB Quart Q series.

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RedGTiVR6

I will agree. However, they are still necessary.


No, the point is that you were saying that it's not possible when I'm saying it is possible and we've proved it...two years in a row. That's the point I was making.



I'm failing to see how SPL holds any relevence here. I've never said someone wouldn't beat me, that would be absolutely asanine to say.

My comments were in reference to your comment about how you can't get good SQ with a computer. I'm saying that's simply not true and we've proven that.

Changed a lot of the old school guys oponions of it as well.

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J187

Oh, I think the problem is that you mistook what I said in the first place. Reading back, I supposed I can see why you made the inference you made. However, in reality I didn't say it was "impossible" to create good sound quality without the use of a HU, nor did I beleive that to be the case. I was merely offering the suggestion to the person posting that had they been showeing the car for sound, they shouldn't get rid of the HU which was part of a show sytem. I didn't think it necessary for him or her to rearrange the whole thing, removal of HU and introduction of a SFP into a system designed and tweaked without it in order to avoid using a HU if space permitted. My suggestion was based solely on the specifics of the thread, hence my prefecing my comments by inquiring whether or not the system had been in use for some showing of sound.

As far as the "shaker" thing goes, I wasn't suggesting that you were saying you were unbeatable, rather that it seemed to me that by introducting your own credentials, you were trying to give credence to you claims. Do you know what I mean? If that is not the case, I appologize for misunderstanding. But you have to admit, you come across a fair share of people who think that success breeds expertice, no? So, I am always on guard. Anyway, bottom line, I certainly beleive SFPs can provide excellent SQ and I love Alpine's processors - I've used a few my self. Quite useful are the time correction devices. I'm glad to see you've changed the old school perspectives, someone has to . BTW, another reason why I never went to the major orgs for competition is because, and I think this is a stupid *** rule, having worked for audio installation companies in the past, I'd be required to compete as a pro. Blah.

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